Benchmark against the future

I believe that all businesses should apply a sustainability lens to their whole operation but this belief is firmly routed in a long background in business. Sustainability and long term valuation can and should go hand in hand. In fact I would argue that it is essential. However, I do not mean the version of sustainability that has been effectively hijacked by the green movement but I have in mind a much wider and deeper version. I start with my own definition which has at its core the more standard definition of sustainability. My definition is as follows;

 Growth that meet the needs of the present stakeholders whilst enhancing the ability of the                          organisation to meet the future needs of all stakeholders. 

This isn't just about shareholders. I think there are five stakeholder groups; staff, customers, communities where you operate, the environment (or natural capital providers if you want) and providers of financial capital. Sustainability means keeping the needs of all these in balance, itself a tricky task, as well as thinking about future needs. That got me thinking. Businesses of all sizes use benchmarking as a performance management tool. We benchmark ourselves against the past. Did our KPIs improve on last year? What is our five year track record? We benchmark ourselves against the present. How am I doing against my peer group? Where do I stand against best practise? However, we also need to benchmark ourselves against the future. This generates lots of questions that can be useful in developing a sustainabile business plan. Here are a few that spring to mind.

1. Is my resource usage robust against a scenario of increasing global scarcity?

2. Will my business model survive in a world of exponential technological growth?

3. Am I prepared for fundamental shifts in global demand, influence and power?

4. Where is our future generation of leaders going to come from?

5. Are we innovative and flexible enough to survive the pace of change which is only accelerating?

Understanding the right questions is the first step to a path of sustainable devolpment and growth. Businesses need to think through whether today's threats and opportunities are just that, today's problems, or are they are actually harbingers of mega trends that could have profound implications in the long term? Where are the weak signals of long term trends that we may be missing? What could happen, good or bad, and how would we respond to it?

By benchmarking against the future and embracing sustainablilty, businesses can prosper today, tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.