SIGNALS OF CHANGE
Catching social and environmental trends early
MAYBE SOME BUSINESS LEADERS ARE HAVING DIFFICULTY DEALING WITH SIGNS THAT WE ARE AT THE END OF THE INDUSTRIAL AGE. PUBLIC FIGURES HOWEVER ARE STEPPING FORWARD. WE EXPECT TO SEE THIS TREND INCREASE.
SIGNALS: We have been picking up signs that public figures are openly calling for leaders, public and private, to embrace the changes that are needed for us to deal with the increasing wealth gaps and environmental damage that are a direct result of the industrial age.
COMMENT: Taking care of people, whatever your political persuasion or religious beliefs, needs to come first. This is the common value we all share. As we are confronted by the increasingly challenging situation resulting from the trends we have discussed in earlier newsletters. including a peak in the growth of cheap energy resources and increasing wealth gaps as well as the challenge of dealing with a crowded planet. Public figures are spokespersons for what many are feeling, and we new opportunities in involving them in CSR work.
SUPPORTING LINKS:
Marianne Williamson is outspoken against inequalities and environmental miss-management. She is a well -know n figure in personal development circles now a candidate in the next US election.
The Pope has been critical of the negative sides of capitalism
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/11/26/pope-francis-evangelii-gaudium_n_4342964.html
Uraguay president José Mujica:
“I’m just sick of the way things are. We’re in an age in which we can’t live without accepting the logic of the market. Contemporary politics is all about short-term pragmatism. We have abandoned religion and philosophy … What we have left is the automatisation of doing what the market tells us.”
http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/dec/13/uruguay-president-jose-mujica
Comedian Russel Brand is speaking out and writing a new book. It will “act as a provocation; urging its readers to discard apathy and challenge the status quo”.
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/mar/14/russell-brand-new-book-on-society-politics
SIGNALS: Management thinking at a deeper level is very much about paradigms. A crowded, environmentally challenged world where one in eight so not get enough to eat requires a different mindset than business strategists had in the 60s. But this is often what is taught.
Supporting links
Micheal Porter explains the issues in this video from Harvard Business Review
http://hbr.org/2011/01/the-big-idea-creating-shared-value/ar/1
Seeing the simplicity in the changing paradigms: this article from Stephen Hinton Consulting
http://stephenhinton.org/2014/02/24/the-changing-of-business-paradigms/
WEBINAR SPECIAL
Community based marketplace specialist IBUYWESELL is teaming up with the Water and Food Award to shed light on how corporations can promote community networks to build their brand and business whilst taking care of people and making sure they are fed.
http://csrwebinars.avbp.net/?p=65
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 relevant to you, you will start to pick up on them in other channels and can start to apply your understanding. Together with our partners we offer dialogues, training, webinars and consulting to help organizations rise to the social challenges of our times.
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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