If corporations want to find, nurture and keep the leaders who will drive more responsible business practices, they must focus in on something new and non-linear: values-based thinking. Their perfect recruits will be individuals who are less willing to drop at the office door the values they so comfortably use to navigate their personal lives. [...]
A recent corporate reputation survey by CR Magazine and AllegisTalent2 shows that the majority of people, even in these tough job-finding times, would still not take a job offer from a company with a bad reputation. Specifically, the results showed that 75 percent of Americans felt this way. This fairly surprising fact should get a [...]
We are living in history-making times. Thanks to "edtech" partnerships like Coursera and edX, free, world-class university courses in a wide range of topics are now offered online. And, the potential for educating people in the ways of more sustainable business thinking (among many other topics) - and for students at any level - is [...]
The Atlantic recently published an interview with me that included some good questions on trends and innovation in sustainability. Here's an excerpt: What's something that most people just don't understand about your area of expertise? How thinking big about the connections of cultural trends, consumer behavior research, and other-things-that-don't-seem-to-relate-at-all can give meaning and help build [...]
Thinking sustainably is about seeing the interconnections of systems around a particular business problem or issue. Since, among other things, the people involved, the natural world, and government regulations are ever-changing, there’s no way for a business to solve the sustainability issue once and for all. Businesses must embrace the fact that there will [...]
The following first published in the March 2011 issue of The Solutions Journal. The crucial move toward sustainability may not come easily for either huge corporations or the average consumer, but we can hasten this evolution by identifying and nurturing the personality traits that most naturally drive sustainable living. Those qualities that we’ve long called [...]
I was inspired by a recent Time magazine article to consider the new power of the "citizen consumer " in my October 5th VPR Commentary. I celebrate this new responsibility revolution in my own buying, but I'd also suggest that marketers take heed. The way a person makes purchase decisions is influenced by much [...]
While it may be more commonly used in self-help or religious books, I've been seeing the word "journey" a lot in my sustainable business practice research. It strikes me that the word may, as well, be a good term/image both for representing a woman's buying path AND representing the path by which any brand [...]
Sometimes the stars just align and consumer trends come together in a way that seems so natural. Consider, for instance, the women's market and sustainable business practices. If you've been struggling to pursue each as a separate initiative, take heart. In many ways, you will come to powerfully reach today's savviest women by taking steps [...]
