SIGNALS OF CHANGE
Catching social and environmental trends early
Newsletter November 2013 Vol. 1 Issue 3
About this newsletter:
We monitor the news flow from a wide variety of sources from the last 30 – 60 days for developments that could inform your organization’s social and environmental strategy which in turn could affect your overall business strategy.
The idea of this newsletter is to alert you to trends that, in your leadership role, you may need to be aware off. Once alerted, if salient, you will start to pick up on them in your environment.
Signals of Change Newsletter is produced in cooperation between the Institute of Swedish Safety and Security and Stephen Hinton Consulting with support from the Open World Foundation and the Water and Food Award.
PEAK OIL WARNINGS HAVE BEEN AROUND TEN YEARS AND ARE NOT GOING AWAY. BUSINESS AS USUAL IS EXPERIENCING RAPID AND PAINFUL ADAPTATION AS RISKS GET HIGHER AND THE BUSINESS CLIMATE GETS TOUGHER. FOR VISIONARIES AND LEADERS THIS DOES NOT HAVE TO BE ALL BAD. BUT ONE SOLUTION IN THE ASCENDENCY WILL SURPRISE EVEN THOSE USED TO LIVING ON THE EDGE. (SKIP TO NEXT SECTION.)
SIGNALS: A difficult business climate just got more difficult. Whilst oil dependency critics celebrate ten years since the first seminal book “the Party is Over“ by Richard Heinberg, weak signals are increasing to evidence severe failings of business as usual. Oil dependency critics predicted this was bound to happen in an economy that was designed to run on oil. From the Pope’s stance against capitalism, to out and out criticism of capitalism even from such places as the Harvard Business Review, and admissions from the International Monetary Fund that their economists were wrong, conventional logic is being challenged. We see in the aftermath of British austerity measures that, despite living in one of the world’s wealthiest nations, the number of British people turning to food banks has tripled.
COMMENT: We see it as positive that enough signals are coming to convince leaders that business as usual is not a highly profitable energy intensive operation. On the contrary, as old models fail, leaders are required to see their organisations through through fluctuating energy prices and falling demand in general. We remind readers of the financial risks associated with reduced demand for fossil fuel: extraction requires ever increasing capital and without the case of a strong future demand, extraction could fall faster than predicted due to lack of investment.
SUPPORTING LINKS:
The ten-year anniversary of “the Party is Over” reflections
http://www.postcarbon.org/blog-post/1939365-10-years-after-the-party-s-over#
The Pope’s criticism of money system
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/pope-francis-evangelii-gaudium_n_4342964.html
IMF admits it got it wrong
http://www.businessinsider.com/imf-admitted-their-economists-were-wrong-2013-1
Food banks get overrun by hungry Brits
Economist Hazel Henderson explains how traditional economists are rethinking
Scientific evidence that our way of living is literally traqshing the planet. Scientists call for revoltion
http://www.newstatesman.com/2013/10/science-says-revolt?fb_action_ids=627145717335780
Harvard Business Review article takes aim at growthism rather than capitalism
http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/10/this-isnt-capitalism-its-growthism-and-its-bad-for-us/
Why capitalism without the money, mimicking nature is more functional
DOES IT HAVE TO BE ALL BAD THAT WE ARE BEING ASKED TO FACE THE END OF OUR INDUSTRIAL GROWTH PARADIGM? LEADERS ARE DARING TO STAND UP FOR WHAT MIGHT BE THE SIMPLEST YET MOST DIFFICULT TO GRASP APPROACH YET: KINDNESS.
SIGNALS: More and more initiatives are demonstrating the robustness of having kindness, compassion and human values at the centre. They are showing reasonable financial robustness, too.
COMMENT: These developments are on the one hand age-old and on the other, new to western culture. Expect that many will not quite work, but the trend has started and will continue to gather strength.
SUPPORTING LINKS
The Estonian Bank of Kindness
Common Good approach to finance
Common good finance
The rise of compassionate management
http://blogs.hbr.org/2013/09/the-rise-of-compassionate-management-finally
The idea that kindness can feed a whole town
(Todmorden initiative shortlisted for the Water and Food Award)
http://ediblesiliconvalley.com/2013-articles/incredible-todmorden/
JOINING THE DIALOGUE: Stephen Hinton Consulting, together with the Swedish risk management organization, ISSS and the Water and Food Award offers strategists and business leaders support in framing strategies for the new, resource constrained but connected world. Building awareness is one of the first steps. Contact us through our websites for more information on how we can support you.
http://stephenhinton.org
http://ISSS.se
http://wafaward.org
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