Where there’s a Wi, there’s a way…

I began my career as a network operator, in the days of patch panels and Paternoster shafts, Ethernet cables and endless office moves! Pre-internet, it was an exciting time to be in technology- we were literally changing the shape of the brokers who were my employers, creating the tools that would open up a new world for my colleagues. And of course, every decade since has brought new change, new opportunities, and a renewed sense of excitement at the transformational opportunities that technology brings.

Most recently I sat in a SEDEX conference and listened to Jessi Baker, founder of the tech company Provenance, give one of the most inspirational presentations I’ve heard in a long time. She described how Blockchain is being used by her company to bring transparency to supply chains, supporting sustainability objectives by linking consumers directly to the products they purchase. In her own words, ‘Provenance…presents a paradigm shift for business and society: from one where you need to generate trust in your brand and product, to one where trust can be implicit.’ In a 21st century world where the driving themes for society are, increasingly, population growth, climate change, resource depletion and food security those companies that can engender trust and manage their supply chains in a sustainable and responsible manner will have significant competitive advantage over their peers.

To be clear, I don’t believe we’re moving into a ‘Mad Max’, Malthusian-trap period of history. On the contrary, I’m of the Carlota Perez school of thought- I believe we’re moving into a new Golden Age, which at its heart will be driven not by vague commitments to hugging trees but by a concrete, rational understanding of the principles of social and environmental sustainability, facilitated by technology.

Technology such as that developed by my ex-colleagues at BSI, SCREEN, which attempts to understand risks posed to supply chains at a macro-level. Or of my current partners at the TISC Report and at MCL, analysing and addressing risks at a local level.  To the uninitiated who may despair that little is being done I would point them to SEDEX which, with 43,000 members, has enjoyed an 18% growth over the past two years and works with 53,000 factories in well over 100 countries. As one of the original team who lobbied successfully for the introduction of the UK Gangmasters Licencing Act I would note the changing face of legislation, which in both the social and environmental spheres has followed the same trajectory- a purely voluntary approach, moving to soft legislation and from there to increasingly harder legislation. And I would observe that advances in disciplines such as Decision Science are assisting companies in making the hard connections between sustainability and commercial reality (I would highly recommend a review of the work of Joe Arvai, Max McGraw Professor of Sustainable Enterprise at the University of Michigan).

It takes a degree of courage, I believe, and a WILL to engage with the issues at hand that shape an organisation for the long term. All too often we come across those who deliberately take the short view, the 'eight-to-eighteen' month horizon of hitting performance targets and collecting a promised bonus. It doesn’t seem too extreme to suggest there’s a ‘last days of Rome’ feel to that type of mentality- decision making that resembles a form of asset-stripping, recognising the threat but with a goal to make as much personal gain before the inevitable collapse. And, for the uninspired, there’s an undeniable logic to that position. Let’s not kid ourselves, though- that fatalistic thinking is much more likely to become self-fulfilling prophecy than a strategy for success.

Professor Tim Jackson, professor of sustainable development at the University of Surrey and author of ‘Prosperity Without Growth’, makes the powerful observation that change not only must occur, but is occurring today. Over the past 5 years we have seen the growth of over 4,000 community interest companies in the UK and a similar rise in ‘B’ corporations in the United States, enterprises that have ecological and social goals written into their constitution. Investment in low carbon technologies and infrastructure is on the increase, in part as a reaction to the growing recognition that gains made by the relative minority are precisely offset by the losses of the majority- a zero sum game. In the near future, investment will sit at the heart of an emerging paradigm, reconceived and based not on vaguely formed ideas of doing good, nor on the relentless pursuit of consumption growth, but on the self-serving principle of long-term stability. Investment will rest upon protecting the ecological and social assets on which our future relies. To the cynic who would dismiss this nascent foundation of a new economy as fantasy, one would counter that our civilisation has gone through 5 transformational changes over the past 200 years based on the development of new technologies and new paradigms. Change is not the exception for our civilisation, it is the norm.

Quite simply those organisations that are able to peer ahead, recognise threats posed by their new reality and address those threats by embracing technology and a new paradigm will not only win-out but thrive. Those who cling to the idea that such threats are in fact merely ‘customer facing’ and have as their solution a thin veneer of marketing do their shareholders a great disservice- ultimately, the future of such an organisation is bleak. To paraphrase my wise old Dad, ‘No-one is owed a living!’ and the age-old principle continues to have relevance, that only the fleet of foot survive.