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Stakeholder communication and participation are not simple public relations, but an important part of closed-loop management of sustainable business value chains. This is a two-way interactive work.

Editor’s note: This article is from WeChat public number “bottom designer” (ID: Bottom- upDesigner), author Lu Jianzhong.

Enterprises still face great challenges and confusion in promoting the implementation and value creation of sustainable development strategies. One of the key reasons is that the leadership of a company with strategic thinking is still not out of the traditional way.

First, sustainable development and disruptive innovation inject new energy into sustainable business leadership

When companies promote sustainable business practices, they find that the existing level of leadership lags behind the level of competence needed to achieve a sustainable business vision and goals, whether at the top or executive level, between vision and reality. There is a gap that needs to be overcome.

Second, key aspects of sustainable business leadership

1, re-evaluation of strategic leadership

2, strengthen the ability of change management

3, systemic full life cycle full value chain execution

4, Risk Management and Crisis Management Capabilities

5. Developing sustainable business discourse systems and communication skills

6. Open Social Cooperation and Innovation

In the new business-social ecology of disruptive innovation, cross-border integration, and open collaboration, some of the key features of leadership are changing, and whether companies have this change, this The matching of leadership in sustainable development in a new ecosystem is becoming a key factor in determining a company’s transition to a sustainable development strategy. This leadership, we define it as sustainable business leadership. This article continues “Redefining the company: six key elements for building sustainable business leadership (I) , continue to discuss the characteristics and construction path of corporate sustainable business leadership.

Key aspects of sustainable business leadership

risk controlAbility to manage crisis

Enterprises face the risks of business, operations and reputation in their operations. Safety, environmental protection, health, community and stakeholders, as well as market, contract, policy, legal, financial, cultural and other aspects constitute risk factors of different periods, different degrees and different effects. Moreover, there are interlocking hidden dangers between these factors, mutual influence, mutual induction and superposition. For those companies that are developing overseas, risks such as country, sanctions and local business environment pose additional challenges for companies. The ability to manage risk and crisis response is undoubtedly critical to the company’s sustainable operations, corporate reputation and social acceptance.

Figure 5 establishes a comprehensive sustainable business risk management framework

Therefore, the leadership of enterprise risk management needs to be particularly strengthened, and should be pre-judged and managed from the source to the risk chain, risk outbreak, risk impact and crisis response. It is usually possible to fully integrate the problem mapping, risk identification, risk assessment, risk monitoring, preventative measures, and Risk Mitigation into the enterprise. Among the risk management structures, organically linked to internal controls. You must not have the luck of taking a headache, taking a doctor’s head, hurting your feet, and relying on temporary soldiers to cope with the dangers of blocking the water and covering the soil.

Comprehensive risk management of an enterprise should be based on the overall objectives and core business activities of the company’s sustainable business strategy. It will be identified, evaluated, and evaluated at all levels, all links, and nodes at all levels of operations and management. Monitor the systems of measurement, prevention, mitigation and improvement, as well as dynamic workflows and information systems, while at the same time improving management functions, improving coordination mechanisms, improving response measures, improving implementation capabilities, and improving risk, awareness, culture and behavior.

The ability to cope with and deal with crises in the event of a crisis is an effective test of corporate leadership. In the face of the crisis, some companies often expose their weak leadership. In the face of the crisis, the first reaction is extremely critical. At this point, the corporate crisis mechanism and plan should be activated immediately. When the cause of the incident and the main responsibility are still unpredictable, it is especially important to strive for the maximum time margin and to obtain the temporary minimum of society.

Crisis management experts often remind enterprises to deal with the crisis according to the five principles, that is, the principle of responsibility, the principle of sincere communication, the principle of speed first, the principle of system operation, and the principle of authority verification. In line with the three-level method of sensible, reasonable and legal, we will adopt a strategy of sincere confrontation, effective treatment and proper resolution to deal with the crisis while finding the root cause and establishing the main responsibility.

After the crisis, rebuilding corporate reputation and reputation is a painstaking process that requires precise design strategies and ongoing follow-up actions and assessments. At the same time, the problems, loopholes, and lessons learned during the crisis must be summed up without any opportunity, and the improvement measures should be formulated and enriched into a comprehensive risk management and crisis management system to form a closed-loop management.

It is important to note that risk management and internal controls are interrelated, but they are different (different categories). Comprehensive risk management covers internal controls, while the latter is a subsystem of risk management. Comprehensive risk management runs through the whole process and all aspects of enterprise operation management, focusing on strategic considerations, advance setting, agile response, and pre-participation in the goal setting and design of corporate strategy and operations.

At the end of the last century, COSCO Group began to upgrade from a single internal control to comprehensive risk management, taking the enterprise’s comprehensive risk management as the core work content of fulfilling corporate social responsibility and sustainable business, and then analysing each risk and quantifying it. Establish management objectives and execution indicators, embed in each operational activity and each employee’s work, and consolidate the sustainable business management system with AS4360 risk management as the main line.

The improvement of COSCO’s comprehensive risk management and control capability has enabled it to rapidly transform itself from the original pure technology and product competition to the international platform of advanced corporate social responsibility concept, and the transformation of corporate capabilities created by sustainable business practices. For the new core competitiveness, become the new profitability of the company.

Developing a sustainable business discourse system and communication skills

Since Freeman proposed the stakeholder theory (Freeman, 1984), this important concept was gradually introduced into practice in CSR practice.

Corporate stakeholders include groups or individuals that are affected by business operations or that have an impact on the achievement of corporate goals, such as government, policy and regulatory authorities, shareholders, investors, employees, and the communities in which they operate (physical and Virtual), suppliers, partners, customers, end consumers, competitors, and social organizations, media, opinion leaders, etc. in the value chain.

Because of the dual nature of the company and the need to consider non-market factors in strategy development, stakeholder engagement, inclusion and communication are important in sustainable business. Paying attention to stakeholder relationships can create a good space and environment for the survival and development of enterprises. On the contrary, it will lead to an increase in potential risks in business and reputation.

BenefitsThe communication and participation of relevant parties is not a simple public relationship, but an important part of the closed-loop management of sustainable business value chain. This is a two-way interactive work. It runs through the whole process from the establishment of substantive issues, the implementation of daily practice of social responsibility, the test of results and the creation, evaluation and disclosure of values. This process is to

• Ensure that companies are positioned to create the correct positioning and foundation for creating multiple values ​​of socio-economic-environment in strategic design

• Targeting mutual understanding and problem solving with stakeholders

• Increase corporate strategy and business transparency

• Win the trust of stakeholders

• Effective use of stakeholder feedback to improve CSR performance

• There are six important principles that are important to discovering new market opportunities and achieving new value through innovation.

However, the past corporate communication has great limitations in terms of objectives, content, and methods. It focuses on the lack of a systematic discourse system and a lack of in-depth understanding of stakeholder communication.

The communication and communication of many enterprises is still based on the historical description of the company, the business-oriented business activities, the accumulation of a large number of facts, the description of the business category and scale, and the most basic information about communication business as basic information, neglect Effective interaction with stakeholders and the potential to leverage stakeholder communication to create value.

Figure 6 corporate narrative is undergoing fundamental changes

When “green” and “sustainable development” become more and more global issues, investors are used as investment reference basis, and the supervision department is the basis for the evaluation of high-quality sustainable development of enterprises, and is regarded as the industry development by the industry. When setting new heights and being listed as important considerations for selecting products, establish a global, social, and interactive discourse system, focus on major issues of social development, and focus on macro trends and stakeholder concerns. Hook, a strategic description of the company and a description of the company’s social relevance and meaning, not only for the business purpose of the enterprise, but also to satisfy the interests of stakeholders, and become an urgent solution for the sustainable business leadership of the enterprise.The problem of decision.

To this end, corporate leadership should focus on building and mastering a communication discourse system for sustainable business.

Without this discourse system, the company’s leadership, business units and employees are unclear about the company’s social responsibility philosophy, plans, measures and actions, and the influence of stakeholders on the company. It is difficult to effectively mobilize the internal strength of the company. Carry out corporate social responsibility activities, deliver answers to social identity, and effectively integrate with governments, regulatory authorities, stock exchanges, local communities, industries, suppliers, customers, consumers, and the media.

In recent years, we have seen many excellent companies rewriting their mission descriptions and strengthening their social purpose, which are making active attempts to build a sustainable business discourse system.

The concept and principles of sustainable development are the global discourse system in which companies communicate with stakeholders in the process of local operations and internationalization. This system can be developed and established according to a set of international and local principles, standards, and best practices based on the company’s own characteristics.

Available for the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG2030), the Global Reporting Initiative’s Social Responsibility Reporting Framework and Indicators System, ESG Stock Exchange Environmental Social Governance Disclosure, based on five development concepts (innovation, coordination, green, Open, shared) high-quality development, ecological culture and circular economy model, 13-5 plan, industry-driven new standards and best practices, and integrate this into the description language of enterprise performance appraisal and social responsibility assessment.

This discourse system not only supports external communication, but also forms internal language norms, especially the corporate leadership, business units and departmental middle-level leaders, which must be mastered and used consistently.

In the discourse system, enterprises should establish stakeholder participation and communication based on the characteristics of the macro and micro environment in which they operate, the current status and development characteristics of the industry, their own business development characteristics, and social and environmental hotspots. >

• Identification system (ie using the stakeholder matrix Stakeholder Mapping tool to identify who is the main stakeholder and its main appeals and concerns, impact and extent, and the required communication)

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• Corporate narrative based on core information

• Normalization consultation and feedback mechanism

• Content Production and Quality Assurance

• Survey and management systems for stakeholder communication (eg identifying dedicated departments, responsibilities, establishing internal collaboration and coordination mechanisms to effectively support stakeholder engagement and communication, corporate communication rules and regulations, corporate communications risk management, etc.) )

Common tools used in communication include:

• Corporate Social Responsibility or ESG or Sustainability Report

• Many forms of brochures and distribution channels

• Media interviews and reports

• Newsletter

• Website, Public Account, Weibo, APP, Small Video

• Showing events

• Community Activities

• Theme Forum

• Special studies, white papers, presentations

• Meeting with stakeholders, consultation meeting

• Questions and Tracking

Unilever has good hands-on experience in using sustainable business discourse systems and proactively promoting stakeholder communication.

Last year, the Unilever Sustainable Action Plan 2018 China Stakeholder Communication Meeting was held in Shanghai. The theme of this event is very good: “Good Business”. This theme comes from Unilever’s sustainability strategy.

Unilever collaborates with Tsinghua University to conduct in-depth “participatory” and “listening” interviews and surveys on Unilever’s sustainability strategy on a global scale, with tens of thousands of stakeholders involved; The results of the survey were publicly released; and on the occasion of the release, the “Fine Business” theme sofa forum opened to the public was organized.

This is a cross-border dialogue on sustainable development with a wide range of internal and external stakeholders, and Unilever and the community work together to explore innovations that address the social and environmental challenges of sustainable development through business models. try.

This forum brings an important point of inspiration: in an open and interactive sustainable business discourse system, companies can hear more specific and grounded voices in order to generate a more positive and constructive resonance with society. In order to bring a beneficial combination of good interaction between business and society.

In the practice of corporate social responsibility, the degree of participation and participation of stakeholders has always been an important factor affecting the effectiveness of social responsibility practices.

Listen to the voices of stakeholders and must be implemented. Unilever’s “listening” initiative is the world’s largest stakeholder research project in history, with 276 interviews with stakeholders across the full value chain and a questionnaire from more than 40,000 employees at Unilever. Deeply affirmedThe important value of the results of the Helihua Sustainable Action in the past seven years has more accurately identified the strategic actions that the company should prioritize (including “clean air”, “health, health and nutrition” to help respond to “improving mental health”. Eight key issues such as “beauty”.

After three months of research, Unilever has a deep understanding of its challenges and opportunities, corporate mission, consumer needs and dynamics, business strategy in China and China’s social development, employee expectations and development momentum.

Ultrahua, the president of Unilever North Asia, said at the press conference: Unilever has only one strategy, which is a sustainable business strategy.

The implication is that Unilever has deeply integrated social responsibility and sustainable development goals into its daily activities of survival and development. He said: We must enhance the positive impact of Unilever on the society, expand the scale of business, reduce environmental impact, build social trust, and achieve “making sustainable life a normal state.”

Open Social Cooperation and Innovation

Innovation brings about social progress, wealth growth, and well-being, but it is still accompanied by limitations that restrict the fair enjoyment of innovation. In many parts of the world and in remote areas, poverty, disease spread, and lack of education have not decreased with the accumulation of wealth. The environmental damage and the gap between the rich and the poor are still growing.

Sustainable development-oriented innovation is becoming a common concern for humanity. Enterprises have a broad space to play an active role in solving social concerns with innovation.

Mc. Porter, a well-known American management scientist and professor at Harvard University, once pointed out that business model innovation is a dynamic process for companies to implement differentiated competitive strategies in the value chain and contribute to sustainable competitive advantage. Construct.

In addition to maintaining a smooth, efficient and profitable operation, the company is also striving to create new competitive capabilities (technical, market, business model, brand, etc.) in order to achieve the goal of high quality sustainable business. Stabilize the foundation of sustainable development of the company.

The innovation mentioned in this article is an architectural concept that includes three levels, namely

• Technology Innovation

• Mode Innovation

• Impact Platform

In the sustainable business system, technological innovation activities should be guided by “science and technology to goodness”, bringing solutions to social progress and environmental harmony.

Model innovation activities should be led by “good business”, enabling business activities to create multiple benefitsRelated parties share value.

Platform innovation should be guided by “positive influence”, through the deep, cross-border and integrated cooperation of upstream and downstream, inter-industry and social participation, maximally integrate commercial-social resources, and influence and mobilize a wider range of The power of social cooperation. This broadly defined innovation also includes “social innovation”.

COFCO’s business model innovation is reflected in the industrial chain cooperation covering all aspects from the field to the table, in order to connect the grain source and agricultural product consumption market, and continuously improve the industrial chain, help producers increase employment and expand production. Scale and develop markets, achieve better resource allocation, greater synergy, smoother links, lower costs and higher efficiency, and continue to explore the problem of China’s agricultural backwardness.

COFCO regards the field as the starting point of the agricultural product supply chain, and subdivides the agricultural input-output chain from planting to sales, in the five categories of planting orders, agricultural investment, agricultural finance, agricultural machinery services, and food sales. On the basis of demand, we will cooperate with social partners such as fertilizer production enterprises, seed companies, agricultural machinery cooperatives, banks and guarantee companies to provide farmers with all-round services and form one-to-one business relationships to ensure the demand for agricultural materials and farmers’ income.

At the same time, COFCO is also committed to technological improvement and product development in the process of planting agricultural products, promoting the development of agricultural modernization; integrating informationization with business development, developing agricultural technology and continuing to develop Internet + agriculture to digitize Informatization drives agricultural development and improves farmers’ income.

At the same time, COFCO’s development also benefits from this: COFCO has established a stable supply chain between producers and consumers around the world, linking to world foods such as Southeast Asia, the Far East, North and South America, Australia, and the Black Sea. The operation network of the core production areas, key logistics nodes and trade channels form the layout of grain and oil facilities covering the major grain and oil production areas and sales areas in the world.

As of the end of 2018, COFCO’s overseas agricultural products business volume exceeded 100 million tons, and its overseas operating income accounted for 50% of the company’s overall operating income, making it one of the major exporters in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay, Romania, and Ukraine.

In a sustainable business framework, corporate innovation activities are carried out in an economic-social-environment three-dimensional space. Through business model innovation, enterprises seek new models that can simultaneously meet the economic, social and environmental ecological needs, and effectively solve the social problems and environmental challenges brought about by economic growth.

The root of sustainable business-oriented technology and model innovation is that while maintaining its own economic sustainability, companies can achieve multiple value realization, multiple value sharing, and multiple benefits in the distribution of interests with stakeholders in the social and environmental fields. Value transfer.

Veolia and Tetra Pck, the world’s largest food packaging company, are pursuing gold from discarded beverage boxes to promote the development of circular economy in the industry chain. Veolia and Tetra PakThere are several gratifying highlights in joint practice:

• Combining Corporate Social Responsibility with Technology and Business Model Innovation

• Building an industry-influenced sustainable development thinking leadership platform

• Promoting deeper and broader social collaboration

• Promoting social responsibility awareness and promoting green consumer behavior

Recycling liquid packaging for sustainable recycling and producing industrial plastics and aluminum pallets is a challenging task. Unlike general cartons, liquid packaging board (GB/T 18192-2008) is based on base paper, laminated with laminated plastic, aluminum foil and other fresh-keeping and barrier materials. It usually contains 75% cardboard and 20% poly. Ethylene material and 5% aluminum foil material, superimposed on six layers. Polyethylene plastic, which can be used for sealing, so that the liquid is not affected by external influences; aluminum foil can isolate oxygen, sunlight, environmental odor, and keep the liquid fresh without refrigeration.

For Veolia and Tetra Pak, in order to achieve deep value creation in liquid packaging recycling, it is necessary to break through the bottleneck of polymer and aluminum foil not being effectively recycled, and to solve both aluminum and polymer. Low-level but difficult to collect obstacles; also to solve the general paper mills do not have the barriers to recycling and processing metal, polymer materials expertise.

This requires industry alliances in the value chain and deep cooperation. Veolia and Tetra Pak announced in November 2018 that the joint development of a complete recycling of liquid packaging partnerships has established the recycling of all components of the EU-wide waste beverage cartons by 2025, and worldwide. Strategic objectives for promotion within the scope.

Wei Liya has played a role as a bridge between paper mills and plastics products, and has carried out research and development in pulp and plastics separation technology; it has also changed consumer behavior, promoted public participation in green consumption and recycling of waste. Advocate was put forward. This is a systematic and comprehensive solution.

Each year, only the Tetra Pak family can recycle more than 40 billion packages, accounting for 1/4 of the annual sales of Tetra Pak. If fully recovered, it can generate a lot of economic value, while creating good environmental and social benefits.

This solution not only recycles resources, protects the environment, but also doubles the recycling value of Tetra Pak, which further promotes the further development of Tetra Pak’s recycling economy; and also enables Veolia to develop new ones. Market, enhance new core competitiveness and create new profit growth points. Such practice must be advocated and implemented by the highest level of the enterprise with sustainable business innovation thinking.

Like the “village doctor” of Fosun Fund, Novo Nordisk’s “Declaration of War on Diabetes”, BASF, Procter & Gamble and other “end plastic waste”, Wei LiYahele Leroy’s “Abandoned Beverage Boxes Joint Gold Rush”, these practices and explorations have established a thought leadership platform that has far-reaching impact on the industry.

The initiatives of these companies, while improving their self-sustainability, have brought practical demonstrations to the industry and society. Under the concept they advocate, they have formed upstream and downstream industry chain participation, horizontal customers and Supplier participation, multi-level media participation, participation of relevant scientific research institutions, participation of non-profit organizations, and government-involved interactive platforms. This platform plays a positive role in the transformation of business models, changes in industry patterns, and changes in social awareness. The energy released and the value produced are immeasurable.

Figure 7 Sustainable Business-Oriented Innovation Capabilities

Business leaders want to build sustainable business-oriented innovation that requires breakthroughs in the following areas:

• Sustainable development as the core of corporate development

• Profoundly recognize and identify social and environmental issues related to business operations

• Thinking about the core competencies of the enterprise to solve this problem

• Propose a value proposition

• Get recognition and support from upstream or downstream partners

• Building a win-win mechanism in the value chain

• Forming a social impact platform

• Technology innovation combined with business model innovation

This is different from previous product innovations. It is not just a simple technological upgrade, nor a simple re-combination of production factors. Sustainable business-oriented innovation requires more resources for the enterprise and higher requirements for the company’s capabilities. It requires the integration of the other five capabilities mentioned above.

Conclusion

Can companies achieve sustainable business leadership and create multiple stakeholder values? The answer is yes. Can it be done?

Founded in 1874, Hansen is a global biotechnology company dedicated to improving food quality and health. Every day, more than one billion consumers consume foods that contain natural ingredients from Kehansen. HansenIn terms of food strains and enzyme preparations, it has achieved commercial advantages due to its strategic competitive core competitiveness. With a strong R&D platform, it has long-term cooperation with all major large-scale dairy companies, and promotes cooperation with customers to develop innovative products and provide process solutions. Open, win-win and sustainable innovation in the entire industry chain from farm to table.

With the “clear goal + integrated strategy + corporate culture support” as the Hansen model, 82% of the total value of the products created by its daily operations directly contributes to the UN Sustainable Development Goal SDG2030. Among the global listed companies (7,500) with annual revenues of more than $1 billion, Cohansen was named the world’s most sustainable company by Knights, a third-party independent agency.

We expect companies to continuously explore and practice, strengthen sustainable business leadership, and play a leading role in creating economic prosperity, promoting social progress, and promoting environmental harmony in the process of promoting sustainable development.

The cover image is from pexels