Leadership of the future

Do you know of the existence of the largest global catalogues of business opportunities just waiting for someone to innovate solutions and make a business out of it?

Your company may have the purpose and competences to grasp some of these opportunities for business! It has never been easier to find real unmet needs that has the market opportunity of many millions of customers. The headline is the UN 17 Global Sustainable Development goals.

UN has lead the impressive and significant work in creating the 17 goals of sustainable development of the world. The bottom up process to agree on the largest challenges on this planet AND clear goals for their improvement was conducted in 193 countries, over two years and involving all types of stakeholders; governments, business, NGOs and others. On September 25th, 2015, 193 countries adopted a set of goals to end poverty, protect the planet, and ensure prosperity for all as part of a new sustainable development agenda. Each goal has specific targets to be achieved over the next 15 years. There has never been a stronger consensus in the world on where we need to go.

There is so much business potential in these goals and the objective and demand by customers are made easily available, for you to consider in our company strategy:

First and foremost, look at the Sustainable development knowledge platform, where the goals are presented, and when you click on a goal you can find information and progress, and very importantly a specific description of target and success criteria.

Secondly, The Global opportunity report is issued thanks to DNV GL AS, United Nations Global Compact and Sustainia. It creates focus and ideas to the largest business opportunities and is updated every year. The mindset driving this report does not seek to make things a little better. It is a mindset seeking to turn around our conception of good business towards a more holistic vision of profit and Purpose.

Every business leaders must be aware of the latest trends that:

It is good business

The SDGs are setting the global agenda and are going to be instrumental for the next 14 years. Businesses are going to make it their business not only to understand the SDGs, but to do so intimately, because it is furthermore a huge opportunity for the business community.

PwC confirms that a growing number of indexes show that businesses with strong environmental, social and governance (ESG) attributes consistently outperform the market.

Michael Porter, the world’s leading business strategist, says that business has gone through a development from being philanthropic and donating to worthy social causes to Corporate Social Responsibility, but should now go to the next level Creating Shared Value (CSV) . Creating Shared Value is where you look at your company purpose, expertise and assets and find the important societal need, where these assets can contribute and then you find a business model to make a profit on solving the need.

Many large companies and a long row of startups are now taking this approach. Business is the driving force that can accelerate the solution of the 17 goals the fastest, so do not think that making money by improving a miserable situation is offensive. I can be very much a win-win situation, if the solutions are created in that mindset.

Meaningfulness is an asset

Thinking “what can we contribute with to the world” is a great asset to attract employees, customers and investors alike. The purpose of business is increasingly recognized as needing to go far beyond the narrow definition of maximizing returns to shareholders. A reframing of the imperative to operate as a responsible business involve both understanding and measuring the wider impact of a business on society and the environment. Seek inspiration for KPIs in the SDGs success criteria. The mindset should change from how can we limit the damage our company do in the world to how can we be a positive contribution to society.

Corporate Social Responsibility used to be a side thing that many companies made out of duty, fashion or legal requirements. Sustainability, purpose and positive impact is becoming the lens through which a business is judged by its consumers, workforce, society and increasingly its investors.

Managing risk to the business

The fact that many of the larger markets are in the developing countries makes it important to understand goal no 17 – which is cooperation. The companies and governments all say that cooperation is a lever to make the business work in a specific segment and country. Through cooperation companies can get insight in the local needs, the local infrastructure, law, politics and risks, but also cooperation with local companies is a chance to increase the success. There are many public investors and financial mechanisms by which it can be easier and less risky to do business in the developing countries.

In the higher or longer perspective is a huge business risk if we do not all contribute to the overall ambition of the 17 sustainable development goals. The perspective for the world goals is to achieve a better and fairer world for the world’s population. The main principle is: Leave no one behind. It matters for every business, as societal changes like climate change, inequality in countries that leads to political instability and potentially war, scarcity of resources that hinders business growth, lack of food and basic living conditions which leads to migration of people – all of these are short or medium-term risks to the business environment anywhere in the world.

Do not get fooled by the thought that this is the problems of developing countries. It affects every country in the world, and even the developed countries and many of their companies are not up to speed on many of the goals. The consequences of not solving the challenges transcend country borders, religion and income class.

Leadership wanted

The good news is that all the technology exists or can be developed to solve the goals, the rest is leadership and action. By making the goals and success criteria so transparent It is possible for everyone on this planet to contribute whether you are with government, the private sector, civil society or you as a private citizen.

We as the sum of individuals make the world as it is today – and we are the ones who can make it better tomorrow. It takes that each of us is pulling in the right direction and the 17 goals are great, visionary and important goals to acting in the same direction for.