In June of last year, the three of us stood on the main stage of Sustainable Brands 2018 in Vancouver and for the first time publicly introduced our new book, All In – The Future of Business Leadership.
All In draws on 20+ years of annual GlobeScan-SustainAbility Leaders Surveys of global sustainability experts, plus in-depth interviews with former, current and future corporate leaders including Sir Mark Moody-Stuart, Lise Kingo, Paul Polman, Jeff Immelt, Hannah Jones, Mike Barry, Liz Maw, and many more.
All In identifies five critical, interlinking attributes of businesses that go All In for sustainability. These attributes start with having a clear Purpose, which is authentic and inspiring, explains why the business exists and how it creates value for itself and for society. It is about having a comprehensive Plan, which minimises negative social, environmental and economic impacts, maximises positive impacts and covers all aspects of the business and extends into the supply-chain. Going All In means having a sustainable Culture, which is innovative, empowering and engaging, open and transparent, and with a core sense of ethics and responsibility. Fourthly, it is having the skill and will to Collaborate extensively with a range of business, civil society and public sector partners. And, lastly businesses need to act as Advocates, speaking out and up for social justice and sustainable development.
Over the twelve months since Vancouver, between the three of us, we have spoken to business audiences about the evolution of corporate leadership and the All In Leadership Framework in Amsterdam, Barcelona, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Buenos Aries, Chicago, Detroit, Doha, Dubai, Hong Kong, Istanbul, Johannesburg, Lisbon, London, Manila, Muscat, New York, Oxford, Paris, Phoenix, San Francisco, Sao Paolo, Tel Aviv, Tokyo, Toronto, Warsaw, and Washington DC. We have also done webinars, podcasts, video and radio interviews engaging thousands of people with the purpose of showcasing what the future of business leadership needs to be in order to achieve the Sustainable Development Goals.
We have also written a series of blogs where we have provided updates on each of the five attributes of the All In Leadership Framework:
PURPOSE: https://businessfightspoverty.org/articles/purpose-goes-hungry-without-culture/
PLAN: https://businessfightspoverty.org/articles/plan-for-the-future/
CULTURE: http://ethicalcorp.com/companies-want-be-sustainable-have-start-acting-ethically
COLLABORATION: https://globalfocusmagazine.com/collaborate-for-success-and-sustainability/
ADVOCACY: https://impakter.com/brand-stands
Another blog examines how the phenomenon of New Power (decline of trust in established institutions, loss of deference, global connectivity and social media combined) encourages more businesses to go All In.
Our whole series of blogs also starts to consolidate and clarify important “how to” advice for other companies that want to learn from sustainable business pioneers. We are planning to gather more “how-to” guidance in the coming year.
We have also designed and started to present executive workshops about going All In, which can be delivered “in-company” or as an open programme for participants from different companies.
We are also particularly pleased that one of the leading generalist Corporate Responsibility coalitions, CSR Europe, has used the All In Leadership Framework to help them develop their organisational strategy for the 2020s, also informed by a special White Paper prepared by GlobeScan.
It has been a very busy year for us as authors, but we are enormously grateful for all the encouragement and help we have received. We are looking forward to building on this further in the coming year.
Learn more and buy your copy of the book at: www.AllInBook.net
David Grayson is Emeritus Professor of Corporate Responsibility at Cranfield School of Management.
Chris Coulter is CEO of GlobeScan.
Mark Lee is Executive Director of SustainAbility, an ERM Group Company and an ERM Partner.
