Cassandra Voices

Author: Boidurjo Rick Mukhopadhyay

  • Nordic Mythology & Iceland’s Sustainable Transformation

    Renewable energy transitions have increasingly been recognised not only as technological and environmental imperatives but also as drivers of community resilience, socio-economic innovation, and energy security. In the Nordic region, ambitious renewable energy policies and high shares of renewables in energy consumption reflect a shared commitment to sustainability that encompasses social participation, democratic engagement, and community-level agency (Nordic Energy Research, 2023). The Nordic energy tradition, where energy systems are deeply intertwined with the social and economic fabric of society, resonates with themes from the region’s oldest cultural narratives.

    Norse myth repeatedly ties elemental forces to human life and transformation. In the Poetic Edda, the prophecy of Ragnarök depicts fire as both destructive and transformative: “Hot you are, and rather too fierce… the fire scorches the fur” (Grímnismál, stanza 57; Bellows, 1936). Beyond mere destruction, the myth narrates the rebirth of the world, where a new earth rises green from the waves and life begins anew (Völuspá, stanzas 59–62). This cycle of destruction and renewal provides a compelling metaphor for contemporary energy transitions: they are not only technical shifts but societal transformations that reshape communities, economies, and regional identities (Norsetraditionschurch.org, 2024).

    The Norse concept of the Three Norns – Urðr, Verðandi, and Skuld – who weave the threads of past, present, and future can inspire the context of energy planning, they serve as a symbolic reminder that decision-making must consider historical legacies (Urðr), current conditions and needs (Verðandi), and future consequences (Skuld). This framing underscores that sustainable energy transitions are not only about technological deployment but about long-term societal foresight, learning from experience, and anticipating intergenerational impacts.

    Within this broader Nordic and mythological context, Iceland’s renewable energy experience exemplifies how energy-based enterprises can act as agents of both environmental sustainability and inclusive socio-economic development, reflecting the kind of long-term, multi-stakeholder foresight highlighted by Mukhopadhyay and Ianole (2018). The organisational strategies and governance mechanisms observed in Icelandic initiatives reflect wider regional patterns of collaborative planning, community-centred engagement, and long-term resilience building. Together, the insights are central to understanding how energy systems can function as mechanisms of sustainable transformation and shared prosperity.

    Turf houses have been constructed since Iceland was settled in the 9th century.

    Linking Myth to Practice: Iceland’s Energy Enterprises

    Iceland’s renewable energy sector exemplifies the ‘destruction > transformation > renewal’ paradigm. From the early, state-led hydropower and high-temperature geothermal projects to today’s community-integrated industrial strategic enterprises, energy has served as a tool for economic revitalisation, social equity, and environmental stewardship. The foresight suggested by the Three Norms is evident in multi-generational planning, which considers historical reliance on fossil fuels (Urðr), present community and industry needs (Verðandi), and future sustainability and climate obligations (Skuld). Iceland’s energy-based enterprises demonstrate that technological innovation must go hand-in-hand with social licence, governance structures, and community integration to achieve long-term success.

    Case 1 – Baseload Power Iceland: Decentralised Geothermal for Local Development

    Baseload Power Iceland focuses on small- to mid-scale geothermal plants designed to tap underutilised low and medium-temperature resources. Unlike large-scale national utilities, Baseload develops modular and flexible plants situated close to local demand centers. A prominent example is the Kópsvatn geothermal plant, which generates both electricity and heat for surrounding communities. The enterprise’s community-integrated approach ensures partnerships with municipalities, landowners, and local utilities, creating strong stakeholder alignment and minimising opposition.

    Socio-economic impacts are wide-ranging: the project generates local employment across drilling, construction, and ongoing maintenance; it provides affordable energy access for households, farms, and small businesses, reducing heating and electricity costs; and it supports productive energy use in sectors such as greenhouses, aquaculture, and fish-drying facilities, securing local food security and small business resilience.

    By reducing reliance on fossil fuels, the initiative also strengthens household economics and insulates communities from global energy price shocks. Baseload’s model strongly contributes to SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 8 (Decent Work and Economic Growth), and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities) by embedding energy provision within social, economic, and ecological frameworks. The community governance structures enhance local agency, demonstrating how small-scale renewable initiatives can empower residents, encourage participatory decision-making, and stimulate multi-sectoral growth. Baseload thus offers a replicable blueprint for integrating energy entrepreneurship with social and environmental objectives in other geothermally active regions (Baseload Power Iceland, 2024).

    Case 2 – Fjarðarorka: Wind-to-Green Ammonia for Regional Industrial Transformation

    Fjarðarorka is spearheading one of Iceland’s largest renewable industrial initiatives, combining a 350 MW onshore wind farm in Fljótsdalshreppur with a green ammonia production facility projected to produce 220,000 tonnes annually. The ammonia targets maritime decarbonisation while positioning East Iceland as a hub in the global green fuel economy. The project carries significant regional development implications: East Iceland has historically faced economic marginalisation and population decline, and the Fjarðarorka initiative offers a pathway toward reversing these trends. The project supports high-skill employment in construction, operations, logistics, and chemical processing; drives infrastructure improvements, including roads, grid capacity, and data systems, which have spillover benefits across other sectors; and stimulates diversification in local industry.

    The Orkugarður Austurland platform, which engages landowners, municipalities, and businesses in planning and benefit-sharing, exemplifies community-centered governance and anticipatory planning. Environmental and social sustainability are central: the project is expected to avoid approximately 500,000 tons of CO₂ emissions annually, supporting Iceland’s climate commitments. These outcomes align with SDG 9 (Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure) and SDG 13 (Climate Action), illustrating how large-scale, export-oriented renewable energy projects can simultaneously drive regional equity, stimulate regional economy boost, and maintain environmental sustainability (Fjarðarorka, 2024; Daily Northern, 2024).

    Case 3 – Geothermal District Heating System: Public Infrastructure and Socio-Economic Equity

    Iceland’s geothermal district heating system provides energy to over 90% of households, representing one of the world’s most advanced examples of public energy infrastructure. Its socio-economic benefits are long-term and multi-dimensional. The system provides affordable energy access, dramatically reducing household heating costs and enhancing quality of life. Macroeconomic resilience is also strengthened, with estimated contributions of 7% of GDP through fuel import savings and support for energy-intensive sectors such as greenhouses, tourism, aquaculture, and fish processing (Atlantic Council, 2022).

    Social equity is embedded, as coverage spans income levels and geographies, while public ownership and regulatory oversight ensure that clean energy benefits are widely shared. These outcomes contribute directly to SDG 7 (Affordable and Clean Energy), SDG 10 (Reduced Inequalities), and SDG 11 (Sustainable Cities and Communities). The system exemplifies anticipatory planning consistent with the foresight symbolised by the Three Norns: past experience (Urðr) informs present operation (Verðandi), while future sustainability (Skuld) is safeguarded through careful governance and long-term investment. Iceland’s geothermal district heating demonstrates how public infrastructure can simultaneously promote community wellbeing, industrial competitiveness, and sustainable energy transition.

    Table 1: Organisational Approach, Community Impact, and SDG Relevance of Icelandic Energy-Based Enterprises

    Enterprise / Project Organisational Approach & Strategy Key Community & Socio-Economic Impacts Relevant SDGs
    Baseload Power Iceland Modular, decentralised, community-integrated; partnerships with municipalities and cooperatives Local job creation; affordable energy; support for productive uses (greenhouses, aquaculture); regional economic diversification 7, 8, 11
    Fjarðarorka Wind-to-Ammonia Large-scale, export-oriented; multi-stakeholder governance; industrial transformation focus High-skilled employment; regional infrastructure; stakeholder participation; regional economic revitalisation 7, 8, 9, 13
    National Geothermal District Heating Publicly owned; long-term planning; robust governance; operational efficiency Affordable universal energy; industrial co-benefits; macroeconomic savings; social equity; population retention 7, 8, 11

     

    Gullfoss, an iconic waterfall of Iceland.

    Takeaways… Cross-cutting Policy and Business Insights

    The Icelandic experience demonstrates that decentralised and community-integrated energy systems, such as those pioneered by Baseload Power Iceland, can empower local economies by providing reliable, affordable, and clean energy backed by strong social license to operate. Embedding projects within community priorities and governance structures enhances resilience, encourages local stakeholder engagement, and aligns long-term economic development with sustainability objectives. For policymakers, this underscores the importance of regulatory frameworks that not only enable smaller-scale projects but also incentivise partnerships between public authorities, private enterprises, and local communities. For business leaders, the lesson is clear: energy investments are more sustainable and viable when they are socially embedded, responsive to community needs, and designed to generate local value alongside financial returns.

    Large-scale, export-oriented renewable projects, exemplified by Fjarðarorka’s wind-to-green-ammonia initiative, highlight the strategic potential of renewables to drive regional industrial transformation. By stimulating diversification in historically mono-industrial areas and generating high-skilled employment, such projects can reverse patterns of outmigration and economic stagnation. Their success, however, depends on transparent stakeholder engagement, governance mechanisms that ensure equitable benefit sharing, and careful environmental stewardship. For business leaders, these projects illustrate that commercial competitiveness increasingly requires balancing economic ambition with social and environmental accountability. Policymakers, in turn, are reminded of the need for frameworks that integrate industrial, energy, and regional policy, enabling innovation without compromising equity or environmental protection.

    The geothermal district heating network further reinforces the critical role of sustained public investment in achieving equitable, inclusive, and resilient energy systems. By providing near-universal access to low-cost heat, the system has stabilised household expenditures, supported energy-intensive industries, and reduced dependence on imported fossil fuels. The macroeconomic benefits are substantial, but equally important are the social gains, including improved energy security and reduced exposure to energy poverty in rural and urban communities alike. For businesses, reliable, low-cost energy inputs facilitate operational planning, encourage competitiveness, and encourage innovation. For policymakers, the Icelandic experience signals the value of maintaining public oversight or strong regulatory safeguards for critical infrastructure, ensuring that energy transitions advance both economic and social objectives.

    A cross-cutting lesson across all examples is the imperative of multi-stakeholder governance. The Icelandic model shows that energy transitions are as much socio-political undertakings as technical or economic ones, requiring inclusive institutional arrangements that integrate energy planning with land use, regional development, and community priorities. Platforms that bring together communities, governments, investors, and academia not only enhance legitimacy but also improve project outcomes by anticipating and mitigating potential conflicts. For both business leaders and policymakers, the emphasis is on designing systems where commercial ambition, social license, and sustainable development objectives are mutually reinforcing rather than in tension.

    Conclusion

    Iceland’s energy-based enterprises exemplify how clean energy can be a lever for both economic and social development, balancing technological innovation with community empowerment and sustainability. From small-scale, community-embedded geothermal projects to large industrial wind-to-ammonia initiatives and long-standing public heating systems, the country demonstrates that energy transitions are not only technical but deeply social and economic endeavours.

    By linking these practical examples to Nordic mythic narratives, the analysis highlights the importance of foresight, resilience, and intergenerational thinking in energy planning. The cycle of Ragnarök ‘destruction > transformation > renewal’ together with the guidance of the Three Norms, emphasizes how past experience, present action, and future consequences must be integrated to achieve socially, economically, and environmentally resilient energy strategies. Iceland’s approach thus offers a practical blueprint for designing energy systems that are technically sound, socially inclusive, and economically transformative, with lessons extending well beyond the Nordic context.

    Feature Image: Francesca Ungaro

    References

    Atlantic Council, 2022. A geothermal leader: The case of Iceland. [online] Available at: https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/energysource/a-geothermal-leader-the-case-of-iceland [Accessed 17 March 2026].

    Baseload Power Iceland, 2024. Projects & community energy. [online] Available at: https://www.baseloadpower.is [Accessed 17 March 2026].

    Bellows, H.A. (Trans.), 1936. The Poetic Edda. New York: American-Scandinavian Foundation.

    Daily Northern, 2024. Fjarðarorka plans large wind farm in Fljótsdal to reduce emissions from Iceland’s fishing fleet. [online] Available at: https://www.dailynorthern.com [Accessed 17 March 2026].

    Fjarðarorka, 2024. Wind-to-Ammonia Project Overview. [online] Available at: https://fjardarorka.is/en [Accessed 17 March 2026].

    Larrington, C., 1999. The Poetic Edda. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

    Mukhopadhyay, B. & Ianole, R., 2021. Community level impact of solar entrepreneurs in rural Odisha, India: the rise of women led solar energy‑based enterprises. International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Small Business, 42(4), pp.472–503. [online] Available at: http://www.inderscience.com/link.php?id=114240 [Accessed 17 March 2026].

    Nordic Energy Research, 2023. Nordic energy statistics 2023: Renewable transition and societal impacts. Oslo: Nordic Energy Research. [online] Available at: https://www.nordicenergy.org [Accessed 17 March 2026].

    Norsetraditionschurch.org, 2024. Ragnarök: The fate of the gods in Völuspá. [online] Available at: https://www.norsetraditionschurch.org/post/ragnar%C3%B6k-the-fate-of-the-gods-in-v%C3%B6lusp%C3%A1 [Accessed 17 March 2026].

    ThinkGeoEnergy, 2021. GeoENVI: The many economic benefits Iceland got from using geothermal energy. [online] Available at: https://www.thinkgeoenergy.com [Accessed 17 March 2026].

  • 360-Degree Leadership in Times of Crisis

    ‘Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears’ – it takes a lot more than these kind of words today to get listened to, followed, and to exert influence and effectiveness over time. Effective change leaders remove barriers to employee success. Leaders of unsuccessful change tend to focus on results, and more often than not employees don’t get the supports they need for change. ‘Process’ and ‘people’ components of leadership are both equally critical, and therefore hard to prioritise since in reality they run parallel.

    A 360-Degree Leader

    The qualities that a 360-degree leader possesses, as per John Maxwell’s work, include adaptability, discernment, perspective, communication, security, resourcefulness, maturity, endurance, and the ability always to be counted on. This list is certainly not exhaustive but does capture the essentials.

    The difficulty in generalising this skillset is that they can differ across markets, crises, industry, and perspectives in specific contexts. For such individuals, who are or aim to become 360-degree leaders, there is also a form of assessment that provides feedback in which their skills, effectiveness and influence as an executive, leader or manager are evaluated. This is an effective process in organisations to give leaders clear feedback from their peers, employees and managers. At the same time, this is mostly done in context, e.g. how any process is conducted for a Human Resources director would differ from Sales Leader or Communications Head. Both the process and feedback are tailored to roles and contexts.

    (a) Influence

    The role of influence is critical to leadership. It is not only about ensuring compliance, but also the commitment essential to drive change, and therefore includes the ‘people’ part of the change most. At the same time, looking at wider stakeholder expectations today, developing a ‘reward culture’ also goes a long way.

    In particular, when the immediate fire of a crisis is over the leaders must reflect on who rose to the occasion, who struggled and why. Several organisational roles will change post-crisis and therefore leaders can strategise who they want to be at the table both during and after the crisis to head to the new normal.

    During periods of business-as-usual, influence can shape and affect long-term strategy making, talent acquisition and retention mechanism as well as seek knowledge and business partners as fitting.

    In some cases, where exercising command is difficult, since leaders are working in peer groups and therefore the dynamic is different, i.e. not the typical leader-follower setting, influence comes out to be the strongest and the most effective trait that an individual can demonstrate. This is because it involves leading across levels, including peers involved in the same stage.

    (b) Operations and Strategic Management

    The effectiveness of good leaders can be demonstrated firstly by mobilising realistic and time-bound goals; secondly, laying out clear objectives and setting up the deliverables; thirdly, by building high-performance teams; fourthly by creating a risk-resilient company culture; fifthly by creating organisational knowledge building; and finally by creating a culture of value.

    For sure, however, these are not magic bullets, nor meant to address the challenges or promote business growth overnight. The strategies and planned action that leaders take within firms, whether a large corporation or Small or Medium-Sized Enterprise (SME), would be largely determined by the stage of growth where a company find itself at a given point in time. In addition, building a reward and trust culture would make employees more confident in making decisions and not being risk-averse.

    Besides effectively managing operations, business development, consolidation or a strategic integration of mergers and acquisitions, new research by McKinsey shows that leaders have the following six broad functions: Aspiration; Inspiration; Imagination, Creativity, Authenticity; and Integrity. When it comes to either managing culture at the workplace or leading others through crisis, leaders also need to develop the right mindset based on introspection and self-awareness, which are equally critical skills. Several studies by Sloan and HBR show that it is the mindset, adaptiveness and change that leads to growth and, at times, survival.

    (c) Leading through Crises

    A crisis is very often systemic in nature and call therefore for solutions that are not quick fixes. In the business world, depending on the nature and scale of a crisis which can make or break a business in the medium-to-long-term needs careful identification and scrutiny after early detection signs become evident. Over the years, studies have evidenced that there is a strong correlation between organisational culture, learning, market orientation, the degree of risk and resilience embedded within the firms. The role of leadership is undeniably paramount.

    Most often, it requires that rare ability to dive and drive through the unknown against the known patterns from the past. Leaders should gain new insights, work through new patterns, and determine timely and effective responses to any crisis. For example, during the pandemic, the primary function of leaders of large or high-growth firms was driving innovation, exploring new markets, and enhancing market share.

    When the pandemic struck, the immediate focus shifted to reducing costs while maintaining the essential liquidity! Most firms, big and small, faced supply chain and logistical impediments, downsizing the firms and other operational challenges on a daily basis. All of this while working through health and safety issues, managing remote working and also offering empathy to employees and their families.

    d) Talent Recognition and Retention

    During team meetings it is a good practice to delegate to the right people and establish ‘who’s who’ and ‘who’s doing what’ to avoid confusion and overlap of roles. Leaders need to break through the inertia for business continuity today, while increasing the odds of mid-to-long-term success by focusing on the few things that matter most. Above all they need to listen to advisors and smart people to seek insight and information from diverse sources, and not only from in-group sources. Effective leaders always extend their antennae across the diverse ecosystems in which they operate, while also creating a culture of accountability and transparency during tough times.

    e) Leading Change

    Most research on organisational change, cognitive flexibility of both leaders and followers, and also managing fast change illustrates a necessary connection between the ‘process’ and the ‘people’ part of the change. These 3Cs that unite effective change leadership are a) Communicate – leaders and followers need a continual discussion on the larger purpose of the change and how it would connect to the organisational values, and more importantly establish the purpose of change by focusing on ‘what’ and the ‘why’. B) Collaborate – aligning organisational values with personal values is something that effective leaders constantly strive for; we can nonetheless admit that doesn’t always happen. It is a level above when cross-cultural leaders bring people together to plan and execute change going beyond barriers of borders and boundaries. They should also include employees in decision making and thereby in a way solidifying their commitment to change while promoting inclusivity. C) Commit – research shows that leaders who negotiated a change successfully are resilient and persistent, and willing to step outside their comfort zone. On the contrary, unsuccessful leaders failed to adapt to challenges, started a blame culture while creating a toxic workplace environment, and were impatient with a lack of results.

    f) Leading Remote and Hybrid Work

    With hybrid working becoming increasingly formalised, leading a remote workplace becomes a key priority. This sudden change in the working environment comes with pros and cons and is new to all employees. So they need leadership to guide them through the transition.

    If your business has employees with more remote working experience than you, let them take charge. Feed off their expertise and appoint them to your business’ remote leadership team. This is the time for them to step up.

    Have communication plans ready. Many employees will have an area where they can relax and have a quick chat with colleagues, and a separate area where they can discuss pressing work issues.

    Businesses can recognise their ‘at-risk clients,’ who can cope with this eventuality to a certain extent. Similarly, losing staff can have the ripple effect on a small business of losing a clients, leading to a loss of revenue. A lack of profitability, in turn, leads you to have to make hard decisions as to which members of staff are worth retaining. Maintaining a ‘punishment’ or ‘fear’ culture makes people afraid of taking decisions and being accountable for their actions.

    Leading Dynamic Capabilities in SMEs

    Research into leadership shows how significantly they can affect the morale and confidence of staff (or followers). This will depend on the extent to which leaders perceive mistakes either to be opportunities for learning or leads to them brutally nudging their followers, thereby damaging the self-worth of the latter.

    As Sir Richard Branson once said, ‘clients do not come first, employees come first. Take care of your employees, they will take care of the clients.’ Leadership, by its nature, can cultivate the foundation of a culture that empowers employees to achieve the company goals and allows you to recognise how vital each of their contributions are to furthering those goals. At the same time, the pandemic showed how important it is for a leader to diversify efforts and strive to innovate for future success.

    The core of any leadership’s role is to develop dynamic capabilities that allow organisations to respond and adapt effectively to rapid changes to the external environment. This includes sensing opportunities and threats, seizing opportunities, and transforming the organisation accordingly. This is particularly important for SMEs who may not have the scale or resources of larger firms but can excel through agility and innovation.

    By embedding a culture of learning, continuous improvement, and resilience, leaders can position their SMEs not only to survive crises but emerge stronger. This involves empowering employees at all levels to take initiative, encouraging experimentation and calculated risk-taking, and maintaining open communication channels to gather feedback and insights.

    Inherent Volatility

    Markets today are defined by volatility, uncertainty, complexity, and ambiguity. Thus, leadership can no longer be confined to positional authority or tactical decision-making. It requires a 360-degree orientation, one that integrates strategic foresight, operational discipline, emotional intelligence, and which exerts influences across hierarchies and functions. Effective leaders today must navigate crises not just by reacting to disruption but by proactively reimagining systems, realigning cultures at every level of the organisation.

    For SMEs in particular, the imperative is clear. Developing dynamic capabilities is no longer a luxury, but a strategic necessity. These capabilities, whether it’s cultivating a learning mindset or institutionalising innovation, allow small firms not only to survive shocks, but to emerge stronger and more competitive to shifting market demands.

    Crucially, leadership in this context is not merely about managing transitions; it is more about stewarding transformation, mobilising collective purpose, creating meaning in moments of ambiguity, and holding the long view while delivering in the present.

    As Peter Drucker rightly opined: ‘The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence, it is to act with yesterday’s logic.’

     

    Feature Image: A highway sign discouraging travel in Toronto, March 2020

  • Responsible Business

    The ten principles of the U.N. Global Compact, formed in 2000, sought to realign business as a force for good. They include compliance and support for human rights; upholding good labour practices and eliminating discriminatory and forced labour; taking up proactive environmental stewardship; and fighting corruption.

    Several institutions across the planet joined the Compact, including large corporations, SMEs, universities and think-tanks. These principles are now starting to inform corporate, business, and operational level actions and strategies. In some cases, these principles are considered at every stage and improved responsible practices have been introduced.

    Broadly, ‘responsible businesses’ that embed sustainable practices take a number of different initiatives. These can firstly be classified under actions that do not harm people or the planet while making profit; secondly, those that focus on their ESG (environmental, social, governance) investments.

    In order to make a larger impact on society and the environment, businesses can work on improving the lives of the people they impact. e.g. by creating green services, and making value chains more sustainable and inclusive.

    This could also come about through investments that promote and support social sustainability. Also, firms in any given sector may consider choosing to work with ‘responsible businesses’ who are their partners, investors, and suppliers. So, in the end, it is not only about the firm in question, but also its partners and wider associates, who share similar values and goals.

    Businesses caring about their wider stakeholder groups and not simply shareholder wealth, has led to increasing recognition and action around people-planet-profit, or The Triple Bottom Line. Some of the largest corporations, including Amazon, IBM, and TESLA have all set net-zero targets and micro-level reduction of carbon footprints. In addition to this, business goals such as using only ethically sourced materials, becoming more energy efficient, streamlining logistics practices, and applying the components of industry 4.0, offer the prospect of ‘win-win’ situations.

    Environmentalism on United States stamps.

    People-Planet-Profit

    Empirically, high shareholder value is considered an indicator of success. Today, however, more than ever, it’s about scoring highly on indices such as sustainability, managing employees responsibly, supporting (instead of exploiting) other stakeholders in the supply chain, and looking after the well-being of community members.

    Values-driven business tends to have better public perception and P.R. images than traditional ones with a narrow focus on profit. These are important variables that feed into success today.

    In 2017, a sustainability survey by Cox Conserves, revealed that 88% of small and midsize businesses, across various sectors have already implemented sustainable activities. It can be argued that the triple bottom line needs to be a part of every company’s culture and values to be successful in the long run, and to manifest responsible practices in various forms.

    Broadly, ‘The triple bottom line’ can be defined as a sustainability framework that examines a company’s social, environmental, and economic impact. The following definitions in this context might prove useful.

    People: the positive and negative impact an organisation has on its most important stakeholders.

    Planet: the positive and negative impact an organisation has on its natural environment (reducing its carbon footprint, responsible usage of natural resources, etc).

    Profit: the positive and negative impact an organisation has on the local, national and international economy (includes creating employment, generating innovation, and paying taxes, amongst others). It is important to remember that organisations need to remain solvent in order to do good! Hence ‘profit’ remains integral to success.

    Managing the paradox…

    The question, therefore remains: how can the Triple Bottom Line [“3BL”] be a lucrative and long-term strategy?

    Well, for starters, having 3BL raises transparency that mitigates shareholders’ concerns about concealed information. In fact, it helps fulfil one of the pillars of corporate governance too – transparency. Moreover, it involves accountability around organisations’ actions, while delivering growth and improved economic situations/opportunities for a business

    It also lines up a business to be a part of ‘world betterment’. At a local level this should translate into boosting community development through better practice. Finally, 3BL improves a company’s competitive advantage vis-à-vis its peers.

    For most businesses implementing reforms come at a cost, thereby creating a paradoxical scenario. There are paradox theories that identify such conflicting situations and which argue that organisational tensions remain latent until environmental factors of scarcity, plurality, and change demonstrate the contradictory nature of the tensions, making them salient to organisational actors.

    Conditions of scarcity refer to limitations on the resources available to the organisation, such as factors of production and finances. Plurality represents conditions of uncertainty as to organisational goals and the strategies necessary to achieve them. For example, as mentioned earlier in the article – the 3BL need to become part of the values, culture, and strategy of an organisation to function effectively in most markets. Finally, change signifies shifts in contextual conditions, which leads organisations to adapt and adopt new practices.

    A paradoxical approach understands that long-term success requires continuous efforts to meet multiple demands, not by trading off or prioritising one goal over others, but by a dynamic process of splitting and synthesis, as explored in a study by Smith and Lewis in 2011. However, synthesis means that this short-term splitting process is repeated cyclically, with new priorities emerging in each cycle, and in the long run, a dynamic equilibrium emerges.

    This involves “purposeful iterations between alternatives in order to ensure simultaneous attention to them over time”. In essence, this means that organisations can attend to the competing demands of the triple bottom line to varying degrees over time, thereby reaching a dynamic equilibrium to effectively manage all three objectives.

    Doing so promotes “…a virtuous cycle of tension and resolution as the firm responds dynamically to the changing and competing demands of sustainability management”. This is one way to overcome the paradox, which is applicable in many circumstances.

    Former tennis player Anna Kournikova in 2009.

    Become a role model…

    It pays to be good! A study surveying thirty thousand people in sixty countries conducted by Neilson explores the factors shaping consumer perception towards brands. One of the key findings of this work was that about two-thirds of the respondents would be willing to pay for sustainable products.

    Particularly, the millennial groups are willing to pay between ten and twenty-five per cent more for sustainable products, and be grouped under ‘responsible consumers’. However, the results were not consistent in certain advanced economies, where some of the major social ills are less evident, such as income inequality, limited job opportunities, and a lack of safety at the workplace.

    Good business practice builds a competitive advantage for firms. Selected large corporations address inter-connected global goals and improve their operations, some being more innovative and cost-efficient than others.

    This is generally reflected in an improving share price over time. The competitive advantage arrives not only from how businesses are conducting their operations more responsibly but also from increased stakeholder engagement. Sustainable businesses, who tend to normally fall within the ‘responsible business’ category anyway, create value for all stakeholders, including employees, supply chain partners and wider associates, civil society, and the environment.

    Michael Porter and Mark Kramer proposed the ‘shared value creation’ theory proposing exactly the above, i.e. that a business can be a force for good and simultaneously generate economic value by identifying and addressing social problems which intersect with their business.

    The struggle is often to balance the trade-off which makes a few stakeholders better off at the cost of others. There is rarely a pure ‘win-win’ scenario. However, regular dialogue with stakeholders should lead to reduced conflicts and increased cooperation. Revising business practices and running new iterations gradually helps a company to be better positioned and maintain its niche competitive advantage, aligned with a core sustainability agenda.

    Finally, another critical advantage to working closely with wider stakeholders on ESG issues helps build critical support mass over the long term. This also allows businesses to deal with external forces that assists with risk management strategies.

    Besides a focus on planet welfare, alongside keeping shareholders content, consumer interest in sustainable products is another significant dimension. Consumers value transparency, fairness, and explore the global impact of brands they associate themselves with. This has become a matter of perception, in the sense that there is no real scorecard that is used to measure these impacts quantitatively.

    However, the footprints of large corporations in particular is far easier to identify today than a generation ago. Several studies by Deloitte and Global Economic Forum demonstrate that consumers are more loyal to brands that have a positive ESG image. Another study shows that about two-thirds of consumers studied in six countries believe they “have a responsibility to purchase products that are good for the environment and society” — 82% in emerging markets and 42% in developed markets.

    We await a reliable scorecard…

    Moving forward with such sustainability and social strategies is a requirement for almost all businesses nowadays. Thus, organisations are creating newer forms of partnerships, and alliances with other actors such as governments, local agencies, and community groups to work together and contribute towards larger objectives.

    It is advisable that companies do not over-promise on these wider societal goals, and instead focus on delivering on a small number of actionable ones that leave an obvious impact. This is largely, also, because the resources of any organisation are limited. Therefore, investing selected key resources aimed at a few high-impact goals will also maintain shareholder confidence.

    Companies should consider re-framing their sustainability strategies in the current global economic environment, where the complexity of change is increasingly overwhelming. What is still missing, however, are more reliable scorecards that convince stakeholders and consumers. The challenge remains to quantify evidence of ‘where is the impact’.

    Feature Image: The California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, California, is a sustainable building designed by Renzo Piano.

  • Circular Economy: ‘Make-Use-Return’

    The Stone Age didn’t come to an end because they ran out of stones. Similarly, we should be building an economy where we ‘use’ resources rather than ‘use them up’. The human species must change its profligate ways, and radically reduce the level of extraction required to fuel our needs and desires.

    The economy is a part of society, and society is inextricably bound to the environment. In the living world there is no landfill; instead, materials simply flow. The waste of one species is food for another. Things grow, fade in time, and nutrients safely return to the soil. We, humans, however, generally ‘Take-Make-Dispose’.

    With increasing consumer demand, we continue to eat into finite resources and waste more and more. It begs the question: how can we turn waste into capital?

    The idea of the circular economy is move to ‘Make-Use-Return’, both in mindset and practice, and for this to become natural. A circular world economy would marry resourcefulness, design thinking for products built to last and be recyclable, retrieve raw materials, and alter current ownership models.

    We have a waste problem. Globally, we generate about 1.3 billion tons of trash per year, leading to environmental atrocities like ocean plastic pollution. This may even become a source of future conflicts, as countries search for new places to stash their trash.

    The UN International Resources Panel projects that our use of natural resources will double by 2050. A study by the OECD shows that the flow of materials through acquisition, transportation, processing, use and disposal accounts for about fifty per cent of greenhouse gas emissions.

    What is the Circular Economy?

    The European Parliament offered the following definition in 2021:

    The circular economy is a model of production and consumption, which involves sharing, leasing, reusing, repairing, refurbishing and recycling existing materials and products as long as possible. In this way, the life cycle of products is extended.

    This helpful definition should make us consider how we reduce waste to a minimum, and disassemble raw materials after a product reaches the end of its life cycle.

    The World Economic Forum’s definition is more comprehensive:

    A circular economy is an industrial system that is restorative or regenerative by intention and design. It replaces the end-of-life concept with restoration, shifts towards the use of renewable energy, eliminates the use of toxic chemicals, which impair reuse and return to the biosphere, and aims for the elimination of waste through the superior design of materials, products, systems, and business.

    The challenge is to change our mindsets: how we think, behave, and consume collectively and individually.

    Can the goods of today become the resources of tomorrow? This could involve, for example, changing the way we recycle valuable alloys, polymers and metals so that they maintain their quality and continue to be useful beyond the shelf life of an individual product. It would certainly make a lot of commercial sense.

    We must move away from the ‘use and throw’ culture that operates today, consciously pivoting towards a more ‘return and renew’ approach, where products can be easily disassembled and regenerated.

    The circular economy isn’t about one manufacturer changing one product, it is about all of the interconnected companies that form our infrastructure and economy coming together.

    Therefore, across industries, the idea is to design products that can be disassembled systematically once the consumer has finished using them, re-manufacture and offer them out again.

    The focus then moves to ‘cradle to cradle’ rather than ‘cradle to grave’ and the production cost should decrease drastically. For example, in the clothing industry, instead of garments lying as waste in a landfill, clothing companies could collect them and reuse them to make new products; potentially profiting out of the waste.

    Everything is healthy food for something else. Everyday products from shoes to mattresses can be manufactured in a way that could be fully recyclable. For example, the fast-fashion brand H&M has made a commitment to use 100% sustainably sourced material.

    The circular economy is an inevitability. It is not simply about fixing a particular problem, but redesigning an entire system to address the interconnected challenges of climate change, pollution and waste.

    Sustainability vs Circular Economy

    The concept of ‘sustainability’ is often used interchangeably with the Circular Economy. This is rather misleading. Although both of the concepts address issues around decarbonization, energy transition, and the waste minimization narrative – amongst other points that include local and ‘glocal’ actions and strategies – the two concepts remain quite distinct.

    Sustainability, to a large extent, is a systems-level approach that encompasses environmental, social, and economic factors and assesses how they interact.

    We can also include the concept of the Triple Bottom Line (i.e., people, planet, profit) in the context of business organisations, and how this can contribute to the cause of sustainability.

    The concept of sustainability also helps us to evaluate the risks, trade-offs and externalities (positive or negative), from a life-cycle perspective, across the entire value chain. This is what leads to long-term system balance.

    Fundamentally, however, sustainability is an umbrella term addressing a wide range of scenarios and issues, and not only focusing on conservation, choosing eco-friendly options, or switching to renewable energy.

    Research by the MacArthur Foundation argues that sustainability does not have a singular focus on any individual part of the chain; rather the concept helps us to understand how the parts interrelate to enable effective overall outcomes.

    In other words, ‘individual parts cannot be optimized without optimizing the whole’. Thus, an electric vehicle is not sustainable if we factor in the unquantified and unaccounted for social and environmental externalities that span the lifecycle of the lithium-ion battery that powers the vehicle, from mining, processing, smelting, trade, and transportation across the globally networked supply chain to the lack of recycling and reuse options for the battery at its end-of-life.

    The Circular Economy in Action

    Certain industries have taken the lead in terms of rethinking and redesigning how they manufacture; choice of raw materials; and how they recollect products once consumers have stopped using them.

    BSH sells home appliances-as-a-service promoted reuse, repair and extend product lifecycles. It now offers a full service, delivering, installing, repairing, moving, adjusting and picking up the appliances again at the end of the contract.

    In the agriculture sector, there is growing availability of affordable bio-based solutions for recycling nutrients from agriculture. Using Hybrid Biofilter is a scalable solution that prevents nutrient leakage from fields, thereby improving local water quality. At their end-of-life, the biofilters can also be reused in several applications to release the captured nutrients back to their natural cycle.

    Similarly, Nike launched the recycled-content version of the Converse Chuck Taylor All-Star series and introduced ‘exploratory footwear collection’ made from factor and post-consumer waste. At the Tokyo Olympics, the athletes representing US, France, and Brazil used Nike-sponsored uniforms made with 100 per cent recycled polyester.

    Another closely related example would be Adidas, which has rolled out fully recyclable version of the Ultraboost running shoe collection made from a single material without glue. Similar initiatives are going on in Puma and Timberland.

    Likewise, IKEA launched a buy back programme where customers can receive up to 50% of an item’s original price in the form of a store voucher. Also, unsold items are recycled or donated to local community projects.

    Philips design products for hospitals, including medical equipment such as MRIs and CT Scanners. They are currently offering trade-ins on their old equipment for a discount on new systems. The company disassembles the collected equipment, refurbishing and upgrading them to sell these again.

    This is a ‘win-win’ model since hospitals get financial returns from their older equipment, while also efficiently upgrading to the latest technology. This also addresses the e-waste recycling challenge that we face today.

    H&M, the leading fast-fashion brand, now encourages customers to return used clothing to stores, who receive discount vouchers for future purchases at the store. The company classifies the collected used clothing into a) Rewear; b) Reuse; and c) Recycle categories, and they work across partners to continue with their sustainability measures.

    Costs of the ‘Make, Use, Return’ Model

    In 2015, the Ellen MacArthur Foundation demonstrated that a circular economy could boost Europe’s resource productivity by 3 per cent by 2030, generating cost savings of €600 billion a year.

    The following are three sector specific examples:

    (a) Clothing businesses have actively taken steps towards embracing circular economy practices. Some firms in the apparels industry have formed coalitions to promote nontoxic chemicals, improve cotton farming. Others are developing standards for garments that are reused or recycled. There is great scope in investing in the development of new fibres that lower the environmental impacts of production.

    (b) Recovering the material value of bottles, from mixed recyclables or bottle-to-bottle recycling, could lead to a much higher pay out. Metals, meanwhile, are commonly extracted from tires in open backyard fires – at great cost to both human health and the environment. Aggregating tires for use as industrial fuel could increase their value almost tenfold, while crumbling them to make road-paving material yields even higher returns.

    (c) Dell has incorporated recycled plastics into its products, using the world’s largest takeback program for used electronics. Their cloud service lines provide customers with computing capabilities, while eliminating the need for physical assets, reducing costs and carbon footprints. All these practices, as mentioned above, can help companies extract additional value from leakages or waste in the production process.

    Barriers to Circularity

    A study by the World Resources Institute (WRI) identifies certain operational barriers in the functioning of the circular economy.

    Creating a changed mindset is a major challenge. Thus, for example, we use twenty times as much plastic as we did just fifty years ago. This is despite a strong push from the market to use linen as the material for shopping bags.

    Unfortunately, shoppers still choose single-use plastic bags and packages that often wind up at the bottom of the ocean. This requires a change in consumer attitude as well as a more stringent regulatory push on this matter.

    Another related aspect to this is how we understand the ‘expiry date’ of a food product. Expiration dates are designed to protect the consumer, but it is not contingent on how a particular foodstuff is stored. Thus, the expiration date on eggs in India may be labelled for pantry storage, but these will last longer when refrigerated.

    So, while an expiry date can mean that a food is inedible in certain circumstances, it may still be safe to eat while not necessarily meeting the manufacturer’s quality standards. This is currently being addressed in several markets.

    Waste management and recycling infrastructure differ from country to country, which is another difficult factor to control. For example, studies project that there could be more plastics than fish in the ocean by 2050.

    There are certain limitations in how plastics are sorted by chemical composition and cleaned of additives. Better technology can maintain quality and purity so that product manufacturers are willing to use recycled plastics.

    Once there is some incentive, companies and users will be more inclined to act responsibly. This is an area where nations can work together during international conferences on partnerships and share research and development.

    The global population is projected to reach 9.5 billion by 2050, with far fewer living in poverty than today. Emerging countries such as the BRICs (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) have an expanding middle class – with increasing purchasing power.

    Clothing and apparel sector needs to lessen their environmental externalities by using non-toxic dyes and recycling cloth scraps.

    As discussed earlier, the ‘rental and resale’ model has to succeed against fast fashion preferences which produce far more waste. Also, with increasing demand for electric cars, lithium-ion battery manufacturers must design products with a similar mixtures of chemicals, allowing more processed recycling possibilities.

    From ‘Cradle to Cradle’

    A Harvard study reviewing the manufacturing sector, in particular the clothing and furnishing sectors, provides an understanding of the different strategies that embed a functioning circularity.

    First, the study suggests that companies should consider leasing products instead of selling them. This would retain the continuity or circularity.

    Moreover, from a stakeholder perspective, this would mean that the companies remain responsible for the products, even after consumers are finished with them.

    Xerox, for example, over the years have followed a model where they lease their printers and photocopiers to corporate clients rather than selling them. It entails after-sales and repair costs but is still more sustainable than replacing the devices after their life cycle ends.

    Since time immemorial the robes used at graduation ceremonies have been rented rather than sold. Similarly, the company ‘Rent the Runway’ also leases designer clothes for one-off events’

    The second example follows from the first: companies designing products that have a longer product life cycle. A longer life span means there are fewer repeat purchases and, at the same time, companies can leverage ‘durability’ as a competitive advantage over rivals.

    This can also give them access to new markets and price their products higher given the premium nature of the offering.

    For example, Bosch Power Tools extends the life of its used tools by remanufacturing them. This enables them to compete with cheaper products from competitors.

    Thirdly, companies can embed the recycling aspect during the product development stages and planning process. The idea here is to maximise the recoverability of materials used in products.

    For example, Adidas partners with Parley. The latter company makes textile thread using plastic waste from which Adidas manufactures its shoes and apparel. The end result is less plastic at the bottom of the ocean.

    Role of the State and Users

    In a world where approximately 3781 litres of water is used in the manufacturing of single pair of jeans, some choices are controllable.

    The question is do we want more plastic than fish in the world’s oceans? Are we going to allow nitrates and phosphates to leach from fertilised fields indefinitely?

    We urgently require innovative public-private partnerships, where companies, investors, governments and academia offer the intellectual, financial, and operational assets to solve big problems

    We also require a mindset shift to dream of ‘prosperity in a world of finite resources’, and where over a third of all food is wasted, even as the Amazon is deforested to produce more.

    We have to move to a situation where we are ‘users’ of services, rather than ‘consumers’; to pay-for-use (like we do in the Gig and Sharing economy) rather than ‘owning’ a service.

    The choice is as much individual as it is collective, as the Dalai Lama once put it: ‘if you think you are too small to make a difference, try sleeping with a mosquito.’

    Feature Image: Shade-grown coffee, a form of polyculture (an example of sustainable agriculture) in imitation of natural ecosystems. Trees provide resources for the coffee plants such as shade, nutrients, and soil structure; the farmers harvest coffee and timber.

  • The Fight for Water in a Thirsty World

    La Soif Du Monde (‘A Thirsty World’) and ‘The Fight for Water: A Farm Worker Struggle’ were two 2012 documentaries based on true stories, anticipating further struggles for water, or lack thereof.

    Environmentalist Erik Stokstad once remarked that ‘H2O – is there any other molecule so vital, and so problematic, for people?

    The UN estimates that around 1.2 billion people, or 20 per cent of the world’s population, live in areas where the limits of sustainable water use have already either been reached, or breached. It is high time the issue sits as a priority on the global agenda. There may still be enough for us all, if only we can keep it clean and share it.

    WHO Report

    Below are a few takeaways from a World Health Organization report on the global water scenario:

    • In 2017, 5.3 billion people used a safely managed drinking-water service (i.e., one located on-premises and free from contamination)
    • 6.8 billion people used at least a basic service. Basic service is an improved drinking-water source, within a round trip of 30 minutes, to collect water.
    • 785 million people lack even a basic drinking-water service, including 144 million people who are dependent on surface water.
    • About 2 billion people use a drinking water source contaminated with faeces.
    • Contaminated water can transmit diseases such as diarrhea, cholera, dysentery, typhoid, and polio. Contaminated drinking water is estimated to cause 485 000 diarrheal deaths each year.
    • By 2025, half of the world’s population will be living in water-stressed areas.
    • In the least developed countries, 22% of health care facilities have no water service, 21% no sanitation service, and 22% no waste management service.

    Water use has been increasing globally by about 1% every year since the 1980s. This is due to population growth, socio-economic development and changing consumption patterns. Global water demand is set to rise at a similar pace until 2050, accounting for an increase of 20-30% above the current level of use with increased demand from both industrial and domestic sectors.

    About two billion people live in countries experiencing high water stress, and four billion people experience severe water scarcity for at least a month every year.

    Water stress is defined as the ratio between water withdrawals (i.e., domestic, agricultural, and industrial water uses) and available renewable water supplies.

    Water scarcity means scarce availability (i.e., physical shortage) due to the failure of institutions to ensure a regular supply or due to a lack of adequate infrastructure. Safe drinking water and sanitation are basic human rights, indispensable to sustaining healthy livelihoods and fundamental to maintaining the dignity of all human beings.

    International Human Rights law obliges states to work towards achieving universal access to water and sanitation for all, without discrimination, while prioritizing those most in need. Fulfilment requires that services be safely available, physically accessible, equitably affordable. Water availability depends upon the amount of water physically available, and also how it is stored, managed and allocated to various users.

    It, therefore, relates to surface water and groundwater management, alongside water recycling and reuse. Water management for smallholder family farmers needs to consider both rainfed and irrigated agriculture. Approximately 80% of global cropland is rainfed, and 60% of the world’s food is produced on rainfed land.

    The 2019 UN-Water initiative called ‘Leaving No One Behind’ suggested how improvements in water resources management and access to water supply and sanitation services are essential to addressing various social and economic inequities. Water scarcity is entwined with environmental protection, poverty alleviation and promoting development; globally more than 2.5 billion people live in the most abysmal standards of hygiene and sanitation.

    Wastage of water and absence of regular clean water supply is evident not only in burgeoning metropolises but also in huge rural regions. The mighty Colorado river, North America, seldom meets the sea. One-third of the US and one-fifth of Spain still suffer from water stress. Central Africa’s Lake Chad, supporting thirty million-plus people has already shrunk to one-tenth of its former size, the negative contributory factors include inter alia climate change, drought, poor management and overuse.

    South Asian woman carrying water on her head, 2016.

    India

    In India accessibility to drinking water has increased considerably over the last decade in particular. However, around 10 per cent of the rural and urban populations still don’t have access to regular safe drinking water.

    The available annual utilizable water in the country (surface as well as ground) stands at 1100b cubic meters.

    World Bank data shows that the total cost of environmental damage in India amounts to 4.5 per cent of GDP and of this 59 per cent results from the health impact of water pollution!

    Another cause of anxiety is that unsatisfactory availability of safe drinking water. Though water contains organic and inorganic impurities, the main source of diseases are the organic impurities that enter into the water through the soil from cesspools, through manure, or through sewers emptying their contents into the rivers – from which many cities, in particular, get their drinking water supply.

    Additionally, inadequate home piping systems including unclean water tanks, improper drainage, and waste disposal systems, also contribute to impure or contaminated water. Again, the presence of excessive inorganic matters (iron, lead salts, etc.) leads to diseases like constipation, dyspepsia, colic, paralysis, and kidney disease, sometimes resulting in death. Dangerous bacteria produce deadly diseases of jaundice, cholera, typhoid, diphtheria, kidney problems, nervous system problems and even lead to an increased risk of cancer.

    Contrary to popular perception, the hardness of water is not a risk to health so long it does not contain disease-causing pathogens and bacteria. Especially, during summer and rainy seasons, the position goes from bad to worse, as water-borne diseases become rampant. The extreme heat and humid environments are favourable to bacteria. The immediate need is thus to invest in timely, reliable, proven and advanced water purification systems[xiv] that guarantees the public safe and pure drinking water at all times.

    Efforts to enhance drinking water supply must move at a greater speed so as to cover all of the villages in the developing bloc with adequate potable water connection and supply.

    Technology plays a vital role in terms of meeting people’s basic needs in a sustained manner. Naturally, protecting freshwater reserves, watershed development, chemical treatments following the safety norms, tackling the arsenic and fluoride contamination, among others, could offer rich dividends.

    Strategies for Managing Water

    The former Secretary-General of the United Nations Ban Ki-moon once said:

    we need to begin thinking about better strategies for managing water – for using it efficiently and sharing it fairly. This means partnerships involving not just governments but civil society groups, individuals and businesses.

    This is a realistic approach, which is not achieved by hiding in conference rooms and observing world water day.

    Responsibility lies with both government and the private sector, and involves: checking the unrestricted exploitation of groundwater; encouraging planned urbanization; optimisation of use; restricting the flow of effluents from industrial units to the rivers, with stricter governance.

    We must nurture new scientific knowledge in order to understand the evolution of water systems that involve the relationship between man and nature. But also integrate local knowledge into scientific research to address user needs, and put in place more effective mechanisms to translate scientific knowledge into societal action.

    The challenges of addressing the water-food-climate-change-nexus could be mitigated if collaborative approaches are taken up, which depend on political will, market mechanisms and innovative technology.

    For example, market forces could work well under a cap-and-trade approach similar to those applied to carbon dioxide. Creating mechanisms for market forces to play a role in the management of scarce water could be a major leap forward.

    Developing an inclusive institutional structure to establish multi-stakeholder dialogue and cooperation is essential to ensuring equitable access to sustainable water supply and sanitation services.

    When governments’ roles are geared towards policy setting and regulation, the actual provision of services is carried out by non-state actors or independent departments. Well-functioning accountability mechanisms help institutions with sufficient capacity fulfil their mandates to monitor and enforce the obligations of the service providers.[xvi]

    Girls of squatter settlement in Dharan collect water from river.

    Towards a Sustainable and Efficient Water Resource Strategy

    Every year, several millions of people die from drinking contaminated water. To help address these challenges related to freshwater, scientists in many disciplines are applying new tools and techniques. One way has been to understand the impact of climate change on water quantity and quality and predict future needs and threats. Another way has been to explore making use of water—for drinking or industrial purposes—from sources that are otherwise considered unusable.

    An emerging area is the ecological impact of activities related to the energy industry such as fracking or carbon sequestration. Other researchers are trying to increase the efficiency of farms and factories – the biggest consumers. Water scarcity already poses a great threat to economic growth, human rights and national security.

    Deforestation of the Madagascar Highland Plateau has led to extensive siltation and unstable flows.

    A Global Phenomenon requiring Local action – a ‘Glocal’ focus for the road ahead!

    Water recycling and finding better ways to remove salt from seawater could be of key importance. Population growth could cause global demand for water to outpace supply by mid-century if current levels of consumption continue, according to a recent study.

    Periods of increased demand for water – often coinciding with population growth or other major demographic and social changes – were followed by periods of rapid innovation of new water technologies that helped end or ease any shortages.

    Using a delayed-feedback mathematical model that analyses historic data to help project future trends, some studies have identified a regularly recurring pattern of global water use in recent centuries. Based on this recurring pattern, researchers from Duke University predict a similar period of innovation could occur in the coming decades.

    There is thus an immediate need to invest in a reliable, proven and advanced water purification system that guarantees the public – in both rural and urban areas – safe and pure drinking water at all times.

    State of the art technology must be extensively made use of in a time-bound manner to protect the triple bottom (planet, people, profit)[i] from threats emanating from various forms of pollution.

    PROACTIVE over REACTIVE use of water technologies

    It is worth noting that companies are proactively taking initiatives and are stepping up steadily. One company called Ecolab intends to further leverage lot and machine learning to enhance its proactive services to ensure water is conserved and available to both businesses and the communities they operate in.

    They have provided their service to about 40,000 customers in more than 170 countries around the world to maximize available resources. There is a positive impact on process efficiency too.

    Hopefully, the next-generation 3D TRASAR technology reduces reuses and recycles water. The technology can not only monitor the water usage at a customer’s site and alert us should it get out of control, but it can also take remedial actions based on the stress levels on the systems, and induce chemicals or reduce water usage to maximize the life of the asset and minimize usage.

    People collect clean drinking water from a tapstand in the town of Ghari Kharo, in western Sindh Province in Pakistan.

    Population Growth

    Population growth puts strain on the per capita availability of water. In the developing world, efforts to enhance drinking water supply must move at a greater speed so as to cover all of the villages with adequate potable water connection/supply.

    New technology should play a bigger role in such a context to meet people’s basic needs in a sustainable manner. Naturally, protecting freshwater reserves, watershed development, chemical treatments following the safety norms, tackling the arsenic and fluoride contamination, among others, could also offer rich dividends for private companies.

    Water limits are close to being breached in several countries, while food output has to increase by up to 100 per cent by 2050 to sustain a growing world population, according to the United Nations.

    We must holistically manage water and energy usage. Further efforts must be intensified to maximize the use of technology in order to proactively conserve water and improve performance in water-intensive industries.

    A progressive, realistic plan should therefore focus on:

    (A) improving data collection on the location and types of water resources.

    (B) promoting water-saving farming technologies.

    (C) developing sewage treatment facilities alongside water projects.

    (D) establishing a national monitoring body and a new legal framework for the sector.

    As we can’t expand in a quantitative sense, we have to expand by using our water more carefully.

    Feature Image: Abandoned ship near Aral, Kazakhstan.

  • Corporate Social Responsibility

    A business that makes nothing but money is a poor kind of business”
    Henry Ford.

    “Improving Employee Wellbeing”. “Creating Social Good”. “Sustainable Procurement and Consumption”. “Fair Pay for Fair Work”.

    These are just some of the slogans used by people talking about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR, hereafter), which refers to practices benefitting society at large, or developing a fair and transparent working environment.

    The ‘people-planet-profit’ (3P or Triple Bottom Line) concept also falls within this ambit. It has been of great interest to businesses since the 1980s.

    However, Milton Friedman once said ‘the business of business is business’ and rightly so in many regards, since the primary objective and also the responsibility of a business is to survive as a profitable entity, regardless of how socially responsible (or irresponsible) it is.

    Nonetheless, one of the commonly ignored aspects of his work is that he added, “…shareholders want to make as much money as possible while conforming to their basic rules of the society”, and this brings the wider society into context.

    Friedman’s classic work on the ‘the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits gained significant traction throughout the 1970s and 1980s, but clearly the ideal situation is where a business is both profitable and also meet the needs of other stakeholders. This creates a ‘win-win’ scenario, in addition to ensuring business sustainability in the long run.

    Defining Corporate Social Responsibility

    CSR can be viewed as a form of business self-regulation with the aim of being socially accountable and – to more cynical – being seen as a ‘good’ social entity. We live in a conscientious and environmentally aware society, where employees, customers, suppliers, and civil society in general, places significant weight on choosing and supporting organisations that prioritise CSR. CSR is also a way for companies to measure and control their impact on society.

    CSR can be also be perceived as demonstrating how a business can be organised in a particular way that could empower them to act in a socially responsible way. So, indeed again, it could be seen as a form of self-regulation that could manifest in say, social or environmental initiatives or strategies, without compromising organisational goals and agreed stakeholder objectives.

    CSR does not have to be a distraction from a company’s main goal, and instead could aim simply at aligning a company’s social and environmental activities with its purpose and values. Many examples in recent years show that CSR activities can mitigate risks, enhance reputations, and even contribute to the bottom line.

    Contributions via CSR initiatives, therefore, can be both positive and negative (also known as externalities) to the economy, environment, and wider civil society.

    There is increasing realisation among business leaders that companies should not choose to be driven solely and exclusively by profit, and that they have a responsibility to do what’s right, not only for shareholders but also to hit the Triple Bottom Line, i.e., people, planet, and global civil society.

    Typically, CSR list four categories of responsibilities that organisations can cater for: environmental, ethical, philanthropic, and economic. Now we have examples of companies that rebranded themselves as B Corporation (B Corps), social purpose corporations (SPCs), low-profit limited liability companies (L3Cs), and a variety of ‘green companies’.

    Creating Social Good

    Research by Cone communication has shown that over 60% of US citizens expect businesses to participate in social and environmental change in the absence of government regulation. Interestingly, about 90% of surveyed consumers said that they would purchase a product because a company supported a social cause or environmental challenge that personally appeal to them.

    These initiatives could many forms, including: proactive environmental efforts (e.g., reducing carbon footprints, recycling innovation, managing e-waste); funding philanthropy (e.g., Tom Shoes whose slogan is ‘one for one’, whereby they donate one-third of net profits to various charities, supporting physical and mental health); ensuring ethical labour practices, i.e. treating employees fairly and ethically, including employment outsourced in the supply chain; or finally, through volunteering. Thus, how Vodafone World of Difference Challenge has assisted community development in most parts of the world already.

    There is an important caveat. While CSR may help brand the image of a company, if this does not come from a genuine moral conviction or altruism it can easily backfire, and lead to accusation of hypocrisy. So any approach has to be embedded in the core of what any company is doing.

    Examples of CSR initiatives creating ‘social good’

    An early ‘good’ CSR initiative was one taken up by Starbucks when they secured the ‘Fair Trade foundation’ certification. Thereafter all of their products had the Fair-Trade logo (resembling the Chinese ‘ying-yang’ sign) on them, this logo insists that farmers and everyone else in their supply chain are all paid fairly and are free from illegal exploitation.

    Starbucks remains the largest purchaser of fair-trade-certified coffee, globally. Fair-Trade initially started as a social movement, saying their goal was ‘to help producers in developing countries achieve better trading conditions and to promote sustainability.’

    For businesses, it is a matter of being fully aware of their responsibilities towards the society as much as being about delivering value for business and society via creating social, environmental, or economic (similar to people-planet-profit) benefits, thereby ensuring the sustainability of a company.

    Interestingly, most of the business CSR initiatives these days are connected to SDGs or the global development goals. This could be about ensuring good health and well-being through a work-life balance, safety at the workplace, or supporting mental health of employees.

    Amongst other approaches are: decent work and economic growth (i.e. global goal 8), particularly in reference to the sharing or ‘gig’ economy. where the workers are not considered to be ‘employees’ and therefore not guaranteed benefits or entitlements; Responsible consumption and production (i.e. global goal 12), which does connect back to the Starbucks example, and also how certain University campuses in the US were terming ‘fair trade’ universities where students and academic faculty would only buy and consume products labelled fair-trade.

    Also, we have partnership for goals (i.e., global goal 17) where newer forms of institutional arrangements are created and sustained, moving on from the generic public-private partnership models, towards more inclusive and innovative ways of actor engagement via public-private-people partnerships.

    Build it and they will come…

    Lego has invested a fortune in addressing climate change, developing alternative energy usage, and reducing waste. Since this is also a part of the company’s philosophy, Lego’s environmentally conscious moves include reduced packaging, and also the use of sustainable materials.

    This is somewhat similar to Ben & Jerry’s, whose core goals have always revolved around supporting local dairy farmers and investing in the community where they have operations.

    Johnson & Johnson, another familiar brand, focuses heavily on reducing its environmental impact by investing in various renewable energy sources. At the global level, they also work towards providing cleaner and safer water to communities.

    Proctor and Gamble (P&G) is another example since their development of the two laundry products, Ariel and Tide, were sourced based on identifying environmental problems. Their research demonstrated that the most significant environmental impact that our laundry has is the energy used to heat the water in washing machines. 90% of the energy in a load of wash is expended on heating water, contributing to about two-thirds of all the greenhouse gas emissions in the Tide lifecycle. So, they developed products that could easily use cold water for washing, thereby reducing the total carbon emissions significantly as well as helping to save up to $150 a year on household energy bills.

    At the same time, it is not so much what the companies do, e.g. becoming environmentally friendly or ‘going green’ in its operations, it also about helping to generate a sufficient amount of awareness across society. For example, through adverts around packaging of P&G’s product Ariel would inform customers how to save energy by turning down the washing temperature on washing machines to thirty degrees Celsius.

    Similarly, Plan A by Marks and Spencer (M&S) has the goal of building a sustainable future by enabling their customers to have a positive impact on wellbeing, communities and also the planet through everything (process and product) that the company does. For example, in spring 2021 they launched their most sustainable denim range that was made using 86% less water, kinder chemicals and 100% responsibly sourced cotton. During the pandemic, the company distributed more than 11.8 million meals to those most in need and also raised £8.3m for NHS Charities Together in the UK through their M&S rainbow sale.

    No Longer Optional

    In recent years, however, companies cannot brag about ‘good’ practices and their ‘greenwashing’ philosophy anymore since the EU has now developed product requirements criterion; an environmental policy audit system for organisations; and EMAS certification, as a way of governing progress and control of eco-management.

    So, what was considered to be a ‘proactively good’ social action by a company is now somewhat mandatory by law. For example, the EU’s principles for global trade and sustainable development, development of sustainable development criteria and CSR in individual trade agreements can impact sustainability assessments of trade deals.

    Over the years, however, there has been numerous scandals around ‘brand image’. Among the questions we should be asking of businesses would be: What does a good corporate citizen mean? Is ‘profit’ a dirty word?  How much should society pick up the ‘external’ business costs such as pollution?  Does society really care about ‘fair trade’ or getting a good value in price and quality suffice?  How are ethical decisions made by businesses?

    Another important issue is how we address all these questions before jumping to conclusions based on subjective judgment and at times, situational ethics.

    Cases of workers exploitation, harsh working conditions, paying a wage that is lower than the statutory minimum wage are plentiful. From the customers’ perspective, organisations are not always transparent and honest. A plethora of issues include: false labelling, misleading pricing, quality differentiation, misleading information on packaging and advertising, and in worst cases, dumping products.

    Greenwashing

    The term ‘greenwashing’ was coined in 1980s by Jay Westervelt, which essentially means companies either misleading consumers about the green or environmentally-responsible credentials of a product or service, or misleading consumers about the environmental performance of the company.

    Then the question turns to whether companies ‘should’ tell customers everything. Corporate Governance plays a huge role in determining whether a school of thought that dismisses CSR altogether dominates.

    There is also a widespread assumption that businesses cannot be trusted, and that terms such as ‘sustainability’ or ‘community development’ are meaningless concepts for multinationals. It is interesting that the two key contrasting views that we come up with when reviewing CSR comes from two individuals, Milton Friedman and Edward Freeman.

    Briefly, Milton Friedman believed that businesses need to simply keep their shareholders and business owners satisfied, while Edward Freeman believed that businesses should be run for the benefit of all stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, civil society, government amongst many others).

    Stakeholders vs Shareholders

    The utilitarian philosopher Jeremy Bentham once opined that ‘action is best that produces the greatest good for the greatest number’.

    In the context of CSR, it is also a matter of fact that satisfying different stakeholders while maintaining profit isn’t everything, the idea of ‘contractarianism’ is equally relevant which is when no action by a business should cause uncompensated harm to ‘anyone’ else. So, it is also about the rights and responsibilities of a business. This is clearly not a black and white area, although dismissing CSR may seem an easy idea.

    For example, every stakeholder wants a ‘good deal’ for themselves. Employees want good pay, customers want value for money, suppliers expect a decent contract and fair prices. But this leads to inevitable friction. While customers want low prices, employees expect good wages. However, good wages lead to higher costs, thereby increasing the price of the products, which ultimately makes a customer unhappy.

    Similarly, suppliers want a good price for their supplies, which again could lead to higher costs (e.g. Starbucks works with the Fair-Trade Foundation), while a high price could leave a customer unhappy. Whether we take the example of a multinational or an SME, these challenges are common and unavoidable while also illustrating that a business cannot possibly satisfy all stakeholders. Therefore, the question becomes what CAN a business do?

    Three options, are possible: deliberately ignore all stakeholders, except shareholders, and go ‘flat-out’ for profit; pretend to take account of stakeholders and still go all out for maximum profit (e.g., ‘greenwashing’); engage with stakeholders and balance their ‘aspirations’ while not losing sight of profit.

    Bad Actions…

    Foxconn has been in the news with CSR scandals for over two decades now, particularly for violating employment laws.

    The company used to make Apple products in China and more recently Amazon’s Echo Smart Speakers and Kindle Devices. However, there have been reports of workers in hazardous factories run by Foxconn who are given sick or holiday pay. They can also be fired without notice during lulls in production. 40% of the staff that Foxconn used in their factories are ‘agency staff’ or ‘dispatch workers’. Those who worked overtime were paid at the normal hourly rate, which is illegal since both under Chinese law and even Amazon’s supplier code of conduct says that workers should receive time and half rate for such work.

    Foxconn has a history of worker exploitation, witnessed after a wave of workers committing suicide back in 2010, when Apple used to heavily outsource their manufacturing of iPhone and iPad to them. Besides, wage and worker exploitation, Foxconn also had serious factory accidents where workers died of electric shock in 2011, and also a factory explosion that killed four people and injured eighteen others in the same year.

    On top of that there have been frequent employee riots, use of underage (from as low as eight years-of-age) and illegal workers, along with violation of local laws. All of which has been to reduce costs.

    More recently, the company had invested in robotic technology to replace workers in manufacturing and to tackle the diminishing trust in the company name.  At some level we (as customers) should also wonder, how much and how badly do we really have to use the products of these giant companies such as Amazon and Apple?

    Just Do It?

    Similarly with Nike, 593,468 hours of overtime work went unpaid between 2010-2012 in Indonesia, which sent shockwaves through the Indonesian labour movement. Eventually after strikes and negotiations, Nike agreed to pay off $1 million to about 4,500 workers at a Nike plant in Serang, Banten in Indonesia.

    Again, there is nothing new about Nike’s labour exploitation and maintenance of sweatshops since the 1970s. From the early 1990s reports were flooding in detailing poor wages, child labour, and harsh working conditions in Nike’s outsourced factories (called ‘sweatshops’).

    After initially shrugging its shoulders, Nike said it was up to the outsourced parties. But subsequently, as the brand suffered, the company started auditing their factories for occupational health and safety. Their ‘bad reputation’ as an employer made them go to greater lengths than usual, while competitors adopted similar procedures.

    In the mid-2000s, several ‘anti-sweatshop’ groups were established, and at Brown University, Nike had to pull out of a contract with the Women’s ice hockey team after a student activist group demanded the company establish an ethical code of conduct. Similar cases occurred between 2010 and 2016 in Vietnam, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, and China, while at the same time the community activities on these matters became stronger, through fair labour associations and workers’ rights consortiums which exposed how child labour represented 70-80% of their workforce.

    Further examples can be drawn from fast fashion companies such as Zara, H&M, Gap, Primark, who all adopted exploitative labour practices at one time or another.

    Balancing Priorities

    Multinationals mentioned in this article are major players in our economies. Many multinationals have exploited workers or like Google, Coca Cola, and Starbucks systematically exploited tax loopholes across the world over the years. Of course many of these companies have simultaneously done some ‘social good’ with their CSR or ‘responsible image’ campaigns. This makes any assessment of the role of CSR difficult and prevents us from drawing definitive conclusions, such as that multinationals are inherently bad, or perform a social good that may be a part of the company’s culture.

    CSR activities can be designed in such a way as to align with the companies’ business purpose, the values of the companies’ key stakeholders, while identifying the local or glocal needs that the company (local or global) can serve in a particular community where they have their operations, among other considerations.

    Thus, for example, in countries that lack sufficient government funding for public health, business organisations can step in with philanthropic funding to develop clean water and sanitation. A strategic CSR can still create various levels of continued ‘win-win/s’ for a company, its wider list of stakeholders, and the community.

  • Post-Pandemic Marketing Strategies

    Contemporary marketers must simultaneously think global, local, and glocal factors in order to stay ahead of the curve, or just keep up, given evolving market conditions and a growing attention to ‘bespoke’ needs.

    The IT revolution – plus the possibilities that AI, deep and machine learning have to offer – have washed away static approaches to marketing.

    Moreover, although it is widely known that internationalisation is a process of firm expansion into new markets, the importance of marketing is often overlooked. There are cultural, regional norms, leadership and change, and also cross-cultural branding amongst others that need to be prioritised while planning.

    International business essentially covers international transaction of economic resources as well as international production of goods and services, and, as such, the broad forms of business internationalization cover trade, technical collaboration and investment.

    While in the past, trade was undoubtedly conducted internationally, never before has it had the broad and simultaneous impact on nations, firms and individual households as today. What is more, global trade has been consistently outperforming domestic transactions over the past few decades. As a result many new countries and firms, especially in emerging markets, now prioritise international markets.

    Internationalisation of trade has been accelerated and facilitated by rapid technological advances through 2G to 3G to 4G, and now 5G.  In many respects, this has reduced the world to a Global Village where producers, customers and other stakeholders can all engage collaboratively.

    Global Village, Dubai.

    Differentiating global, international, and glocal marketing…

    ‘The international market goes beyond the export marketer and becomes more involved in the marketing environment in the countries in which it is doing business.’

    There is a crossover between what is commonly referred to as international marketing and global marketing, which are terms often used interchangably. International marketing is simply the application of marketing principles to more than one country. That is to say, International marketing is a simple extension of exporting, whereby the marketing mix is simply adapted in some way to take into account differences in consumers and market segments.

    Global marketing, on the other hand, takes a more standardised approach to world markets and focuses upon sameness, in other words, commonalities in consumers and market segments.

    Evidently, international business expanded at lightning speed over the past decade. The reasons for this rapid growth can mainly be found in new technologies, but also supportive institutions, the openness of many economies, as well as intensified competition in many sectors.

    Myanmar, for example, is now making a foray into the energy sector; while Bangladesh has emerged as a tough competitor to India in the field of ready-made garments, a sector that Russia is now also interested to participate in internationally.

    Finally, a significant difference between domestic marketing and international marketing is that in the former case business remains confined to the political region’s jurisdiction, where government rules and regulations are generally consistent; while in the latter case, once cross-border trade begins it is subject to the rules and regulation of the host country, making the situation far more complex.

    When marketing domestically, a company can have the same policies and strategies, while international marketing calls for varying strategies when promoting products and services.

    As every country has distinct laws, firms must develop an awareness of the codes, practices and norms that apply. Moreover, consumer tastes and preferences may also differ, so marketing strategies should be formulated with different consumers in mind.

    Cabbage market by Václav Malý.

    The Customer Remains King

    Both globalization and glocalisation have led to more companies pursuing the same customers, while at the same time, customers have become more sophisticated (often seeking whatever is ‘bespoke’), while information technology enables analysis of competing products, allowing consumers to make informed (and sometimes ‘rational’) choices.

    No doubt, the discovery of online alternatives by consumers has brough greater comparison of offers. Furthermore, many products have become virtual commodities, while rapid changes in technology have dramatically shortened product life cycles.

    Often similarities between offerings make it quite difficult for firms to differentiate themselves from  competitors, which, in turn, further empower customers. That is to say: a decisive shift from supplier-dominated economies towards ones dictated by customers.

    Adapting to the ‘New Normal’

    Historically, during any crisis such as the pandemic today, consumers expect proactive action, not only from their government, civil society, and local neighbourhood, but also the brands they purchase.

    For a business aiming to remain financially successful, and sustain a good reputation it is often not about the products and services, but more importantly: a corporate identity.

    Thus, one of the key ones is to keep the customers ‘informed’. Thus companies balance financial responsibility with the need to keep consumers engaged, especially during periods of long term uncertainty.

    Thus research by the American Association of Advertising Agencies indicated that 43% of consumers find it reassuring to hear from brands during lockdowns. In addition, 56% said they like learning how brands are helping their communities during the pandemic. Only 15% said they’d rather not hear from companies.

    During the pandemic, certain global companies invested heavily in new market analytics in order to adapt rapidly to new trends. A COVID-19-ready ‘client-agency’ relationship is the new norm for customer relationship managers and marketing teams.

    In the second quarter of 2020, Amazon recorded high growth in the face of COVID-19, with profits reaching a staggering $89 billion. Following that trend, companies such as P&G and GSK have also doubled their investment in the e-commerce sphere more than ever before.

    New Trends in Post-Pandemic Marketing

    Once again, recalibration is required through innovative product design, packaging and also pricing models to survive in the ‘new normal.’ Among the new ‘differentiators’ for brands is ‘health and safety’ protocols, offering bookable shopping times, fully sanitised delivery, and at-home ‘make-up’ experiences. This phase of marketing innovation is, however, costly for firms.

    Firms will surely be able to operate once against under radiant blue skies, after the dense clouds of masks and hand-sanitisers slowly fade over time.

    COVID-19 didn’t bring an end to competition; and any forthcoming slump seems likely to accentuate it. Most firms, particularly those with an established ‘brand’, will need to have multiple plans ready to go.

    They must, however, be willing to let go of an existing idea of what is ‘the right way to go’ and devise innovative ways to reach customers, suppliers, civil society, and others. This should lead to the prioritisation of people, planet and profit.

    Over the course of the crisis we have been bombarded with video ads, emails and other digital outreach initiatives. But with all the noise, especially on social media, consumers seem likely to be drawn towards a softer, more subtle, tone.

    Some brands have opted to move slowly as markets reopen, ‘playing it safe’ on the path towards reactivity. Then there are those who remain conservative, considering the sensible choice to be unadventurous, amidst continuing uncertainties around how long the crisis will last. Although the show must go on, many entrepreneurs have slowed down on marketing and PR activities.

    Leveraging #workfromhome

    Little fresh content is being created in this phase, notwithstanding how many creative ‘zoom’ screens appear in the ‘lockdown creativity’ slots on popular news channels. Most creative companies and marketers are spending the time building new campaign narratives, initial creative, copy, and baseline graphics.

    This can be a fertile period during which creative staff from media, R&D, marketing and sales are encouraged to engage in ‘blue sky thinking’ – brainstorming without limits – so as to deliver consequential output when the right time arrives. Executing new campaigns post-pandemic will demand muscle memory, not mental horsepower.

    Business marketing over the years has demonstrated that leveraging genuine empathy can be a real asset. Think of the 90s ads for Nescafe and the story building ads of ‘a lot can happen over coffee.’

    During the pandemic some companies have appealed directly to the issue. In the automobile sector for example Jeep released positive messages to encourage social distancing and ‘stay at home’ practices. It also says in online commercial that ‘with a little patience, the views will get better.’

    Company databases retain the customer feedback and other date from research programs. This is an opportune time to develop an understanding of the emotions underlying people’s shifting attitudes and behaviours in the market.

    Instead of repeating adverts, companies need to ensure they understand the process of customer engagement. The cultural and cognitive connection is equally important.

    Best Practices Shared? Further examples…

    There are some prominent examples to share in light of the above. Thus Dove created a slot shining a light on the courage of health care workers.

    Also, companies like Budweiser and Burger King are focusing on social distancing and encouraging people to play their part by staying home. While Apple quickly mobilized their resources to produce much-needed PPEs, and Nike has temporarily removed its subscription fees for its health and exercise app to help people stay fit under quarantine.

    Also, in some developed countries, there is growing appreciation that the ‘retail heroes’ who have often been working around the clock during the period of lockdown – a period that has strangled the capacity and also ability of the supply chain to function effectively.

    While regrettably severe job cuts have already happened all over the planet, big-box retailers in Canada such as Loblaw and Save-on-Food have been paying extra wages to their front-line staff as a gesture of appreciation for their efforts. And they are certainly ensuring customers are up to date with these initiatives.

    It is a good time to take stock and recalibrate. This is a period of inaction in many sectors, which at least gives a space for businesses to rethink their messages in newsletters, and how ‘new content’ on social media can be created; along with considering how all the adverts, emails, webinars and podcasts may be overhauled in light of current consumer priorities.

    Marketing campaigns are known to have solid long-term goals, especially in the case of brand management. This pandemic has asked us to rethink some of our fundamentals afresh. For example, short term planning and incremental innovation may work wonders in the immediate post-pandemic stage.

    Therefore, there will be new markets created, and new products introduced factoring in new demand amidst altered consumer patterns and long-term behavioural changes. Relying on detailed long-range planning may actually hurt an institution.

    With rapidly changing market dynamics survival may become the priority rather than turnover (of profit and not of employees) to ensure a firm’s viability. As markets, and the nature of markets, evolve with e-tails (Amazon, Alibaba, etc.), AI-driven SMEs, green supply chain etc., the essence of marketing and its channels must realign with company goals and values. They cannot simply rely on on flooding inboxes and other ways of dominating our screens.

    Feature Image: Daniele Idini

  • COVID-19: Virtual Work a Bridge Too Far?

    For the things we have to learn before we can do them, we learn by doing them.
    Aristotle, The Nicomachean Ethics

    “That’s how you learn. But after you make the same mistake one, or two, or five times, you’ll eventually get it. And then you’ll make new mistakes.”
    Louis Sachar, The Card Turner (2010)

    Managing and Nurturing the New Workplace Culture

    A recent report from the International Labour Organization provides evidence that employees are more productive when they work outside a conventional office.[i] They are, however, more vulnerable to longer working hours, a more intense pace of work, work-home interference, and elevated stress.

    Mark Twain

    Other research indicates that common problem for remote workers[ii] include: ‘unplugging after work’ (38%); as well as loneliness (19%); lack of collaboration (17%); distractions at home (10%); managing and coping with time zones (8%); and last but not the least, Staying motivated (8%).

    Mark Twain once said: ‘If the first thing you do each morning is to eat a live frog, you can go through the day with the satisfaction of knowing that that is probably the worse things that is going to happen to you all day long. Your ‘frog’ is your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it.’

    So, I list two recommendations for managing expectations while we survive the #workfromhome phase.

    1. Focus on a few things, and do them well. The ‘Eisenhower matrix’ is often used to avoid unnecessary time-wasting tasks and know which tasks to do next. Ideally plan to do just one big thing, three medium things, and five small things per day,[iii] the 1-3-5 rule.
    2. Managing energy is more important than managing time: Keep track of how much you’ll be able to focus at different points of the day. You improve by pushing your practice, not yourself during periods of low energy.

    ‘Given the lack of face-to-face interaction and heavy reliance on technology, the intent of what someone wants to communicate might be misconstrued.’

    Communication (a lack of it or too much of it) generally improves when a collaborative work management platform is used to centralise all communication and collaboration. Suggestions would include using Trello or Asana to Basecamp or Wrike – they are inclusive in keeping managers in the loop and on top of what is happening.[iv]

    An MIT Sloan study shows that employees were twice as likely to discuss the quality of communication by top leaders in positive terms during the months of the pandemic than they were a year earlier. In fact, they were 88% more likely to write positively about leaders’ honesty and transparency (46%). Employees also expressed more positive sentiment about transparency (42%) and communication (35%) in general.[v]

    One of the most important themes that stand out in the months of the pandemic is the degree and quality of communication by leaders. A recent study shows that employees of Culture 500 companies gave their corporate leaders much higher marks in terms of honest communication and transparency, during the first six months of the pandemic compared to the preceding year.[vi]

    On the other side of the coin, when you work from home, you no longer have a clear geographic division between workspace and personal space. It is for this very same reason, once again, difficult to switch off when both personal and professional worlds operate under the same roof. With constant remote work in action, the boundaries between working and not-working start to fade rapidly.

    Home-based workers do not tend to receive signals about when to switch off. Therefore, leaders need to communicate clearly on the ‘time for work’ and ‘time for play’ model, which would help smooth everybody’s work model and conduct.

    No Place Like Home

    Fundamentally, one’s home is a place of relaxation, safety, and security. It’s a place where you subconsciously slip into a calm, easy-going state of mind, putting the stresses of the workday behind. However, working from home punches a hole right through that neat division. Many telecommuters complain they feel like they’re never off the job. They always feel a compulsion to check email or get “just one last thing done.”

    So how to set the rules of engagement and boundaries?

    Remote work becomes more efficient and satisfying once managers set expectations for the frequency, means, and ideal timing of communication for their teams. For example using videoconferencing for daily check-in meetings, but using IM when something is urgent.

    Also, if leaders can allow employees to specify their hours to be contacted and equally importantly, when not to be. Finally, it is important for leaders to keep an eye on communication among team members to ensure that they are sharing information as needed.

    Additionally, leaders need to do more frequent check-ins to see how they can support their people in moving forward. Since, above all, leaders need to build trust. During this period managers in certain industries have enjoyed a bit more autonomy within companies to take ownership of projects and complete these how they see fit. A responsible degree of empowerment and delegation is what came out of the process when done with purpose.

    Consequently, there’s also been a huge shift in flexibility in this period, with firms having to acknowledge – often for the first time – that their employees have complex lives, which sometimes incorporate children, ageing parents, health concerns, and poor housing, to name but a few of the challenges the pandemic has brought to the fore.

    The Art of Learning (by doing)

    According to Erin Driver-Linn of Harvard University: ‘Experiential learning is participative—for example, either making or doing … What do we need to understand, as a learner, which is conceptual? And what do we need to understand by experiencing things in a different way?’[vii]

    Managing talents and the right selection followed by allocation of relevant resources are attributes that a good institution requires. The core skills any individuals who wants to thrive in an innovative business environment or organisation come down to the following: creativity, problem-solving and continuous improvement skills, developing attitudes and behaviours that are needed to frame and solve problems, and generate new ideas on a continual basis.

    Additionally there is risk-assessment and risk-taking skills; the mindset to manage these has to be solidified over time. Upgrading these skills depends heavily on effective planning and implementation.

    Managing the ‘New Normal’ Workplace Culture

    ‘People find meaning in their daily rituals of getting ready to leave home, commuting, grabbing their cup of coffee, and filling their water bottle before sitting at their desk.’[viii]

    Broadly, organisational culture is defined by the collective norms of behaviour exhibited by the individuals within an organisation. Since the first, almost global, lockdown of early 2020, there was a shared buzz, online and otherwise, that #wfh would be a recipe for disaster when it comes to maintaining stable company culture.

    Among the questions that leaders and managers pondered were:

    Will the company culture take a hit because people can’t meet in person, making it harder to solidify their shared beliefs?

    Will they be less able to use the company culture as a roadmap for making sensible decisions during tumultuous times?

    How can companies continue to build and leverage their culture while all operations are functioning remotely?

    At least we seem to be wasting less time now. A working paper from the National Bureau of Economic Research claims that even though we’re attending more meetings in the Zoom era, the average meeting length is shorter and we’re collectively spending less time in them.[ix] Most firms claim to have increased communication, meaning that employees might be feeling more connected.

    Besides communication and trust exercise, leaders also need to establish and maintain discipline and boundaries. People working alone tend to become less productive over time, even if they work longer hours than they did in the office. This has less to do with productivity than losing their frame of reference and task orientation. As is often the case, it comes down to mindset. While some of this is innate, other aspects are derived from situational and environmental conditions.

    Social media giant Twitter was one of the first companies that decided that their workers could work from home when COVID-19 cases began rising in March 2020.[x] With foresight, Jack Dorsey (CEO of Twitter and Square) also stated that employees will potentially have the option to work remotely indefinitely.

    In addition to being ahead of the game, Twitter also provided employees with day-care reimbursements, continued to pay contract workers[xi] whether they’re able to work or not, and banned all in-person events for the rest of 2020. This is the situation to this day.

    American graphic artist Harvey Ball.

    Put a Human Face on your Organisation

    Especially in the context of an abrupt shift to remote work, it is important for leaders to acknowledge stress, listen to employees’ anxieties and concerns, and empathize with their struggles. If a newly remote employee is clearly struggling, but failing to communicate stress or anxiety, ask them how they’re doing.

    Even a general question such as: “How is this remote work situation working out for you so far?” can elicit important information that you might not otherwise hear.

    Once you ask the question, be sure to listen carefully to the response, and briefly restate it back to the employee to ensure that you understood their answer correctly. Let the employee’s stress or concerns (rather than your own) be the focus of this conversation.

    Cut to Credits!

    Successful organizations need effective leaders. With the aging of the workforce and imminent retirement of the Baby Boomers, U.S. organizations are experiencing a shortage of skilled leaders and a significant need for leadership training. Skilled leadership affects the entire workforce; numerous studies indicate that one of the key reasons for employees leaving their jobs is because they are uncomfortable with the working environment created by a direct supervisor. Successful organizations need effective, parental, and democratic leaders at this juncture.

    Leadership training could reduce turnover at all levels in an organization, the focus remains on learning and managing adaptability, interpersonal people skills, self-awareness, developing and maintaining a sense of purpose, timely and effective decisiveness, as well as collaborative skills. The basic aim of training and development programmes is to help the organization to achieve its mission and goals by improving individual and, ultimately, organizational performance.

    In light of the initiatives of prominent global businesses as well as small businesses at a domestic and local level, the concept of a virtual workplace has been redefined in the past twelve months. This is a useful time to document the process as at a later stage we will need to look back and take lessons from this period.

    Virtual bonding is helping many to come emotionally closer to their colleagues. Some have seen a marked reduction in the communication gap between themselves and their senior. This insight may not seem like rocket science, but a key lesson for companies is to work out ways of avoiding toxicity and recognise the supreme importance of fairness and kindness.

    Research into emotional intelligence and emotional contagion tells us that employees look to their leaders for cues about how to react to sudden changes or crisis situations. If a manager communicates stress and helplessness, this will have what Daniel Goleman calls a ‘trickle-down’ effect on employees.

    Effective leaders[xii] generally take a two-pronged approach, both acknowledging the stress and anxiety that employees may be feeling in difficult circumstances, but also providing affirmation of confidence in their teams. We are all in this together, and we will get through it – perhaps we should see it as a time to get to know ourselves a bit better.

    [i] ‘Working anytime, anywhere: The effects on the world of work’, Eurofound, http://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/—dgreports/—dcomm/—publ/documents/publication/wcms_544138.pdf

    [ii] Business Coach: Vanessa Moore, May 30th, 2019 https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/eat-frog-vanessa-moore-1c/

    [iii] Deen Dayal Yadav, ‘How to cope up with the challenges of remote working?’ Thrive Global, May 6th, 2020, https://thriveglobal.com/stories/how-to-cope-up-with-the-challenges-of-remote-working/

    [iv]  Trello vs Asana vs Basecamp, Grasshopper Resources, https://grasshopper.com/resources/tools/project-management-tools-trello-asana-basecamp/

    [v] ‘STUDY: Organizations Rising to the Challenge of COVID-19 Communications, but Needs Persist; Leaders Must Address Concerns and Demonstrate Transparency, Clarity and Openness’ BusinessWire, April 3rd, 2020. https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20200403005278/en/STUDY-Organizations-Rising-to-the-Challenge-of-COVID-19-Communications-but-Needs-Persist-Leaders-Must-Address-Concerns-and-Demonstrate-Transparency-Clarity-and-Openness

    [vi] Donald Sull and Charles Sull, ‘How Companies Are Winning on Culture During COVID-19’ October 28th, 2020, https://sloanreview.mit.edu/article/how-companies-are-winning-on-culture-during-covid-19/

    [vii] ‘Innovation & discovery skills for ‘innovention’ managers’ The Sentinel, February 14th, 2021, https://www.sentinelassam.com/editorial/innovation-discovery-skills-for-innovention-managers-524593

    [viii] James Thomas, ‘How the pandemic can change workplace culture for the better’ Strategy&, https://www.strategyand.pwc.com/m1/en/articles/2020/how-the-pandemic-can-change-workplace-culture-for-the-better.html

    [ix] Daniel Kost, ‘You’re Right! You Are Working Longer and Attending More Meetings,’ Harvard Business School, September 14th, 2020, https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/you-re-right-you-are-working-longer-and-attending-more-meetings

    [x] Untitled, ‘Coronavirus: Twitter tells staff to work from home,’ BBC, March 3rd, 2020, https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51700937

    [xi] Jack Kelly, ‘Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey Tells Employees They Can Work From Home ‘Forever’—Before You Celebrate, There’s A Catch’, May 13th, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2020/05/13/twitter-ceo-jack-dorsey-tells-employees-they-can-work-from-home-forever-before-you-celebrate-theres-a-catch/?sh=32caf77a2e91

    [xii] ‘Daniel Goleman, ‘An EI-Based Theory of Performance’ Consortium for Research on Emotional Intelligence in Organisations, 2000, http://www.eiconsortium.org/reprints/ei_theory_performance.html

  • Tales from a Fourth Industrial Revolution

    Back to the Future in search of ‘Green’

    Conversations, perceptions and priorities change over time. About a decade ago, most energy and ‘green’ talks highlighted examples such as Brooklyn Bridge Park, once the greenest destination in New York city; Solar Power Towers in California; planning for the renewable energy ‘supergrid’ in Europe; the U.S. Navy’s plans for a Green Fleet; or Los Angeles’s centrally planned mechanism for ending the use of coal by 2020.

    Moreover, where previously to be ‘green’ was associated with activism, now it’s considered more in terms of economy, business and investment.

    This explains in large part the recent emergence of triple-helix connection between research, industry and government, and a green emphasis found in university curricula and other educational institutions. This draws on global evidence of the effectiveness of renewables in transforming rural livelihoods, the nature of community development, and addressing the energy-poverty nexus.

    We are now witnessing a steady increase in the proportion of renewable energy sources; this is a gradual transition from mere ‘additives’ to ‘alternatives’ within the total energy mix in rural areas of developing nations.

    About two-thirds of the world’s poorest people live in rural areas. Among the numerous factors that lead to the eradication of rural poverty are increased access to goods, services and information, requiring increased participation from institutions at all levels.

    The alleviation of poverty is hindered by two inter-linked phenomena: a lack of access to improved energy services and worsening environmental shocks due to climate change – which severely affects the vulnerable, poor, most of whom live in rural areas. Mitigating climate change, increasing energy access, and alleviating rural poverty are thoroughly entwined; this overlap leads to an energy-poverty-climate nexus.

    Improved access to energy services alone will not eradicate poverty, but it does create immediate and visible impacts. Up to 1.5 billion people still live without access to electricity, another billion only have access to unreliable electricity, and close to half of the global population depends on traditional biomass fuels for cooking and heating. Energy-poverty results in unmet basic needs and depressed economic and educational opportunities that particularly affect women, children, and minorities.

    Electricity catalyses rural economic activity and increases the quality of services available to meet basic business and domestic needs through improved lighting, labour-saving devices, and access to information via TV, radio and cell phones. The provision of high-quality public lighting can increase security and improve delivery of health and education services. Improving the delivery of affordable, reliable energy services to rural communities is critical for helping them develop human and economic capacity to adapt in the face of a changing climate.

    The largest wind farm of India in Muppandal, Tamil Nadu

    Sustainable Development and Energy Access

    The umbrella term ‘sustainable development’, can be viewed as a water tank having two-leaks, one leak being ‘poverty’ and the other ‘environmental degradation’. Both these challenges, i.e. the leaks, need to be dealt with simultaneously. In modern times, no country has managed to substantially reduce poverty without greatly increasing the use of energy, or utilising efficient forms of energy and/or energy services. Without ensuring minimum access to energy services for a significant proportion of the population, countries have been unable to move beyond a subsistence economy.

    However, merely introducing cheap, easily available ‘green’ energy is insufficient. Its utility lies in facilitating human development. The energy sector has strong links with poverty reduction through health, education, gender, and the environment.

    One of the most important factors in sustainable development is a fully sustainable supply of energy resources. About one-third of the world burns wood and other biomass for cooking, heating and lighting, accounting for more than 13% of global energy consumption. In rural areas conventional cooking fuels, burned in traditional cooking stoves, emit toxic emissions resulting in more than 1.8 million premature deaths per year, according to WHO estimates, with children younger than five accounting for half of all fatalities.

    A secure supply of energy it thus an essential requirement for development within a society. In the long term, moreover, a sustainable supply of energy resources should be available at a reasonable cost, and without negative societal and environmental impacts, assuming an effective and efficient utilisation of energy resources.

    A typical rural peasant Indian village in Rajasthan, India.

    Sustainable Energy Development Strategies and Renewable Energy

    Sustainable Energy Development Strategies typically involve three major technological changes: energy savings on the demand side; efficiency improvements in the energy production; and replacement of fossil fuels with various sources of renewable energy. This is important because, energy savings and energy efficiency are critical components for achieving sustainable development, as suggested by several researchers. In addition, however, efficient renewable energy technology management is also required.

    While energy saving and energy efficiency are two issues that public policymakers consider when formulating a strategy to maximise available energy potential, management of renewable energy technologies involves a wider variety of private and public actors along with the participation of users at the grassroots level.

    India, in particular, has seen how the public-private-people partnership mechanism works for renewable energy technology applications in rural areas. The public and private sector work together to bring solar energy technologies to rural users, working closely with NGOs, VOs, suppliers, universities and think-tanks to create a win-win for all stakeholders involved.

    Additionally, evidence show how renewable energy-based entrepreneurship has transformed rural lives and rural development management. The use of solar lantern, lamps, irrigation pumps, home lighting systems, amongst other innovations, have proved useful for businesses and families in many rural areas. This not only raises income levels, but also brings the community closer together, thereby generating social capital through increased connectivity and collaboration.

    Woman harvesting wheat, Raisen district, Madhya Pradesh, India.

    Renewable Energy and Rural Livelihoods

    From alternative job creation in rural households to electrification of schools for children’s education, along with uses in the health service and maintaining biodiversity, renewable energy promises a wide range of development options to rural areas. In rural India, RETs provide lighting to thousands of remote villages that cannot access electricity through grid extension. This provides clean energy to rural households in the so-called electrified villages. It can also supplement electricity in households with poor electricity supply (ranging between 5 to 8 hours per day) through grid tail-end injection systems (which have increased costs and are difficult to adopt in households without an initial induction).

    There are huge market development possibilities wherever the government establishes renewable energy markets for rural population. Central governments in developing nations (especially in emerging BRICs) can target key provinces for the development of specific renewable energy option, and also explore and encourage potential government-industry partnerships to spur market technology.

    Adoption of effective policies – the building of an institutional framework to support renewable energy development; the establishment of effective financial mechanisms to provide capital for renewable energy development; the implementation of market transformation strategies to encourage renewable energy development; and the enhancement of international co-operation to promote renewable energy technologies; will together create the necessary and much anticipated level playing field, essential to enabling renewable energy technologies to compete with conventional energy options.

    Solar Power Plant Telangana II in state of Telangana, India.

    Solar Energy-based Entrepreneurship in South Asia

    The South Asian experience with Renewable Energy Technologies (RETs) and its dissemination to low income, rural households, along with developing solar energy-based entrepreneurial opportunities, have been highly successful. Initially, it was a success story from Bangladesh, which claimed the title of ‘solar nation’ due to its proactive rural development plans, tied to alternative energy use. This in turn inspired neighbouring countries.

    However, research shows that India started its work with RETs well before most other nations (East or East), led in particular by organisations that have built or supported solar energy entrepreneurs, which have been instrumental in transforming rural livelihoods and wellbeing, using solar energy technologies.

    The penetration of RETs in the form of Solar Home Systems (SHS) in rural households and the use of that technology for creating micro enterprises has been widely cited as a successful case of solar RE contributing to rural development. Households who received the SHS used the technology to start micro-enterprises from home by making and selling different home-made handicraft goods e.g. jute and silk products.

    These micro-enterprises, particularly those run and managed by women, also hired and actively engaged workers from the local community.

    In addition to SHS, there are entrepreneurs who have started energy-based businesses in rural areas using solar lanterns, solar mobile charging stations, solar headlamps, amongst many other forms of solar technologies. Rural women are often the ones leading the way in assembling solar accessories in village-based technology centres. Solar engineers are increasingly employed in designing SHS, working in battery factories, and other accessory-related businesses.

    India International Trade Fair, Pragati Maidan, in New Delhi on November 15, 2006.

    Who is a Solar Energy Entrepreneur?

    In this context, a ‘Solar Entrepreneur is someone who would do one or a combination of the following – buy, rent, borrow, sell, maintain, service, manufacture or install – any or a mix of solar energy technologies for setting up an income-generating energy-based enterprise/s.’

    Examples of these technologies include solar home lighting systems, solar lanterns, solar crop dryers, solar kilns, solar wax melters, solar cookers, solar lamps and headlamps, solar irrigation pumps, solar mobile phone chargers, solar vans, and short-haul transport mobility vans amongst many others.

    The applications and multi-faceted use of these technologies are visible in both rural and urban areas. A wide range of local-level applications, however, is largely seen in rural areas where communities are involved in the process of use and expansion of these technologies amidst a growing realisation that solar energy technologies are not merely ‘additives’ or ‘add-on’ energy options, but an ‘asset.’

    Research shows that solar energy entrepreneurs typically develop community-based initiatives, and are drawn from both sexes, work with various institutions and different partnership arrangements. For example, prior to the introduction of new technology in a rural area, an NGO or VO (informal institutions) works on sensitising the region before any change takes place.

    This would ordinarily involve trainers and educators coming from universities, thinktanks, governments and also informal institutions. This is also a stage where potential entrepreneurs are identified and supporting mechanisms are discussed. The technology would be provided by a thinktank or a corporate body and, in some cases, indigenous renewable energy-based enterprises who work closely with local SME-ranged suppliers.

    The finance required to secure a solar energy technology can come from entrepreneurs’ personal savings or family/community borrowing. Increasingly, there are also options available from cooperatives, regional rural banks and microfinance bodies.

    The building of solar energy entrepreneurship is generally activised by a host of actors (both public and private) at the initial stage until it catches on in rural areas. As it grows through community adoption, many more individuals and groups tend join in to expand the scale and operational effectiveness of solar energy technologies. Community involvement in projects where local-level entrepreneurship is generated is not optional anymore, similarly, the importance of locally sourced enterprises cannot be stressed sufficiently at a time when indigenous products need to gain more markets, locally and nationally. While cheaper ‘made in China’ products can be more accessible, this won’t help local suppliers and nested institutions that are committed and engaged in supporting indigenous solar energy businesses.

    Feature Image: Social forestry near Mothugudem of Khammam district in Andhra Pradesh, India

  • Cross-Cultural Branding: ‘Glocalisation’

    Much (reasonable) Ado about Branding and its components

    HSBC. The world’s local bank. Clever.

    Pepsi brings you back to life. Not a smart one, since in Chinese this translates as “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave[1]”

    Mercedes Benz branded itself as ‘Bensi’[2]. Blunder. “rush to die” is what ‘Bensi’ sounds like Chinese.

    A brand can be a name, term, sign, symbol or design, or a mix of them all[3], which are used to identify goods or services of one or a group of sellers. Branding helps in differentiation and enables consumers to recall memories, thereby facilitating the initial buying process, or perhaps triggering frequent purchases which brings customer loyalty.

    Historically, branding was pursued via effective advertising, both above and below the line. In the East and South Asian markets, however, word-of-mouth remains a key channel of marketing communication, leading to changes in the way branding has come about.

    The 3Es of Business Branding are Efficiency, Effectiveness and Experience[4]. It can be argued that although a business needs all three of them to sustain a successful brand, increasingly it’s the ‘experience’ component that differentiates one brand from another. Thus, it is not always about what makes you different, but more importantly, what differentiates you from others.

    Enrique Iglesias

    It’s increasingly difficult to have an efficiency advantage, or even an effectiveness advantage. Take for example, Enrique Iglesias – performing a selected list of his all-time hits and going live in a large music stadium. The auditorium is packed with two thousand people and even the cheap seats went for about $100 a pop. At the end of the performance the whole auditorium erupts in ecstatic applause.

    Later on, Enrique ran a social experiment (as he often does) to test what would happen if he took the same ‘product’ and placed it in a different context. So, he decides to go into a subway station in New York city (which had great acoustics). He dresses up as a busker, posing as a random musician on the street trying to earn a crust.

    Iglesias sang the same hits with the same gust one weekday morning. There is security around, nonetheless. You can imagine what happened next. A crowd gathered and everybody was hushed and mesmerized, and it all ended with a big applause at the end.

    No, it didn’t go that way.

    Only a few people stopped. Few gave him money and a thousand people simply passed by without paying the least bit of attention to a busker playing a few hit songs.

    So, what was different in this situation? Well, everything really – maybe it wasn’t the right audience. It was not the right time. They weren’t in the right state of mind or mood. They weren’t expecting it; they didn’t desire to hear this music.

    Or they simply couldn’t appreciate it without the branding; without the context; the stage; the auditorium; the advertising, and maybe the ticket prices they paid in the first place also led them to appreciate the pieces more. It was just not the same experience when he played for free.

    Substance over Style

    Between 1900 and the 1950s, the whole idea about business was efficiency[5]. It was about having access to the supply. It was about controlling the supply. Demand was far in excess of supply at that time.

    Among the famous products from that time was the Ford Model T. The famous car available in any colour as long as it was black.

    Ford Model T.

    The major innovation of that time was the assembly line. And the assembly line was all about efficiency. The objective was to try and get a certain level of output with diminished input to achieve economies of scale. And management of the time was all about the ergonomics of reducing waste in that sense. Their objective was to reduce waste by maintaining the same or reducing input with time, and increase the output – then finally to increase the value at the end of the day.

    Efficiency is alive and well today. Recently, Price Waterhouse Cooper interviewed a handful of CEOs, and asked them what were some of the major projects they were launching. 70% said a major cost cutting initiative[6].

    Does cost cutting actually work? There’s a recent report in the Harvard Business Review that looked at companies within their sector with below average costs, versus those who had above average costs[7]. It shows that very few of the companies with below average costs had above average profits. those with above average costs had above average profits. i.e., if one did have above average profits, it was typically because one also invested with higher attendant costs.

    So, when it comes to cost cutting, it’s okay to cut the bad costs, and not cut the good costs.

    Effectiveness

    Our next concept is effectiveness, at the industry level, whether a firm is into making automobiles, or maintaining a green supply chain, the focus is largely on value creation. As mentioned earlier, efficiency was all about having a certain level of output with less input – but value chain is quite different.

    This approach demands to know: how do you get more out of limited inputs? For example, if you think about it from a people perspective, one aspect of this is about: can I achieve the same end with fewer labour inputs? Basically, would firing people be a good option? Or from a value perspective effectiveness, can you train them?

    At a product level, we can look at something like a razor from the perspective of effectiveness. Think of Gillette’s original safety razor? It was a single blade and the idea was that you wouldn’t cut yourself.

    The next big innovation was the second blade. The first blade gently lifts the hair out of the follicle. The second one swoops in and cuts it off, giving your face the feel of a baby’s skin.

    Gillette Mach 3 razor, circa 2015.

    The next innovation was the MACH3, three blades – so, what’s the third blade for? Maybe it exfoliates your skin? Within six months, the competition came in with four blades. Then a few years later, Gillette came out with the Fusion which has five blades. And today, we are aware of MACH14 with 14 blades.[8]

    This idea of effectiveness leads to a race in terms of performance. But all of these competitions lead to diminishing returns. The second blade adds a lot over the first blade, the third a little less, and so on. The more and more blades you get the greater the diminishing returns.

    When it comes to computers or smartphones companies are competing with diminishing functional benefits. Most people don’t even know what the RAM is on their PCs anymore.

    Now do we choose our Mac or iPhone based primarily on its quality? Do we really get a better battery life, higher screen resolution? If we did, we might have chosen an HTC or a Samsung. Therefore, the value chain missed out on a critical component, and that is the consumer of that value chain. Consumers pay over good money for what the companies have created, but they’re not part of the value creation process in any way.

    If we consider value within the chain, experience is where the real focus should be. The argument is that no value is created outside of the customer or consumer experience.

    Attention to ‘the three Es’

    Therefore, a few questions to be asked when working on your brand development. First, how much effort and attention are the top management paying to each of these three Es?

    Does the product or service actually have efficiency advantages? If they do, are they actually trading at a lower price compared to the competition? Is that their only differential advantage? Or are they similar to the competitors on the functional and utility benefits? And maybe, whether the firm knows it or not, the experience is actually what is differentiating them from the competition.

    A really important question is: if it really is about experience, how are you going to design and deliver experiences? This includes examination of how that experience is different to the design of the product or service itself. There have to be real and radical changes in the way firms design and deliver value to their consumers depending on the market.

    For effective cross-cultural branding, go ‘Glocal’ while still staying Global

    Word-of-mouth and virtual marketing are also extremely powerful tools in convincing us[9] to transactions frequently with specific businesses over a period of time. Advertising on social media and other channels has also proved effective in establishing brand names.

    For example, you may recognise Nike from its symbol or slogan (‘Just Do it’) faster than you would identify Adidas from theirs; Mercedes, BMW and Suzuki are most identifiable through their logos in their sectors, along with Coca Cola or McDonalds in theirs.

    Rear light of a Mercedes-Benz C-Klasse.

    Companies have continued to leverage these brand assets for decades now. At the same time, they have gone global, and through that internationalization arrived an understanding of the importance of global branding, but also a nuanced awareness of local factors, a phenomenon referred to as glocalization.

    Just think of HSBC’s slogan for example: ‘the world’s local bank. Local banks staffed by local peoples,’ which highlights the importance of local knowledge and inclusiveness.

    Marketing localization involves taking the source content and adapting it to meet the cultural environment of the target location. [10]. Transcreation on the other hand, is taking the message and recreating it.[11] From language to imagery, the original message and the ‘transcreated’ version can look very different.

    Lux Lessons

    Let us look at how cross-cultural branding may work in favour or contrary to the interests of companies who adopt it. Lux, a popular name in beauty-healthcare and toiletries, translates as ‘strong man’ in Chinese.[12] This fundamentally contradicts the image of a young lady on its package!

    Lux Soap.

    Lux entered the Chinese market in the 1980s and a popular Hollywood actress did their TV commercials then. While bathing herself in a large bathtub (certainly an exotic scene to the Chinese viewers at the time), she said seductively “I only use Strong Man. How about you?” Lux became a household name within a few weeks!

    However, given that the Chinese use characters based on ideograms and the majority of people are unfamiliar with the Roman alphabet, international brands have to be careful in choosing an appropriate Chinese name.

    In Taiwan, Lux means ‘beauty,’ which matches the packaging and how the image of Lux is projected in adverts. Marketing localization focuses on expressing a culturally appropriate message, whereas transcreation creatively transforms the message in order to maximize cultural resonance.

    As a language and culture loaded with symbolism and imagery, a direct translation can often lead to comical or negative results. A brand name that has some meaning to the consumer will be more easily recalled. In addition to linguistic cues, other factors that affect the translation/naming process are identified as follows: a) Reflecting product benefits or industry characteristics; b) Quality and brand positioning; c) Links to logo or packaging; d) Country of origin effect, and finally; e) Traditional values, Beliefs and customs.[13]

    The social standards of customers differ from culture to culture; one wo/man’s meat is another wo/man’s poison. The ethical values of an organisation determines its corporate image, and ultimately its brand identity.

    The company’s culture, heroes, stories and beliefs play a significant role in shaping how its brand and related components are built. An example is how innovation and knowledge inform the different themes or logos owned or used in the Google search engine every day.

    Google’s glocal initiatives gives it a secure, trusted and all-encompassing image around the world. Albeit, there are privacy concerns now leading to serious accusation of wrongdoing. In addition to privacy issues, Google has also been a bad boy when it comes to paying taxes and exploiting tax loopholes. Such factors detract from a company’s brand image.

    Another example of a ‘glocal’ initiative is with how local level managerial delegation works for Microsoft. Similarly, in order to celebrate its long-term market share and participation, Coca Cola in Turkey briefly renamed itself Koka-Kola[14].

    Other examples from the fast-food market include how McDonalds serve dishes and meals that are specific to country contexts and diets. Thus, a meal in the Middle East would have very different ingredients (reflecting local tastes and taboos) from one served in India and China. Similarly, KFC in China serves rice with most orders.

    Cultural and cognitive connections are also crucial in international marketing initiatives as companies compete for market dominance. Marketing should establish immediate, cultural bonds with target audiences. Equally important, however, is to guard against over-indulgence in some markets. There may be a danger of patronising a culture when a brand is obviously trying to localise its offering.

    Waning Faith in Brands

    In 2015, The Economist presented the results of several surveys that warned about waning faith in brands.[15] In North America, consumers said they trusted only about one-fifth of brands. In Europe the proportion barely reached a third.

    In a world in which brands ruled for more than a century (e.g. Coca-Colonization, and Tesco-ization, or McDonaldization as presented in research on Globalization), what explains this trend? The ease of accessing information should theoretically make consumer-choice processes easier. Of course, even in the virtual world, full information is not possible.

    For brands striving to maintain ‘global-ness’ in their adverts and action, some suggestions would include effective communication of goals, messaging and brand values to stakeholders. This involves explaining, developing and encouraging your vision with employees as much as with customers.

    Another important approach is to make use of advanced Translation Management Systems (TMS) that can be used for storing industry-specific and company-specific terminologies such as a tagline or product features. This is mainly to get the tone of your advertisements right!

    The next issue is to increase communication with your transcreation team, throughout a project timeline. You should be on hand to to answer questions, discuss disparities, and offer support.

    Finally, it is necessary to spend time building trust in your team, by asking generic as well as specific questions, such as will the translation of a German slogan work as well in Canada or another European market? Will your imagery convey the same meaning in China as it does in the US?

    A well-established content in one market may not be appropriate for the new market and you have to trust that your transcreation team knows what is the best move. Thus, it is vital to choose a localisation or transcreation team that are aware of cultures and customs.

    Featured Image: Enrique Iglesias, Vilnius, Lithuania 2007.11.29 by Kapeksas

    [1] Zakkour, Michael (2014). China’s Golden Week – A Good Time To Make Sure You Don’t ‘Bite The Wax Tadpole, Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelzakkour/2014/10/02/chinas-national-day-golden-week-a-good-time-to-make-sure-you-dont-bite-the-wax-tadpole/?sh=5ab534f8560f

    [2] Etymax (2014). Creating the right name for your brand to prosper in China, https://www.etymax.com/blog/creating-the-right-name-for-your-brand-to-prosper-in-china/

    [3] Academy of Management, AOM, https://www.ama.org/the-definition-of-marketing-what-is-marketing/

    [4] Wetzlinger, W. et al (2014). Comparing Effectiveness, Efficiency, Ease of Use, Usability and User Experience When Using Tablets and Laptops https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-3-319-07668-3_39

    [5] Mukhopadhyay, B.R. and Mukhopadhyay, B.K. (2020) Efficiency, effectiveness, experience: Building Business Branding, https://www.sentinelassam.com/editorial/efficiency-effectiveness-experience-building-business-branding-504297

    [6] PWC (2015). 18th Annual Global CEO Survey, A marketplace without boundaries? Responding to disruption, https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/ceo-survey/2015/assets/pwc-18th-annual-global-ceo-survey-jan-2015.pdf

    [7] Kumar, N. (2006). Strategies to Fight Low-Cost Rivals, Harvard Business Review, https://hbr.org/2006/12/strategies-to-fight-low-cost-rivals

    [8] Burns, N. (2006). Shaving With Five Blades When Maybe Two Will Do, New York Times, available at https://www.nytimes.com/2006/01/19/fashion/thursdaystyles/shaving-with-five-blades-when-maybe-two-will-do.html

    [9] Whitler, K. (2014). Why Word Of Mouth Marketing Is The Most Important Social Media, Forbes https://www.forbes.com/sites/kimberlywhitler/2014/07/17/why-word-of-mouth-marketing-is-the-most-important-social-media/?sh=6e86aa5054a8

    [10]  Johnson, J. (2017). Localization vs. Translation: What’s the Difference and Why Does It Matter? Forrester, https://go.forrester.com/blogs/localizationvstranslationwhatsthedifferenceandwhydoesitmatter/

    [11] Wolfestone (2016). What is Transcreation and how is it different from translation? https://wolfestone.co.uk/insights/blogs/transcreation-different-translation

    [12] Mukhopadhyay, B.R. and Mukhopadhyay, B.K. (2020). Corporate ‘glocalization’ through cross-cultural branding, The Sentinel, https://m.dailyhunt.in/news/india/english/the+sentinel-epaper-senteng/corporate+glocalization+through+cross+cultural+branding-newsid-n185737912

    [13] Kimbarovsky, R. (2020). How To Create a Unique and Memorable Brand Identity in 2020, https://www.crowdspring.com/blog/brand-identity/

    [14] Mukhopadhyay, B.R. and Mukhopadhyay, B.K. (2020). Corporate ‘glocalisation’ through cross-cultural branding, The Sentinel, https://www.sentinelassam.com/editorial/corporate-glocalization-through-cross-cultural-branding-477722

    [15] The Economist (2015). It’s the real thing, https://www.economist.com/business/2015/11/14/its-the-real-thing