Despite the economic downturn and recovery rarefied, more than two-thirds of businesses are strengthening their commitment to sustainable development, in line with new global study of MIT Sloan Management Review and Boston Consulting Group, as reported in this article. The study showed that 69% of companies plan to increase their investment and management stability this year. Just over a quarter (26%) plan no change, and only 2% plan to reduce their liability. The study also found that two-speed landscape becomes, with a gap between sustainability "embracers» those who place sustainability high on their agenda and nonembracers or "cautious adopters," who still do not focus on more than energy cost savings, efficiency and material risk reduction. Embracers much more confident in our competitive position than nonembracers is. Seventy percent of embracers said they believe their organizations outperform industry peers. In contrast, only 53% of the cautious adopters described themselves as outperformers, and 14% admitted to lagging their peers, more than twice the percentage of embracers, who made the statement (6%). In addition, almost three times as many embracers (two-thirds), as cautious adopters said that the stability of their organizations and activities to increase their profits. "What is exciting is that these results reflect the business landscape in general is tilting hard toward where embracers already have," says Michael Hopkins, editor in chief of the main MIT SMR and co-author of the report. "Thus, embracers gave us a kind of crystal ball. Their ideas and behavior to propose a plan of how management practices and competitive strategy will evolve." The report identifies seven specific practices exhibited by embracer companies, which together begin to define sustainability is managed. "Hide
by Michael S. Hopkins, Whip Haanaes, Balu Balagopal, Ingrid Velken, Nina Kruschwitz, David Arthur Source: MIT Sloan Management Review 15 pages. Publication Date: April 1, 2011. Prod. #: SMR386-PDF-ENG
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