Purpose Inspired: by Wayne Visser

When I think back on all the writing I have done over the years, it strikes me that much of my creativity has been the result of tension. All of these tensions I have felt, and continue to feel at a personal and professional level, are illustrative of the subject of this book. Business Frontiers are the points of tension inherent in current models of business and capitalism which are bringing mass...

Having depicted the possible paths that the future can take in two mainline scenarios, we must now consider the options within the control of the principal actors which will increase or reduce the probabilities of either scenario materialising. While we will concentrate on the options facing companies, multi-level shapeshifting makes it essential to bring countries and individuals into the picture...

Given the rules of the game and key uncertainties just described, we have chosen two contrasting scenarios to illustrate how the future landscape of business and the world could turn out. As mentioned already, the actual outcome will partly depend on the options we choose over the coming decade. The two scenarios are: (1) Oases in the Desert; and (2) Plains of the Serengeti. Remember scenarios are...

In constructing scenarios for the future, key uncertainties are those variables that could go one way or the other; they are the pivotal points on which the future swivels. It is critical that we explore these because often their outcome depends partially on our choices and actions over the short term as well as longer term factors beyond our control. However, it is just as crucial to realise that...

The rules of the game are the conditions that we are fairly certain will apply within the foreseeable future. They govern our behaviour and up to a point are beyond our control. Unlike the rules of sport which are conveniently written down in a rulebook somewhere, the rules of business are normally unwritten. At times, they are subject to intense debate – particularly when they change as they are...

In the present era of globalisation, it is sacrilege to criticise unrestricted free trade when in the company of the pride. Somehow, questioning free trade is equated with being anti-democratic, pro-communist and an all-round sour-grapes loser. And yet evidence of the negative impacts of free trade on vulnerable communities, small economies and fragile environments is precisely why sustainability...

It is one of the great ironies of the unsustainable economy that those who most desperately need money are denied it, or made to pay an exorbitant price to get it. Most banks consider the poor as ‘unbankable’ and focus their appetites on ‘high net worth’ individuals. In the sustainable economy, however, equitable access to finance is high on the list of priorities, as is ensuring that the banks in...

economic growth is no longer (if it ever was) a guarantee for creating jobs. Jobless economic growth is the new reality. Therefore a fundamental re-perception needs to occur about the way that we structure work and welfare - and especially the way we think about money. We have to move our focus from creating employment to creating livelihoods. We have to empower people to put whatever skills and t...

The ‘sustainability investment’ phenomenon can be traced back to the beginnings of the corporate social responsibility movement in the United States in the 1930s. But it only really became visible in the 1970s when church and university groups set up funds, such as the Pax World Fund, to avoid investment in any companies which supported the Vietnam War and the Apartheid regime in South Africa. The...

The explosive growth of this global casino of financial markets is largely as a result of introducing two new games: futures and derivatives trading, beginning in the 1970. Not so long ago, the grave warning of economist John Maynard Keynes echoed loud and clear above the chaotic din of frantic stock market traders: “When the capital development of a country becomes a by-product of the activities...

This podcast introduces the economists’ useful notion of ‘externalities’ or spill-over effects. In the unsustainable economy, companies impose costs on society and nature without paying for these damages – these are negative externalities. For example, we look at what happens if we decrease the stock of biodiversity, either by a wetland being drained for development, tropical forests being cleared...

The world we live in is exceedingly complex. We use indicators to simplify things. Indicators work in the same way as a map. They are meant to be a guide, a representation of reality, which help us to understand the lie of the land. The scale of the map and what it is trying to measure will determine how accurately and completely it approximates reality. Except that sometimes we get lazy. In the m...

Products and services will need to shapeshift radically in a sustainable world. It will no longer be acceptable or successful to follow the old approach of producing widgets and flogging them to a market brainwashed by advertising, whilst ignoring the damage they cause along the way. The new generation of sustainable products and services will focus on adding value over their entire life cycle. In...

Communication for sustainable companies is a dialogue: an ongoing, two way, interactive process which involves listening as much as talking, and includes non-verbal as well as verbal exchange. These companies are far less opportunistic when it comes to communicating with stakeholders. The reason they enter into dialogue with their employees, or communities, or environmental NGOs, is the fact that...

Companies have cultivated relationships only from pure self-interest – mostly with shareholders, financial analysts, customers and suppliers. And usually, these interactions have been a pure power play – wining and dining the influential few, while ignoring the rest or pressuring them into conformance. The idea of genuine dialogue with communities, NGOs and government for the sake of enduring symb...

Over the past decade, for example, numerous corporate governance codes have emerged, which require companies to give a more transparent account of how their business is being run and the impacts on the various stakeholder groups. One of the most recent and progressive documents is South Africa’s revised King Report which even makes explicit recommendations on sustainability reporting and social an...

Having a leader’s inspiring vision is one thing, but it is like whistling in the wind unless people in the workplace are able to express their own inherent magic – their creativity and imagination, their values and passions. As Anita Roddick says: “People become motivated when you guide them to the source of their own power.” Sustainable companies do something that is almost unimaginable. They acc...

Shapeshifting seldom happens in countries or companies without visionary leadership. Like the revolutionary philosophers and scientists of centuries past, somebody has to be able to step outside of the parochial present and see the bigger picture of the future. And like those historical reformists, today’s innovative leaders walk a tightrope between being recognised and celebrated as a visionaries...

In this podcast, we start going beyond the ‘why’ to the ‘how’ of sustainable business. We explore seven critical dimensions in which shapeshifting needs to occur in order to create sustainable companies. These are: values, vision, work, governance, relationships, communication and services. We begin with values. Values are exactly what they say they are – a reflection of the things we value. They...

In the 1970s, it was thanks to the zealous efforts of the sustainability prophets that a new social phenomenon was born – the green movement. However, with the spate of industrial accidents in the 1980s, from Bhopal and Love Canal to Chernobyl and Exxon Valdez, the spotlight began to shift from wildlife conservation to industrial pollution. It was not until the politicians were enticed into the de...

Before exploring how sustainability will change economics and business, we need to understand what sustainability is and what it is not, and how it came about as a force in our society. Sustainability began as an ideological crusade about 50 years ago when a few voices in the wilderness gave a clarion call about how our civilization was on a path to self-destruction. They were ignored as fringe fa...

What if, in business, Lion was no longer king? What if Elephant was king (or queen) once more? For, according to the theme of this podcast, in the corporate bushveld of the future where social equity and environmental sustainability are the watchwords of society, Elephant has all the right characteristics to be the leader. Elephants are the epitome of sustainability. They have shown themselves to...

Physical growth is inherent in nature, but it doesn’t continue ad infinitum. And yet, there is a widely held belief that economic growth is always good and should be continuously strived for. Now business has to face the fact that economic growth does not automatically benefit either society or the environment. The UNDP puts this qualitative difference in a nutshell when it identifies the followin...

The lion as an inspirational role model is neither new nor unique to business. But the role of business is changing and the hunting lifestyle is proving to have a number of weaknesses in the new landscape of sustainability. The modern capitalist company, while it continues to portray itself as a lion king, has a number of blindspots with reference to sustainability. These fatal flaws or false assu...

There is a common driving force in all creation and evolution - a golden thread which Jan Smut called holism. Holism is a fundamental tendency within nature (including human society and its institutions) to form wholes of ever-greater synergy. Synergy is the now well-known concept of the whole being greater than the sum of the parts. What characterises these wholes is increasingly complex relation...