Sustainable business strategy - interesting new book

I haven’t posted on a business topic in a while. I am a management consultant in my day job, so I try to keep up with basic business reading as I go. I’ve been fortunate, in a way, to have worked in small and large companies – my current employer has 45K+ employees – and I maintain a small, highly networked company for occasional freelance projects.

In the large company environment, one observes interesting social behaviors and politics everywhere. Everyone’s looking for some advantage to put them over on their peers and antagonists. That’s nothing new. But what we see right now is an economy and markets in turmoil, so I am beginning to see the internal competition that fosters these behaviors as wasteful – it doesn’t do anything to protect 45,000 jobs, and it doesn’t do anything o grow the next 4,500 jobs.

So when this month’s Fast Company magazine included an excerpt from “Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto” by Adam Werbach, I found some interesting insights about the economy of large businesses. Werbach examines Xerox, among others, for business practices that he then compares with facts drawn from ecological sciences biomechanics and biomimicry. Here is an extended quote from the article, while there is an Amazon link to the book at the end of this post.

“Nature’s 10 Simple Rules for Survival

“…scientists are decoding rules that can help form businesses as hardy and long lasting as a forest. After all, nature is far harsher than the market: If you are not sustainable, you die. No second chances and no bailouts. Businesses that are capable of dealing with the challenges of a changing world will be better able to respond and to lead.

"1. Diversify across generations.
2. Adapt to the changing environment.
3. Celebrate transparency. Every species knows which species will eat it and which will not.
4. Plan and execute systematically, not compartmentally. Every part of a plant contributes to its growth.
5. Form groups and protect the young. Most animals travel in flocks, gaggles, and prides. Packs offer strength and efficacy.
6. Integrate metrics. Nature brings the right information to the right place at the right time. When a tree needs water, the leaves curl; when there is rain, the curled leaves move more water to the root system.
7. Improve with each cycle. Evolution is a strategy for long-term survival.
8. Right-size regularly, rather than downsize occasionally. If an organism grows too big to support itself, it collapses; if it withers, it is eaten.
9. Foster longevity, not immediate gratification. Nature does not buy on credit and uses resources only to the level that they can be renewed.
10. Waste nothing, recycle everything. Some of the greatest opportunities of the 21st century will be turning waste – including inefficiency and under-utilization – into profit.”

It seems that to adapt this within a large company, you’ve got to be able to look deep into the organization at the small groups that make it up – it used to be said that the ultra-large Swedish-Swiss conglomerate ABB could measure the financial performance on business units as small as two people – but that makes these rules a useful strategy for small business as well.
I think I’ll buy the book: Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto