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Three business lessons I learned in 2011…so far

November 3, 201111:12 am

Life is changing all the time around us. Even when we think it is not, our world is changing on a micro and macro level. I feel that our life has changed a lot over the past months and we will see a lot of change in 2012 again. This year I have spent a lot of time getting to know a whole new business. Getting to know this new business has already taught me a lot of new aspects how to do business. This is a post from earlier in the year to give you more details on my changes, Changes in 2011.

Despite my doubts at the start I really enjoyed the past months. Including the highs and lows as strange as it might sound. The reason for this is that these experiences have taught were very valuable lessons. Today I want to outline three of these lessons.

Use the existing business network right from the start

Use the existing contacts and relationships of your predecessor and throughout the company as much as possible. Do not shy away from the fact that you do not know these new people. Make it your goal to get to know them instead of waiting for them to come to you. Every now and then you might meet someone that is dismissive or hesitant to help you but have the courage to continue where your predecessor left off. It will show your clients and business network that you have got what it takes to continue the business.

Be respectful and show that you are different

Be nice, treat everyone with the necessary respect, do not talk about something you do not know anything about, make sure your contacts know that you are serious about making business and most importantly, that you are different to your predecessor. In my case this means that aspects of CSR / Sustainability are always incorporated into every important business decision I make. Stay true to yourself and the values you believe in. Once you do that I am sure you will be a successful.

Show strength towards your peers but be empathetic

If you have any employees or line management, then a lot of time of your working day will be spent on making sure these people are doing what their job is and are happy. I am more of an empathetic person when we talk about leadership but I had to learn this year that a leader also needs to provide the strength to lead no matter what. And this sometimes means to make difficult and unpopular decisions in order to move the business forward.

There are a lot more lessons I learned but these three stand out. But you never know what the last 2 month will bring of course.

Poll results: Latest Sustainability / CSR trends in 2011

June 22, 201112:24 pm

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Several weeks ago I started the online poll asking the question what in your view the biggest trend in CSR this year (2011) is so far was. This is the link to the poll post and results.

Today’s post is taking a closer look at the top 5 and what this ranking of CSR / Sustainability topics and trends can possibly tell us. Here are the top 5 trends identified by 82 different voters from across the globe:

Top Trend: Social Media (20 votes)

I guess this comes a no surprise that Social Media is the top answer when you consider that the distribution of the poll mainly used Social Media channels such as Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn. But this is nevertheless a clear sign that Social Media continues to be the trend in 2011 in terms of CSR and Sustainability best practice.

Supply Chain is keeping everyone on their toes (14 votes)

This was a surprise for me to be honest. I did expect the topic to be a top 5 topic but not really at number 2. Possible reasons for this top placement in my view are that Supply Chain topics never really go away for a business no matter how much work they do or how well they are performing. The relationship with your suppliers (especially in the manufacturing) is usually changing each month at least and each organisation needs to stay on top of these developments. That is why best practice trends are always something organisations involved in making CSR / Sustainability work are looking for.

Stakeholder Engagement is changing (13 votes)

This is something I expected. This “Evergreen” is always very popular when we talk about CSR / Sustainability trends. The issue I have is that the term stakeholder engagement can mean so many different things in terms of CSR / Sustainability. The emergence of Social Media has proven to be a deciding factor for successful stakeholder engagement in my view. Stakeholder engagement means a lot more then just engaging stakeholders using Social Media but the increasing importance of Social Media will be an interesting differentiation for the continuous overall adoption of stakeholder engagement best practice across businesses globally.

GRI gets the recognition it deserves (10 votes)

The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) being named one of the top 5 trends in 2011 was another positive surprise. The GRI has always been a important player in the CSR / Sustainability field but it seems that it focus on integrated reporting and the way it uses Social Media these days is something people in the field recognise and appreciate during 2011.

CSR /Sustainability Reporting and ISO 26000 round up the top 5 (6 votes each)

The fifth spot on with 6 votes each was a tie between CSR / Sustainability Reporting and the ISO 26000. Both of them are closely related and for me the most interesting aspect of this tie was that they are both about making sense of the way you report your CSR / Sustainability strategy and best practice as a business.

Conclusion:

Social Media, Supply Chain and the different aspects of CSR / Sustainability reporting are prevalent when you take this snapshot poll about the latest trends in 2011. Next to the communication aspect of CSR / Sustainability practices and activities, the guidance of institutions such as the GRI are very important to the people which voted.
This leads me to conclude that organisations and other institutions are slowly opening up in terms of communication but guidance on an array of CSR / Sustainability standardisation aspects (reporting, ISO 26000 and GRI) are also something CSR / Sustainability professionals are looking for in 2011.

What do you expect from the 2011 CSR / Sustainability reporting season?

January 21, 20115:26 pm

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2011 has only just started and I am already expecting some interesting companies to publish their CSR / Sustainability reports shortly. Novo Nordisk is one of them for example.

But the question for today’s blog post is what you expect from 2011 the upcoming CSR / Sustainability reporting season. Do you feel that we have an innovate year in front of us or will 2011 be a year of transition where finally integrated reporting will make a proper splash in our CSR / Sustainability reporting world for example?

Here is what I think (I guess you saw that one coming).

CSR / Sustainability Reporting in 2011 – My expectations

The continued rise of Integrated Reporting: GRI and Integrated Reporting will be as big a topic in 2011 as it was in 2010 since the GRI is now fully committed to push integrated reporting. What the result will be is another question but I believe that integrated reporting will be as huge as a topic in 2011.
Interactivity and Social Media: An increased interactivity with social media sites such a Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn will give CSR / Sustainability Reports a whole now look and feel about them. The danger here is that if a company decides to go down the social media integration route it needs to be innovative and forward thinking. A half-hearten approach will most likely not be successful.
Most will be online but print will stay as well: The vast majority of reports will be even more extensive online in terms of content. The printed report will not be as comprehensive. But a printed brochure or short report will still be something each organization needs to produce in my view.
Another year of records: I am not sure about the total numbers but I am certain that we will see another record breaking year in terms of the number of companies producing CSR / Sustainability reports.

These are four my expectations for 2011. What are yours?

Picture Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/juhansonin/5135576565