I’ve always used the fable of the blind men and the elephant to describe the dilemma of the modern business. Complexity and speed of change continue to accelerate. And it gets harder and hard to see the forest for the trees or, as the fable goes, to see the whole elephant. Continue reading “Systems Thinking in Business”
I’m a numbers person. But I’m also a business person whose career began as the industrial era was giving way to a new era. This new era is fueled by information technologies and a new sensibilities about the proper role and responsibilities for business. In this new era, your reputation is as or more important than your financial bottom line. So, I have had to learn to look beyond the numbers. Continue reading “Reputation Is the New Bottom Line”
The Integrated Reporting Movement is a world-wide undertaking by thousands of businesspeople and companies who are seeking to drive better thinking, action and communication in business.
One of the key elements of the IIRC Framework is the multi-capital model. The Framework includes six capitals that draw from three traditions: Continue reading “The Roots of the Multicapital Model in Integrated Reporting”
I spend a lot of time talking about where the value lies in businesses. One reason is the influence of the first half of my career in high risk corporate lending. It leads me to tie what I see back to financial value. The other reason is the shifts that have occurred during my career in our overall economy. As we laid out in Intangible Capital, the shift to a knowledge-based economy has dramatically changed the sources of value in business. And it has increased the awareness of the external costs of corporate actions.
These shifts are easy to illustrate by comparing and contrasting the concepts of value creation and valuation. Continue reading “Value Creation vs. Valuation – An Integrated View”
A few months ago, I had a conversation with a Chief Sustainability Officer of a company in the northeastern U.S. She had been with her company for over 20 years and definitely took the long view of its success. They had been actively engaged in understanding and improving their environmental and social footprints for many years. She explained that they were now extending their sustainability goals to include not just “external” sustainability but also “internal” sustainability. This was going to include greater focus on lean management and strong processes. She called these “internalities” as opposed to “externalities.” She saw these changes as relevant to her mission as a sustainability officer. Continue reading “The Need for an Integrated Definition of Sustainability”
