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Need proof? Check out this UN Global Compact-Accenture CEO Study on Sustainability 2013. Here's the upside:
- 93 percent of the 1,000 CEOs in 27 industries surveyed see sustainability as important to the future success of their business
- 80 percent see sustainability issues as a route to competitive advantage in their industry
- 78 percent see sustainability primarily as an opportunity for growth and innovation
- 81 percent of CEOs believe that the sustainability reputation of their companies is important in consumers' purchasing decisions
But, there's a flipside:
- Only 32 percent of the executives surveyed believe that the global economy is on track to meet the demands of a growing population
- Only 33 percent report that business is making sufficient efforts to address global sustainability challenges
- Only 38 percent believe they can accurately quantify the value of their sustainability initiatives
- 37 percent see the lack of a link to business value as a barrier to accelerating progress
- 46 percent believe that sustainability issues will always be secondary to traditional factors of price, quality, and availability.
That's a quite a contradiction. CEOs see sustainability as a way to create a competitive business advantage, but can't define the business value. They see it as an important part of there future, but can't quantify the value of their efforts so far.
If the top cheese can't make head or tails of this hot-to-trot buzzword, how are product design, manufacturing, and supply chain teams supposed to deal with these inconsistencies? One day, they are charged with the job of creating supply chains that make the world a better place — from sourcing environmentally-friendly components from conflict-free geographies, to tracking anti-counterfeit parts to reducing carbon emissions at the manufacturing facilities and within their logistics routing. In the same breath, they have to abide to the other important corporate buzzwords known as cost management, product quality, inventory management, and operational efficiency.
Did you just shrug your shoulders? Right, what's a supply chain professional supposed to do? This sounds like being caught between a rock and a hard place.
If there's any reassurance in all this, I guess it will come from the notion that business leaders see the sustainability effort as having reached a plateau; whereas in 2010 executives were more confident in the prospects sustainability would offer, in 2013 they are more reticent and feel limited in how far they could go in the absence of broader alignment between companies, markets, investors, governments, and consumers, according to the survey's accompanying video.
None of this, of course, should imply that the sustainability efforts should be halted. Creating earth-friendly companies — and architecting a better world, as Accenture alludes to in the subtitle of its report — is important work. Really. It is.
Soon enough, mark my words, the word will be buzzing again and executives long with every other part of the business world ecosystem will push companies to finding the balance in the sustainability business case.
How have your company's effort paid off so far? How much further would you like to see your company go?
Definitely for CEOs, sustai nability is top in the list. But these days its so difficult to sustain , its the age of mergers and acquisitions.
This is certainly one of those easy to say, hard to do things. I think it might be like eating an elephant though: you have to do it one bite at a time. Readers, let us know where your organization started? Is there one thing or one area you chose to concentrate on first?
In my opinion, to be sustainable a company needs to have a niche product and a continuous innovation plan to maintain that niche product still ahead of its competitors.
The do-it-all approach many times lands companies in trouble so much that it looses the focus on exactly what product it wants to push in the market.
Once you have the product line well defined , whether it is the local market, suppliers or whether a global outreach makes the best sense or whether it is a combination of the two can well be managed by the supply chain professionals
Smartphone is a revolution in this era. Ofcourse its not that far that cars being opened by a smartphone. Automobile business always gves more preference to mechanical over electronics and software, sure it woukd be possible to open the car by a key incase the smartphone is locked inside the car
Will keyless car with smartphone unlocking will have one to one replationsship or one to many or many to many?
Will I be able to store car key information for my wife and son/daughter' car in my mobile? Will they be able to do same?
What if I want to give my car to my friend for few hours? What about car rental?
Idea looks good but needs much more work to make make it reality.
“What if your smartphone already ran out of battery? You can't even open your car door!”
Probably the new trend will be (as described) the RFID unlock such as a card key or the unlock via a smart-phone. The electronic way is great but is not 100% accurate always will be a chance for malfunction (as the ran out of battery for instance) thats why the car designers should always design the traditional way as well (with a normal key).
A smart car or a smart technology? Why not both? The mass market is largely interested when it comes to cars and gadgets, but together, it becomes everybody's cup of tea. An app that feeds the information about a car to the driver is smart enough. The Nissan Smart Watch however, should be incorporated with vibration signals that alert the driver when the speed is actually becoming too fast for his heart to handle and his brain to function normally, because we don't normally check our wristwatches while driving.
Business ethics should be maintained keeping in mind that the only right way is the way that does well in the largest amount to the largest number of people. If CEOs can handle the competition without sustainability, and if it's for the sake of the marketing future, then so be it, as long as customer satisfaction is guaranteed.
All of this talk makes me look at my 10 year old toyota with new eyes. It's a total dinosaur. I wonder what wonders my next car will offer? i like the idea of keyless entry–and the other stuff. I imagine it will become common in the not too distant future.
Kelyess entry systems do still pose a security problem. The reality of hackers is that any sort of electronic system can be hacked and provides a compelling challenge. Cars, especially new techie cars, can be a lucrative target. here's some more on that: How are these thieves exploiting automotive keyless entry ?
Technology development brings smartphone more functions, serving as car key, wallet, transportation card and others. I enjoy the convenience of not bringing different kinds of cards and keys, but I can't image how big the risk is when my phone lost and the pickers unlock the password.
“The smartwatch, using a Bluetooth LE connection, gathers telemetry data from a car so that it can show the driver the car's efficiency information, such as fuel consumption, while also tracking performance.”
Junko, getting any information at a handy way is good, but not preferable in driver's watch. Because it can divert the driver attention while driving, this can cause accidents.
Smart car keys are more susceptible to software gliches and malwares. If we want to go hightech then biometeric are more advanced.
@ Lily, I agree. I love the idea of keeping everything in my phone but I have a horrible fear of someone getting a hold of my phone or stealing the information via the internet. I don't even carry a credit card with me unless I need to.
Me too, or at least I could not put all my bank cards, ID card, money in one wallet where lots of my friends do so. It's so dangerous when the wallet lost.
My upcomign EBN article would also solve this problem of sustainability and how to avoid Mergers and Acquisitions leading to better macro-economic growth
“My upcomign EBN article would also solve this problem of sustainability and how to avoid Mergers and Acquisitions leading to better macro-economic growth”
Apek, M&A will be there as long as there is business. M&A are happening due to various reasons and it's a natural process too.
Well M&As occur due to un-nforced Anti Trust laws and Monopoly Capitalism
“Well M&As occur due to un-nforced Anti Trust laws and Monopoly Capitalism”
Apek, I won't think so. For that, competitors have to acquire all companies having similar products or services, which is impossible.
BMW has had keyless systems for its cars since at least 2007. No key is needed to open or start the car…no buttons to push, no fobs to insert. The fob you do get remains in your pocket and you simply touch the door handle to enter the car and push a “Start/Stop” button to start the car. Surprised the author of this piece didn't at least mention that.