Shaping Success by Prioritizing People, Planet & Performance

Over the past year, every sector has encountered unforeseen obstacles – and opportunities – that were once unthinkable. But we are seeing promising signs in our businesses and communities. In fact, 76% of CEOs believe an economic recovery is less than 12 months away. It’s important for all leaders to reflect on what has kept us grounded and motivated during these unprecedented times and ensure these principles become a permanent part of day-to-day life. 

 At HARMAN, that North Star was, and continues to be, our shared sense of purpose: to connect people through meaningful, personalized experiences. One of the main ways we express this purpose is through our focus on People, Planet and Performance that we outlined in our most recent Corporate Citizenship Report. These themes are central to our success because they extend beyond business operations to critical stakeholders, including HARMAN’s employees and the communities where we operate around the world.

Win Through People

Fostering relationships and making connections with the people who surround a business, whether they’re local nonprofits or educational institutions, creates growth opportunities. Not only does this enable an organization to contribute meaningfully to a region’s success overall, but it allows for operations that take the surrounding ecosystem into account when making business decisions.

HARMAN Inspired, our global cause initiative, recently identified a need for tools that aid at-home learning in our U.S. communities. Our pre-established networks provided the resources we needed to collaborate with music education nonprofit Little Kids Rock and our JBL brand ambassadors to donate thousands of headphones to help students transition to learning from home. Being so ingrained within the communities where we’ve fostered relationships over the years allowed us to reach those in need in a thoughtful, effective way.

Constant connectivity is as important inside an organization as outside of one. Over the past year, all-important conversations on race, equality and justice have erupted across the U.S. and globally. Moreover, 86% of job seekers say DE&I initiatives play a role in helping them decide whether they’d accept a new position. Now, more than ever, we must listen and be the change we want to see in the world. Implementing inclusion, allyship and unconscious bias trainings and hosting transparent conversations that inspire employees to speak up creates a welcoming environment that encourages success and collaboration across business units, levels and regions.

Through HARMAN University, our online and in-person learning program, employees acquire skills and tools to expand their perspective on empowerment and equality, and they use this education during their daily work and communications. In 2020, more than 100 female employees received micro mentoring from women at the manager level and above. We also recently established our HARMAN Black Professionals Network, which aims to support and promote diversity, equity, openness, understanding, and inclusiveness, while maintaining a focus on increasing representation and ensuring career and development opportunities for all. We pledge to continue to adjust and expand these programs in order to accommodate the ever-changing needs and interests of our employees.

Prioritize the Planet

Environmental stewardship is no longer a “nice to have” – it’s a business imperative. To develop, maintain and expand eco-friendly business strategies, corporations must track their environmental performance and hold managers accountable for successes and failures. There is much work to be done in this area. PwC reported that 43% of CEOs believe their organizations must increase their reporting on environmental impact.

At HARMAN, sustainability is one of our fundamental pillars shaping the strategic approach to everything we do. It is built into our business model - not bolted on as an afterthought, enabling us to track progress and constantly raise the bar. For instance, our cross-functional and multi-divisional impact monitoring system revealed that, between 2018 and 2019, our absolute Scope 1 and 2 GHG emissions decreased 6 percent, our waste generation decreased by 2 percent, and we eliminated or avoided 2,161 metric tons CO2e – that’s equivalent to 533.58 flights around the globe in a commercial airplane.

I’m proud of the gains we’ve made, but we can’t stop there! HARMAN’s employees, partners and other stakeholders recognize that we are on a journey of continuous improvement. We are committed to achieving even more in the future.

Listen to Improve Performance

This year was defined by the unprecedented speed at which some of the brightest minds in medicine produced multiple innovative vaccines to slow the global pandemic. We must all take a cue from their ingenuity and persistence and apply the same strategic thinking to how our own businesses innovate. Companies will set themselves up for success by proactively monitoring for, listening to and anticipating shifts in consumer behavior.

At HARMAN, our innovation and design teams use data and analytics to evaluate emerging market trends and the future needs of customers. By conducting research and communicating knowledge with relevant business units, we can leverage the momentum from one design idea to inspire and quickly generate new questions and concepts. This method enabled us to hear consumers clearly when it came to creating products that focus on sustainability. To name just one example, increasing consumer demand for green products inspired the JBL Flip 5 Eco edition, HARMAN’s first portable Bluetooth speaker made out of 90% recycled plastic. With business goals that emphasize a desire to learn and a willingness to listen, fast and purposeful innovation is possible.

By keeping people, planet and performance in sight, HARMAN is preparing for the future – whatever it may hold. Adapting to meet the needs of the world in which we all do business is the greatest skill an organization can have, and that mindset starts from the top. By personalizing these three principles and building them into day-to-day operations, leaders will set themselves and their companies up for success.