5. Advocates

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Do curso por IESE Business School

Strategy and Sustainability

116 classificações

IESE Business School

Strategy and Sustainability

116 classificações

Business and environmental sustainability are not natural bedfellows. Business is about making money. Sustainability is about protecting the planet. Business is measured in months and quarters. Sustainability often requires significant short term costs to secure a sometimes uncertain long-term benefit. To some activists, all executives are exploitative, selfish one percenters. To some executives, all activists are irresponsible, unyielding extremists. And yet engaging with the issue isn’t optional – all businesses must have a strategy to deal with sustainability and, like any strategy, this involves making choices. This Strategy and Sustainability course based on Rosenberg's recently published book by Palgrave (http://www.palgrave.com/la/book/9781137501738) that encourages learners to filter out the noise and make those choices in a hard-nosed and clear-eyed way. Prof. Rosenberg’s nuanced and fact-based point of view recognizes the complexity of the issues at hand and the strategic choices businesses must make. He blends the work of some of the leading academic thinkers in the field with practical examples from a variety of business sectors and geographies and offers a framework with which senior management might engage with the topic, not (just) to save the planet but to fulfill their short, medium and long-term responsibilities to shareholders and other stakeholders. This course promises to be both engaging and thought-provoking, aimed at anyone who wishes to gain a deeper understanding of a subject that is no longer perceived as a choice but a necessity for future managers and business leaders alike.

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Week 4 - Environmental Interest Groups

Part of the issue in choosing a strategy to deal with environmental issues is to fully understand the broad spectrum of environmental interest groups. This session explores how the movement took off, distinguishing between four types of groups and examining how business might consider interacting with them (and vice versa). Learning Objectives: To explore the nature of four different types of environmental interest groups such that their motivations and behaviors can be better understood.

1. Introduction: The Sierra Club and Four Types of Environmentalists12:45

2. Conservationists7:11

3. Activists12:27

4. Localists8:37

5. Advocates5:51

6. Non-Market Strategy4:15

Conheça os instrutores

Mike Rosenberg
Assistant Professor
Strategic Management

[MUSIC]

This is Mike Rosenberg with strategy and sustainability.

We're in section four, this is about environmental interest groups and

in this segment I'll talk about the last of these four different groups.

Which I believe are important to distinguish, and

these are called advocates.

So advocates are organisations which really,

they do push a specific point of view.

But they do so with the language of science, mathematics and

in the tone which is very, very different from the activists if you know the locals.

They are very, very professional, and really you've got some examples,

the Union Concerns Scientist or the International Energy Agency,

the Rocky Mountain Institute, the Pew Trusts or the Forest Stewardship Council.

All of these organizations are well funded,

they're all more or less professional, and they do have a point of view.

But they can be talked to,

they can be engaged with in my view.

One very interesting person who kind of made this transition from activist

to advocate is Patrick Moore.

Patrick Moore is one of the founders of Greenpeace.

He was the first Chairman of Greenpeace, and he moved on after that.

His book, Confessions of a Greenpeace Dropout is very interesting about his

personal journey.

Mr. Moore came from the Pacific Northwest, his family was on the coast.

He was very much against the atomic testing, which was why he joined.

Then it became against whaling, then it became against the seal hunt.

But at a certain point of his life, he realized he needed to be for something,

and just being against something wasn't really enough.

And he kind of became a forestry expert, and

became more and more involved in forestry management.

And trying to balance the needs of the forest, and

it's natural habitat with the need of the world for wood.

And how to balance the interest in the community for people who like nature,

for the logging interest, etc.

And he now has a very, very clear point of view, which I think defines all and

I think all advocates and his trees are the answer for him.

Tress will make the world more sustainable, make it prosperous and

what we need to do is simply plant more tress.

So very interesting for prospective,

you can watch the movie version of tress are the answer also on YouTube.

And it's very interesting guy, he's very thoughtful.

Now typicalogist says, he sold out.

He's sold out to the lumber interests, he sold out the big business,

because he is gone over the line and now he supports forestry,

and forestry in his use is quite standable.

So it's an interesting example of all of these groups.

But all of them have a focus,

which is a very clear point of view on how to solve a big problem.

Their scope tends to be on whatever problem, but often in a local place or

a regional scope, because they're typically they're involved at some level.

The key strategies are analysis, modelling, round tables, working groups.

And it's all about trying to get common ground based upon facts,

and trying to use emotion to get people together.

And once people are together, to talk it through and to find a way forward.

Donors, grants, some of them turn into consulting companies.

And have a consultant business where actually you can hire them to run your

roundtables and help you solve problems.

And the staff tends to be very, very technical.

Often also passionate, but you find PhDs and scientists and engineers,

economists, but people who have deep, deep skill set, but are also very passionate.

The organization I know best is probably the Rocky Mountain Institute.

And if you talk to the people who work there, they all live near Boulder or

up near Aspen.

They all love climbing in the mountains, and that's why they do what they do.

But they're also PhDs in biosciences and energy management.

So it's a combination of lots of technical skill and passion.

So what's interesting about advocates is you can engage with them from a business

point of view.

Mainly because fact based argument does work,

they're all about focusing on the common good.

It's about trying to find what brings groups together rather than pushes

them apart.

Building mutual understanding through training or through different means, and

trying to find some kind of compromise to move things ahead.

As I mentioned earlier, the Rocky Mountain Institute is a fantastic example

of these kinds of organizations.

One of the things they did, this is Amory Lovins the founder,

this is Jules Kortenhorst who's the actual Managing director of

the Rocky Mountain Institute.

Recently, Jules pulled off a merger between the Carbon War Room and

the Rocky Mountain Institute, really to join forces to fight climate change.

So it's got a very, very specific focus, but

at the same time they're using science to make the point rather than emotion.

Here's an example of the Empire State Building which we talked about as

an example of engagement.

Which was done together with the Rocky Mountain Institute to find a way to

make a building.

A building build in the 1930s to be one of the most ecologically sustainable in

New York City.

[MUSIC]

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