The Cornerstone of Sustainability
The word “sustainability” is so widely used in our contemporary age that it has for long hit the popular list of buzzwords in business literature and talks. But what does it really mean: for a system, structure, or set of actions of any nature—social, political, economic or ecological—to be considered as sustainable, does it have to be in perpetuity? Who can guarantee what the future will hold?
While it may be meaningless to quest for an exact measurement in timing for qualifying sustainability, Daniel W. Bromley’s interpretation is enlightening enough: “sustainability concerns the specification of a set of actions to be taken by present persons that will not diminish the prospects of future persons to enjoy levels of consumption, wealth, utility or welfare comparable to those enjoyed by present persons.”
In the context of economic development, people’s consciousness and conscience about the need for sustainability were awakened primarily out of the high prices societies have to pay for relentless industrial growth, particularly in terms of irrecoverable damages to health and the ecological environment. Indeed concern nowadays about the ability of a business enterprise to endure the test of time is increasingly no more just restricted to the sustainability of market demand, henceforth, its revenue stream, profitability and cash flow, but related to the social and environmental impact of its economic activities, and the adverse reactions and consequences it may have to deal with; hence the need for a sustainable business model.
Building a sustainable business model needs to start with the people, more precisely, their mindset. Entrepreneurs and business executives need to be awakened to or reminded of the fundamental truth underlying the façade of all human activities—social, political and economic—in order to lay the cornerstone of sustainability:
1. The interconnectivity of all things in the world means that the life and death of one part of it may affect that of the other in one way or another, and vice versa. Though not necessarily played out in a readily observable manner, the cause and effect relationship is certainly everywhere.
2. Collectivity is the nature of any society. As such, individualism has to rest on mutual-respect; peace and harmony on common interests; and prosperity on shared values.
3. Given ongoing changes and challenges in all dimensions in the surrounding environment, business leaders need to be mentally prepared to be engaged in dynamic balancing acts of coping with different, and even conflicting, interests on a perpetual basis. No so-called normalcy should be taken for granted.
4. As such, without compromising a person’s integrity, adaptability—in particular, the capacity for paradigm shifts and the capability to see light in various perspectives—is a key to sustainability.
5. After all, for any system, organization or set of activities to be sustainably creating value in perpetuity, i.e., crossing over generations, it has to be good for both the mankind and the nature; and no doubt it has to involve ongoing succession planning of leadership and talents into the future.
6. And it has to be able to either stand the test of competitive disruptions aiming at delivering better solutions for satisfying evolving market demand or transform and disrupt itself out of complacency with short-term or foreseeable profitability.
7. Fundamentally, sustainability is about people’s ways of living and their harmonious co-existence with each other and the nature; therefore, the prospect of any products and services which are “counter-sustainability”, e.g., cigarettes, is bound to be doomed.
8. At the personal level, sustainability is an attitude towards life. It stems from the natural love for life, evolves into the conscious mind for the preservation of its beauty while coping with changes, and should result in a person’s ongoing effort for continuous learning and action for improving lives.
In our contemporary age of disillusion—as defined by tumultuous events of value-destructing financial crisis and seemingly endless monetary turmoil, at the same time, increasing calls for social justice and environmental protection from various and, indeed, virtually all parts of the world, the quest for the way to sustainability in value creation is increasingly taking on a far more urgent significance than ever.
