Inspiring insights from the 15th Annual Responsible Business Summit

The Responsible Business Summit (RBS) 2016 offered a good mix of opportunities to (a) learn from sustainability leaders sharing what they’ve achieved over many years and (b) get inspired by visionary CEOs giving us sneak peaks into their ambitious plans and programmes for the future.

Switching from BC to AD

As Ronan Dunne, CEO of O2, pointed out: the digital revolution is changing the world, but we’re only at the front of it. So far, we’ve been focused on the technology, not the societal impacts that the application of technology will bring. That’s the exciting stuff.

At the moment, we’re simply digitising analogue business models and behaviour. Society is moving from before connectivity (BC) to after digital (AD). Business strategy needs to do the same to survive. If we don’t, business risks pretending it’s gone digital, while continuing to behave in an analogue way.

To be sustainable, every business needs a digital mindset. Companies also have to take responsibility for supporting their stakeholders in bridging the current skills and confidence gap. Enabling stakeholders to share the value created in the digital age.

I liked the example from Heathrow. New business models, such as Uber, have embraced digital technology and added value for customers but led to parking issues for residents. In response, Heathrow is launching a new parking area for private hire cabs. It has also collaborated with the firms to include geofencing in their apps to prevent pick-ups in residential areas.

Winning the competition for talent

Practically every speaker highlighted the increasingly important role sustainability will play in the competition for talent. Diversity is often talked about, but progress is slow. CEOs can change this by ripping up the current rule books and setting out a new vision.

That’s what John Holland-Kaye did when he took over as CEO at Heathrow. He scrapped the time-old tradition of hiring management from outside the organisation. This year, they’ve filled all management roles through internal promotion, with many moving from frontline security roles. Such opportunities for social and professional mobility create a more diverse and dedicated workforce with valuable experience of different parts of the business.

Adopting a millennial mindset

The workforce of the future is going to be very different from today. Millennials are more switched on to corporate responsibility and have very different (higher) expectations of business ethics than the current baby boomer generation.

Forward-thinking businesses are moving away from seeing employees in terms of human resource and hierarchy. Responsible organisations embrace the notion of social capital and collaboration.

“I have every confidence in the next generation,” CBI president, Paul Drechsler told us. “The question is – do we have enough trust in this [our] generation?”

Listening to gain loyalty

To gain the trust and loyalty of the workforce of the future, businesses need to start listening to millennials now. Properly listening. To their fears as well as their ideas.

Sustainable business leaders like Paul Donovan, CEO Odeon UCI, are already on the case. Listening to his young workforce and engaging them on the company’s new CR strategy has sent their engagement scores skyrocketing.

He encouraged delegates to ask young people for help in developing a strategy, a programme or network and be surprised how readily they’ll volunteer. Making CSR meaningful and giving people a say creates a powerful sense of ownership and deeper commitment.

Making sustainability cool

Whether it’s future talent or customers, Mike Barry of M&S couldn’t emphasise enough how important it is to make sustainability inspirational, aspirational, motivational and fun for people.

Yes, it’s easier for brands like Virgin Atlantic. We were all wowed by their CEO, Craig Keeper, sharing insights into their investment in biotech – where microbes convert waste CO2 from steel plants into renewable jet fuel. It’s as cool as the rocket science of Virgin Galactica.

But even accountancy firms can engage us, if they’re as clever with communications as they are with data. The audience spontaneously applauded when PWC’s Malcolm Preston introduced the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) with the No Point Going Halfway video. It’s inspiring and fun.

There’s a big appetite for inspiring sustainability communications. Can we have some more, please? 

Debbie Griffiths is MD, a wordsmith, consultant and trainer at sustainable writing consultancy, Ideal Worldsmiths.