CHAPTER 7

Value, Society, and Technology

Value Imperative (VI) is about creating Value for and in society, including but not limited to sustainability, social media, technology, and innovation. More and more organizations such as Creating Happiness, Conscious Capitalism, Customer Value Foundation, Business for Social Responsibility and Forum for the Future are all working on sustainable businesses. Also some companies like Whole Foods and Unilever are embracing sustainability and conscious capitalism.

We have added technology to this chapter because of the profound impact technology will have on the future, on people, on society, and sustainability.

Tremendous social improvements have taken place in the last 200 years (see chart by Max Roser,¹ Figure 7.1). The question that arises is, will this be self-sustaining or will there be a reversal, with the uncertainty of technology, society, and employment? You will notice all the currently used terminology for good and well-being (Value) have improved considerably.

However, there are people like Dr. Jose Foglia² from Uruguay who believe that the abuse of digital technology will damage the brain, its short-term memory as well as long-term memory. The long-term impact on human beings and their becoming addicted to tools of technology remains to be seen.

Figure 7.1 Chart shows improvements in various social parameters (Max Roser)

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a curator of content and, through learning, is orchestrating future action for the customer’s benefit.

Value and Society

The living example of Soka Gakkai shows the importance of Value creation in life and in our day-to-day living:

The idea of Value creation is central to the philosophy of Soka Gakkai; ³ the name of the organization means “society for the creation of Value,” which focuses on human happiness, responsibility, and empowerment.

“Values” refer to moral standards, as we have learnt earlier. Value indicates that which is important to people, those things and conditions that enhance the experience of living. Value points to the positive aspects of reality that are brought forth or generated when we creatively engage with the challenges of daily life.

Soka Gakkai says we can create Value at each moment through our responses to our environment. Depending on our determination and direction, the Value created from any given situation can be positive or negative, minimal or infinitely great. Even what may seem at first sight to be an intensely negative situation can serve as an opportunity for the creation of positive Value.

Buddhists live within networks of interrelatedness and interdependence. The positive Value we create for ourselves is communicated and shared with others.

It is also important to note that, unlike some of his contemporaries, Makiguchi rejected the idea that “the sacred” could be a form of Value unto itself, and he asserted that human happiness was the authentic measure of religion.

So we learn Value creation is critical in our daily life, and that forms one of the bases of VI. Thus Value and Value creation are necessary for human beings and for living.

Sustainability

An important part of creating Value for society is through sustainability and starts with creating awareness, positively or proactively contributing to sustainability. Unilever took proactive steps to stop using palm oil, which was ecologically damaging, and is using more expensive options that are less damaging. Unilever’s customers were willing to pay more for this option and supported the company. Focusing on sustainability also can create a new business model. Being ambidextrous helps, by focusing on the business the way it is and how it might be impacted through sustainability.

One example of sustainability is democratizing of energy, using your own energy (solar or wind) on your property and then selling the excess, as opposed to buying from the grid. You replace kerosene light by a light bulb, and with your own electricity, upgrading to appliances such as televisions and refrigerators. Energy for everyone using solar is also a low-carbon economy, a dignified Value creating energy system. We are already re-charging drones, robots, and electric scooters, or using irrigation pumps run off solar power. This usage will increase in the future.

Better storage of energy and more efficient appliances, and working capital for more energy, will accelerate solar energy from homes into the grid.

Sustainable or green businesses, have a low negative impact on the environment, community, society, or economy—often, sustainable businesses have progressive environmental and human rights policies, and as Harvard Business Review (HBR) states that sustainable companies tend to have a better return on investment (ROI), as using clean alternatives, for example, in energy are cheaper.

Sustainable businesses employ a three-pronged strategy:

This holistic view of doing business places equal emphasis on the planet, people, and profit. This concept discussed earlier is the triple bottom line.

Examples of fair trade (includes work done by Fairtrasa run by Patrick Struebi) are also a case of sustainability and creating Value for farmers in Latin America by improving their productivity and selling at reasonable prices in Europe. This is Value creation.

Unfortunately there is no persistent (or sustained) focus on sustainability. It is relatively slow in happening but for notable exceptions. Most of America’s largest companies aren’t taking the action needed to tackle climate change, according to a new report by Ceres.⁴ Only a third of corporate boards oversee sustainability objectives and progress in biodiversity, human rights, water management, procurement, and so on.

Walmart, for example, has incentives for buyers using sustainability-based supplies. This includes eschewing unfair practices, child labor, underpayment of labor, or poor labor practices.

This raises the question of monitoring and regulations. Should we have sustainability standards boards? How do we challenge the essence of capitalism?

A major brewer identified some 150 possible improvements that could reduce greenhouse gas emissions while saving $200 million over five years.

A water utility benchmarked its performance against other utilities and found where the biggest opportunities were—in this case energy and chemicals. After four years, the results were visible in the form of less leakage, fewer customer complaints and $178 million in savings, a 25 percent reduction in operating costs.

A state-owned industrial company in China increased the energy yield of its coal significantly simply by tracking it better, making sure the first mined was the first used. That improved energy efficiency as well as carbon intensity, while reducing costs by 13 percent.

Kellogg’s chief sustainability officer, Diane Holdorf, states: “We see good opportunities to grow Kellogg’s brands as we invest in climate adaptation solutions such as climate-smart agriculture.”⁵ The company has committed to reducing energy use and greenhouse gas emissions in its plants by 15 percent per ton of food produced by 2020, from a 2015 baseline. Ecomagination initiative has helped the company to sell more goods and services. In 2015, its ecomagination revenue had reached U.S. $36 billion, up sixfold from when it launched the initiative in 2005. Consumers are scrutinizing the environmental footprint of the products they buy. “Consumers increasingly want to know how their food is grown.” Truly Value creation.

This is the start of ecoimagination and ecoinnovation.

Fortune⁶ says the nitty-gritty of sustainability programs can get complicated. But the principles are actually pretty simple and should be familiar to executives. First, and most important, is to acknowledge that sustainability is serious. The case is not that difficult to make. In a McKinsey survey of 340 executives, more than 90 percent said risk management—whether from consumers, regulators, or the market (for example, high resource prices)—was an important factor in pushing them toward sustainability initiatives.

Real sustainability efforts are (or should be) core business efforts. This is a Value creation Imperative.

A study by the Harvard Business School drew similar conclusions (higher return on equity and assets for higher-sustainability companies), and the authors concluded, “Developing a corporate culture of sustainability may be a source of competitive advantage in the long run.”

Fortune goes on to say to think of sustainability as a niche gets it wrong. To do it right, companies need to be rigorous, goal-oriented, and accountable. The evidence is building not only that sustainability initiatives work, but also that they are an important factor in creating long-term Value.

Walt Disney Company,⁷ recognizing its investment in the next generation, has taken a number of steps to strengthen its sustainable practices. The company does the following:

Olam International, winner of the Guardian’s 2013 Sustainable Business Award for “Society Impact,” is a global agribusiness company that sources its produce from 3.5 million smallholder farmers. In 2011 the company launched the Olam Livelihood Charter (OLC) to formalize the company’s commitment to invest in the rural communities of emerging countries. This charter is built on eight key principles, including improved yield, market access, social investment, and environmental impact.

The CEO Force for Good, wants to create a better world through business) suggests questions every CEO of a public company should answer.⁸

What are the key risk factors and mega trends (such as climate change) your business faces over the next three to seven years and how have these influenced corporate strategy?

How do you identify your financially material business issues and which frameworks do you use for reporting on these issues? How do these figure into your future strategy and capital allocation plans?

How do you describe your corporate purpose and how do you help your employees share your vision for the company’s role in society? How does this shape your long-term strategy? How does your future strategy act upon this purpose?

How do you manage your future human capital requirements over the long term and how do you communicate your future human capital management to your investors?

What are the corporation’s framework/strategies for interacting with its shareholders and key stakeholders?

How will the composition of your board (today and in the future) help guide the company to its long-term strategic goals?

What is the role of the board in setting corporate strategy, setting incentives for, and overseeing management? How does the corporation ensure a well-functioning and diverse board accountable to its key stakeholders?

Note the CEO Force for Good wants to create good, which is Value. VI thus applies more broadly. Value creation through sustainability is then a source of competitive advantage and increased profits.

Why Do We Need a Framework for Sustainability?

Porritt⁹ suggests that because there are so many issues such as climate change, poverty, resource depletion, peak oil, overfishing, and so on, that a sustainability framework is necessary. It becomes a support for the CEO to understand the problems and solutions. He suggests a capital model,¹⁰ wherein sustainability is considered based on wealth creation or capital. Such capital has to be increased and not depleted, and that is how these social issues impact profitability. Going along with Wayne Visser, we should (and Porritt agrees) look at these in an integrated¹¹ way so that trade-offs and maximization of sustainability can happen. A vision can then emerge. I prefer to call them assets.

Another term called “inclusive capitalism” is now being used to determine the real Value a company is delivering, to make capitalism more equitable, sustainable, and inclusive. Lady Lynn Forester de Rotschild has founded a group to discuss and develop a measurement that will better reflect the full Value companies develop through human, financial, and intellectual capitalism and the impact on the world.¹² VI is all about this.

Creating Entrepreneurs at the Bottom of the Pyramid

As part of our effort on Value creation, our Value Creation Forum on entrepreneurship suggested two ideas: Creating entrepreneurs at the bottom of the pyramid (BOP) and creating extrapreneurs.

Our effort in creating entrepreneurs at the BOP has started in Kangra district of the state of Himachal Pradesh in India and goes from tourism (creating home stays, tour guides, opening up tourism trails from Amritsar to Dharamsala (before this Amritsar tourists came and went back to Amritsar, as did Dharamsala tourists, who started and ended in Dharamsala)). By creating the trail, tourist can spend time and homestays in Kangra in between the two cities.

Other projects being considered are home decoration, adventure tourism specifically for women, bird photography guides, mediation centers, telemedicine centers, working with women’s cooperatives for better products and so on.

We also realized that we should create and teach people to be employers, not employees, or just employable.

The concept of extrapreneurs marries corporate intrapreneur thinking with external entrepreneurs who are invited to partner with the corporates to start entrepreneurial projects.

Social Networks Including Social Media

To promote Value for society, we have to use our social networks, such as social media. Social media can create and destroy Value. Value has to be created equitably across all social networks,¹³ through the principles of Reciprocity, Exchange, and Similarity. Value creation increases as these three principles are adhered to and maximize Value for all stakeholders.

The first is the principle of reciprocity, which is giving and taking equitably with others or trading favors equitably. Reciprocity works better when actors are different and then they go into exchange of favors, the second principle. The Value of the exchange increases, and it is co-created.

Lastly is the principle of similarity which works best with people with common backgrounds, Values, and interests.

Penelope Trunk¹⁴ states a network adds Value to many people’s lives so that they, in turn, will want to add Value to yours. Another useful strategy is to network proactively rather than reacting.

IBM found in, Creating Value from Knowledge,¹⁵ that the social network analysis (SNA) is uniquely effective in

Connect and Develop

Procter & Gamble (P&G) used social media for the concept of connect and develop, which refers to developing new products and services through a vast social network spanning parts of P&G and many other external organizations and people, getting away from their traditional model of using internal capabilities and those of a network of trusted suppliers to invent, develop, and deliver new products and services to the market. “Connect+Develop” at P&G works inbound and outbound and encompasses everything from trademarks to packaging, marketing models to engineering, and business services to design.

On the inbound side, P&G is aggressively looking for solutions for its needs, but also will consider any innovation—packaging, design, marketing models, research methods, engineering, and technology—that would improve its products and services. On the outbound side, P&G has a number of assets available for license: trademarks, technologies, engineering solutions, business services, market research methods, and models, and more.

As of 2005, P&G’s Connect+Develop strategy had already resulted in more than 1,000 active agreements.

Olay Regenerist, for example, came from acquiring a small French company that had technology for antiwrinkle for their skin care products, but came to P&G through a conference contact.

On the reverse, P&G started to license its technology such as Calsura, a more absorbable calcium that builds stronger bones faster, and keeps them stronger for life. Calsura is proven to be 30 percent more absorbable than regular calcium.

University Collaboration with the University of Cincinnati design labs, university students, and P&G researchers collaborate to study the needs of the over-50 consumer.

Nike started their considered index to check environmental impact on items such as waste, solvent use, material usage, and reuse using a circularity principle.

Elkington’s the Zeronauts discusses how to drive carbon, waste, toxics, and poverty to zero. He suggested a “race to the zero.”

Steven Kotler¹⁶ suggests the 6Ds of exponential technology that is using Digitization, Deception, Disruption, Dematerialization, Demonetization, and Democratization allows entrepreneurs to take on established companies. Such companies can benefit from trust and collaboration on technology and frenemies (making friends of enemies). The boundaries between providers and users are blurring, and so also the roles of the participants. Co-creation is a VI philosophy.

Value creation through social media platforms will therefore remain limited until the moment firms and customers start sharing information on a larger scale.¹⁷

Technology

Automation and AI will lift productivity and economic growth, but millions of people worldwide may need to switch occupations or upgrade skills. It is estimated 5 million jobs will be lost due to automation by 2020.¹⁸ Software, caregiving, social media and interaction, and lifelong learning related jobs are likely to grow.

Matthew Taylor asks what we mean by good work. We know that wages matter to people, particularly to those who earn less. In a way, people are less concerned with the relationship between their wage and the superrich than they are between their wage and the person who might be one step above them in the hierarchy, for example. People are saying that pay is a less important part of what determines whether work is good than it used to be in the past—you come up against the same kinds of things, meaning people want a sense that their work is meaningful and that they are doing something useful, something that they can feel proud of.

With autonomy, people want to feel that they are able to make judgments and make choices at work; they will not simply be a cog in a machine. People focus on what might be called mastery, a feeling of “I am getting better at something, and in getting better at something, I am enabling myself to have more choices in life as a consequence of the job that I’m doing.” And then teamwork, camaraderie, and the sense that “I am part of an organization that is inclusive and fair.”

We need to show a lot more imagination about bringing those thoughts to lower-paid, lower-skill jobs. Many of us who are middle class and work in great organizations are used to these things. But there’s no reason why jobs in caring, retail, security, and transportation can’t have those qualities, if we’re clever about the way in which we manage our organizations.

A company’s technology capability should be seen as an integral tool for creating economic Value instead of just business infrastructure that makes business operations efficient. This along with human capital investment contributes directly to overall Value creation.

Mitch Barns,¹⁹ CEO of Nielsen, says when a company creates a successful new product or process, it is because it has somehow trimmed waste, and thus created Value. Henry Ford’s car made it possible for average American families to travel as only the rich had been able to do just a few years earlier. Ford passed much of the cost savings from his technological innovations on to the consumer. Such innovations include the creation of the first tools to the building of the international space station.

Some think that Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, advanced robotics, wearables, and 3D printing are exciting technologies that hold great future promise. Frost and Sullivan, as an example, cite tomatoes and spinach crops, for example, can be tested for pathogens within 15 minutes in the field, a great use for IoT.

Elsewhere HealthSense²⁰ talks about augmented reality to help treat phobias, provide physiotherapy, and promote wellness.

Dov Seidman, author of Why How We do Anything Means Everything, says that technology creates possibility for new behaviors and experiences and connection, but it takes humans to make the behavior principled, the experiences meaningful, and the connections deeper—in short, how to create Value or not destroy Value.

The Value of technology depends on us and how we use it to impact our own lives and those around us and society. It allows us to connect, share, aspire, grow, and control (if we can avoid being controlled).

Technology has the potential to create immense Value and destroy immense Value. Of course, what it creates and destroys depends on our point of view and our relationship to the result. So for driverless cars, Value is destroyed for professionally employed drivers, whereas it is created for casual drivers.

How can we finish the “race to zero” (to get homes to be energy efficient and only dependent on self-generation? Or get electric cars to be self-generating and self-sustainable?)

Technology has little of emotions. Can you download the smile on your grandmother’s face when you walk in, the aroma of mother’s cooking, the hug from your brother, the sharing of a snack from a stranger on a train, or the giggle of delight on a baby being tickled? Or a bystander sending you down the wrong street, or going up the wrong way on a one-way street or the exhilarating air on a ski slope with powder snow on you beard? Maybe virtual reality (VR) can (and new robots with “feelings” are being used).

The Surgeon General of the United States said the number one disease in the United States was isolation, that is, not being adequately connected to others. Some feel technology can help by replacing humans. I am not so sure.

In another example, Cisco Systems developed everything-as-a-service (XaaS)²¹ initiative that allows it to break down silos, deploy and leverage technology more effectively, and align IT services with both customers and the business. Cisco views XaaS as an opportunity to control costs, create efficiencies, and rethink the way it engages customers and partners. “We realized that we needed to rethink the way we were working, how we thought about Value streams, and the way we organized ourselves,” says Will Tan, Cisco’s senior director of operations. “Likewise, we began reviewing the relevance of our architecture to determine what kind of connectivity we need to meet our [XaaS] goals.” Only 16 percent goes into new innovation, and 57 percent in improving existing systems, What can make digital transformation/technology²² work? Use VI thinking:

Long Run: Think of the Future

This was written to look at education and unemployment in India, but the thought is universal. Prof. Luiz Moutinho contributed thoughts on this through a PowerPoint presentation.

There was a time there were humans, and then humans and machines; and humans who are data informed and humans and machine assisted; and then maybe only machines in the future.

Kaizen thinking of doing many small steps to improve productivity is now being modified with ideas from the Ambidextrous Organization by Charles A. O’Reilly III and Michael L. Tuchman where they talk about companies exploiting the present and exploring the future. This is creating Value from now and from the future.

Energy: Chances are that renewable energy and better energy efficiency will result in substantially free energy.

Skilling and employment: Thirty years from now, unemployment will increase as most routine jobs will be lost to robots and AI. By 2040, computers the size of a cricket ball will be smarter than human beings. And because they’re computers, they never get tired, they’re never ill-tempered, they never make mistakes, and they have instant access to all of human knowledge. In fact, Osborne, in the Future of Employment, feels that 47 percent of U.S. jobs will be at high risk in 20 years. Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance in Japan is laying off 30 employees replacing them with an AI system that can calculate payouts to policyholders. Productivity will improve by 30 percent and the investment will be paid off in two years, after which costs will reduce further. Most automobile plants have robot systems and Tesla is almost all robotics.

But what is more worrisome is that we are not working on alternatives for humans as fast. Large-scale thinking and modification of our education system to tackle the future is necessary. I will discuss this later.

Food: Chances are that better nutrients and food supply systems will change, and food requirements may also change.

Redesign of the nutrition system may not require the human digestive tract, as auto-nutrition through special clothing, and nano-bots going in and out of the skin giving nutrition and removing waste. Nano-bots could supply oxygen to cells, making the blood system obsolete, and no heart or lung will be required. What will be left will be the skeletal system and parts of the nervous system! Sound far-fetched? The left over systems will still have to create Value?

So this brings us into education and re-employment 30 years from now. But first, let us understand the background.

Stephen Hawking said the rise of powerful AI will be either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity. We do not yet know which. He went on to say that the biological brain could be emulated and even exceeded by computer intelligence. And I add that once this happens AI growth might be exponential.

Robot nannies, robot pets, and robot spiritual gurus are now available.

Already, AI is playing a bigger role in visual perception, speech recognition, decision-making, and language translation.

It also might be this new intelligence will find unheard of solutions. After all the Wright Brothers aircraft did not emulate a flapping wing bird, and Google’s driverless car does not use brain sensing and thinking.

Narrative science will replace journalists producing news stories, headlines, and information reports without humans.

Artificial Intelligence and Emotional Intelligence

Many people tell me machines will never take over as they do not have emotional intelligence. That is needed as much as AI. But AI will force us to re-skill. Humans will have to discover new opportunities to stay ahead of AI and robots. And because of sudden disruption instead of gradual change, we do not have much time to adapt. Everything dumb and disconnected are getting intelligent, wired, and connected: cities, our bodies, our homes. For things that cannot be automated, digitization may still be available to us humans, such as EI, creativity, imagination, and intuition. Human thinking to look at the future of re-skilling and re-deployment is necessary to build the new landscape of human endeavor. Create Value and master technology.²³

People, with their talent, knowledge, skills, and experience constitute the ultimate source of Value. Will this pervade with the onslaught of AI? An example is restaurants. Tom Krouse, president and CEO of Donatos Pizza, said that restaurants aren’t about $13.89 for a pizza. “But consider all that we give in return: quality and Value, to be sure. But we also give hospitality, smiles, training, development, careers, first jobs, second chances, family connections, and a strong and valuable community connection, too.” This human touch is what can keep AI in check.

Technology and Sustainability

Technology has the ability to impact sustainability, but technological changes have been minimal and not radical. Much of this has to do with the strength of the corporate system (big business) and the inability or the resolve of the government.

According to the University of Wisconsin, the tools of sustainable development are economic instruments, legislative measures, and consumer pressures and are aimed at achieving technological changes such as recycling, waste minimization, substitution of materials, changed production processes, pollution control, and more efficient usage of resources.

Undesirable side effects of technology include climate change. An example is aircrafts that transport us but impact climate change. Thus sustainable technology should be highly efficient, benefit health, be renewable, reusable, socially affordable, and so on, to mention but a few criteria.²⁴

Research by McKinsey shows that improvements in resource productivity in energy, land, water, and materials, based on better deployment of current innovative technologies, could meet up to 30 percent of total 2030 demand, with 70 to 85 percent of these opportunities occurring in developing countries. Capturing the total resource productivity opportunity could save $2.9 trillion in 2030.²⁵ This is what Value Imperative is about.

The Productivity Conundrum: Why Is Productivity Declining?

Productivity declined 0.5 percent in the last five years globally till the end of 2017, whereas it gained 2.5 percent in some previous decades. Its puzzling skype.

McKinsey²⁶ states three factors include waning productivity growth rates in the last 15 years, the global slowdown due to the financial crisis of 2008, and that digitization has not caught on.

Value Creation and Innovation

Innovation is like children. It has to be nurtured all of the time, and a mindset of innovation must permeate the company, according to VI.

In the old days standardization and scale were very important. Examples include Ford, and standardization (you can have any color as long as it is black) and no options, better materials, cost cutting, increasing wages, and sharing cost savings with customers after he started the moving assembly line. Thus you can have something new (the car) or the process and cost innovation or better benefits including service.

The mobile phone and Internet have made e-commerce possible. Farmers in India can find places where prices are higher to sell produce. Plumbers and electricians in India are on call because of the cell phones. Before this they were dependent on an electrical or plumbing store to take requests for electricians and plumbers and would often not get the requests till very late. So customers did not have on-call help. These are examples of Value creation.

Instead of using print media for ads to sell cars, homes, and other products, very focused sites allow buyers and sellers to interact.

Production lines are changing because of robotics, 3D printing, artificial intelligence, and IoT wearables.

The World Economic Forum²⁷ asks the following 11 “what if” questions:

For government and business leaders to reflect on the impact of technology and innovation in global production systems:

What if...

And I add

Energy will be almost free.

Governments have to deal with large unemployed people. Leisure time becomes huge. Governments to deal with changing tax sources. What happens to insurance companies and banks? Will society be safer (think privacy)?

Will technology be customer and Value led?

The Guardian suggests cheap water filters converting toxic water to drinkable, energy-producing homes, bladeless wind mills, smog scrubbing towers, and designing carbon catchers.

McKinsey points to recent academic research that finds differences in individual creativity and intelligence matter far less for organizational innovation than connections and networks. That is, networked employees can realize their innovations and make them catch on more quickly than non-networked employees can.

For humans, empathy (especially to get humans to lead technology), education (more equitable, upgrading to implement and run new technologies), creativity (to keep searching), judgment, and accountability are musts.

Cross and colleagues found across many large firms, within P&G in particular, and in their own research, McKinsey has observed four important steps in the innovation network process.²⁸ These four critical steps in designing, implementing, and managing an innovation network are summarized in Figure 7.2 in the innovative network.

Connections and networks are more important in innovation than individual creativity and intelligence.

So, connect key people in the organization with an innovation mindset. Have diverse people for generating ideas, researching, and validating them. You have started a network. Next, set boundaries and engage, defining the network’s goals and objectives. In the third step, support and govern, set the leadership, processes, and reporting. Finally, the fourth step involves managing and tracking.

McKinsey suggests people fit several archetypes. Which one are you?

Figure 7.2 Managing the innovation network

Adapted from http://mckinseyquarterly.com (retrieved June 4, 2008).

Extreme weather events, failure of climate change mitigation and adaptation, water crises, and large-scale involuntary migration are four major risks per World Economic Forum. These risks—interwoven with other societal challenges (inequality, technology impact of digital transformation on job creation and more)—will impact different industry sectors in different ways, says Gib.

Value and Government

VI suggests that government apart from spending time on economic activity, regulation, civic, judicial, political activities and the kind, should provide the institutional framework for all human activity. John J Kirlin²⁹ develops the Value creation roles of governments, namely constitutional, jurisdictional, and civic infrastructure, policy strategy, and policy infrastructure. The measure is the social Value created.

What about externality?³⁰ Will it impact people who are not involved directly with the decision making? Thus if government prohibits entry of outsiders into an area, they may impact people who need to enter for essential services.

The Capital System for Sustainability

Visser suggests sustainable development means the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It contains within it two key concepts:

The concept of “needs,” in particular, the essential needs of the world’s poor, to which overriding priority should be given.

The idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment’s ability to meet present and future needs.

This leads us to the Triple Bottom Line:

The Triple Bottom Line is one way for businesses, and includes the profits that your business makes socially, environmentally, and economically. This allows you to judge how sustainable your business is and how profitable it really is.

There has to be a shift from short-term to long-term thinking.

EU³¹ suggests 5 R’s starting with capital Reallocation, Risk management, setting core Responsibilities of financial institutions, improving Reporting and a system Reset in thinking on strategic challenges and opportunities.

Forum for the Future³² suggests five capitals that one must follow for a sustainable future:

Customer capital is another capital we should add. All capitals are Value indicators.

We are facing a sustainability crisis because we’re consuming our stocks of natural, human, and social capital faster than they are being produced. Unless we control the rate of this consumption, we can’t sustain these vital stocks in the long term.

To do this we have to impact culture, politics, architecture, income, businesses, transport, technology, manufacturing, energy, environmental economics, and agriculture. VI helps you do this by following its principles.

Ellen Weinreb, in Calling all Value Creators, Futurists and Change Agents,³³ talks about the Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) report, “Redefining Sustainable Business,” which showcases how sustainability is implemented inside companies. To reorient business around to sustainability, BSR proposes its “Act, Enable, Influence” blueprint.

What Leaders Need to Know

Ellen says that sustainability practitioners and leaders are more than risk assessors and mitigators; they’re the Value creators, futurists, change agents, and coalition builders.

Here’s how BSR defines these roles:

Each of these roles requires new job descriptions that place a premium on different skills and competencies, such as an orientation toward change and progress, and the ability to engage with people and organizations beyond the usual suspects, particularly underserved populations. Importantly, BSR noted sustainability leaders must focus on innovation and “explore the creation of market opportunities, not only the adverse social impact of market failures.”

You should also see Ellen’s article³⁴ “Expanding Role of Sustainability Leadership”: Sustainability has become a defining part of the business purpose, and this requires sustainability practitioners to embrace new skills. Brand new competencies are needed.

VI, Sustainability, and Technology

The first principle of VI suggests that sustainability and technology can be good for people and society, as long as you follow the seventh principle and ensure that Value creation exceeds Value destruction. The third principle suggests that you have to create Value for your ecosystem. Value should impact all stakeholders as per the fourth principle. The fifth principle helps you to leverage the organizations’ potential, and the sixth principle allows you to make decisions on sustainability and technology effectively, following all the eight principles of Value Imperative.

¹ https://ourworldindata.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/01/Two-centuries-World-as-100-people.png

² The Hindu, Edge, March 5, 2018.

³ http://sgi.org/about-us/buddhism-in-daily-life/creating-Value.html

⁴ https://theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/ceres-us-corporationsclimate-change-sustainability

⁵ http://perspectives.eiu.com/strategy-leadership/moving-needle-corporateclimate-action-low-carbon-world/case-study/case-study/powering-futuredriving-business-growth-low-carbon-strategies

⁶ http://fortune.com/2015/09/24/sustainability-practices-in-business-intelunilever-wal-mart-dupont/

⁷ https://sustainabilitydegrees.com/what-is-sustainability/sustainable-business/

⁸ Vanguard’s Chairman, Bill McNabb.

⁹ The Five Capitals Model—a framework for sustainability. Capitalism as If the World Matters by Jonathon Porritt, available from Earthscan.

¹⁰ http://metsagroup.com/en/Sustainability/Value-creation/Value-creation-insociety/Pages/default.aspx

¹¹ Metsa group in forest products, focuses on sustainability of forests. This is an example of integrated Value because renewal of forests and natural resources builds other capital.

¹² https://entrepreneur.com/article/309648fink

¹³ Reciprocity, exchange, and similarity, Principles of Management, v. 1.1.1 by Mason Carpenter, Talya Bauer, and Berrin Erdogan adapted by Melissa Fender (v1.1.1 - Published).

¹⁴ blog.penelopetrunk.com

¹⁵ Creating Value with knowledge, Insights from IBM Institute of Business Value in important networks by Eric Lesser and Laurence Prusak, Editors.

¹⁶ https://thoughtcatalog.com/steven-kotler/2015/02/the-6-ds-of-exponentials/

¹⁷ https://norbertbol.wordpress.com/2016/04/24/social-media-Value-creationthrough-interaction/comment-page-1/

¹⁸ The World Economic Forum, the Future of Jobs, 2016.

¹⁹ http://nielsen.com/cn/en/press-room/2014/how-technological-innovationcreates-Value-en.html

²⁰ http://healthcareitnews.com/news/mixed-reality-extrasensory-and-othertrends-healthcare-vr

²¹ https://.deloitte.com/insights/us/en/focus/cio-insider-business-insights/technology-investments-Value-creation.html

²² https://bluecanyonpartners.com/4-roadblocks-digital-transformation/?utm_campaign=Newsletters&utm_source=hs_email&utm_medium=email&utm_content=60325737&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_3o2ia4D6kYGVGk7sGf9V8bQLv4wPRRFeTg7KV_wKK-zpHY7HJtY-lpPXgKQINOQCHkS-x4nOttOx8-4euY-g3egVCRgA&_hsmi=60325737

²³ Change, a film by Gerd Leonhard, VID-20171002-WA0017

²⁴ https://oeaw.ac.at/ita/en/topics/technology-and-sustainability/

²⁵ https://theguardian.com/sustainable-business/technological-innovationsustainability-energy-green-investment

²⁶ https://mckinsey.com/global-themes/meeting-societys-expectations/solving-the-productivity-puzzle

²⁷ www3.weforum.org/.../WEF_White_Paper_Technology_Innovation_Future_of_Prod...

²⁸ https://catalog.flatworldknowledge.com/bookhub/reader/9361?e=fwk-127512-ch09_s02#ftn.fn-8

²⁹ Kirlin, J.J. January 1, 1996. “What Government Must Do Well: Creating Value for Society.” Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory 6, no. 1, pp. 161–85, https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordjournals.jpart.a024298

³⁰ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Externality

³¹ http://unepinquiry.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/04/Building_a_Sustainable_Financial_System_in_th

³² https://forumforthefuture.org/project/five-capitals/overview

³³ https://greenbiz.com/article/calling-all-Value-creators-futurists-and-changeagents

³⁴ https://greenbiz.com/article/expanding-role-sustainability-leadership