Excited to receive my copy of the book in which I feature alongside my colleague Dr Colin Hocking in Chapter 1. See an excerpt below.
CHAPTER 1 – INTRODUCTION
There can be no doubt that organisations today operate in a dynamically changing business environment. Companies are getting disrupted at an unprecedented rate with managers and their staff struggling to keep up with new technologies, new business models, new economic and regulatory challenges, and the consequences of the hyper connected digital world. At the same time social responsibility and environmental sustainability are fast becoming a critical part of doing business. Effective engagement using sustainable business frameworks not only enables an organisation to deliver on its social and environmental obligations, it can also maximise productivity and performance by making positive changes to core elements of the profit-making process and building resilience for the future.
To tackle the issues outlined above, many companies have implemented a range of future-oriented initiatives. To handle the changing business environment, business leaders are implementing continuous improvement programs aimed at upgrading organisational processes and change management programs to meaningfully engage staff in new activity. To handle the increasingly demanding expectations of stakeholders, and the organisational risk associated with non-compliance, business leaders are also putting in place a range of corporate social responsibility and sustainable development programs.
These different approaches have helped some businesses address a multiplicity of challenges, and to change the way they do business. But with the rate of change likely to increase, and the elements of change likely to become more unpredictable and even disruptive, the time has come to look beyond our current business practices, and to develop a new business management approach that takes a broader view of organisations, the context in which they operate, the stakeholders with whom they engage and the societal value they create. The ultimate goal is to foster ongoing prosperity for an organisation, its staff, its community and the natural environment.
Adaptive Sustainability is a new and innovative approach to business management that aims to encourage new mindsets that can adapt to change and develop new skillsets that can address today’s complex business challenges. This chapter begins by setting the context in which businesses operate. It then describes a range of existing continuous improvement methodologies that focus on processes and procedures, as well as a range of change management models that address the human aspect of change. It discusses the shortfalls of these approaches and argues that a continuous, open-ended process of adaptation to changing circumstances would be a better approach in today’s unpredictable business environment. The chapter then introduces a new framework based on ideas of adaptive sustainability. Finally, it describes how to apply this framework and use it to manage business activity at any scale.
To find out more about the Adaptive Sustainability Framework and how you can use it to responsibly manage your business contact Jane Stewart or call 0411 838 033.
