The Past, Present, and Future of Alliances for Sustainable Capitalism Prof David Grayson CBE Director: The Doughty Centre for Corporate Responsibility, Cranfield School of Management, UK University of Surrey - Lunchtime Seminar, 23 Oct 2013

1. Collaborating for Sustainability
- Making the Difference –
The Past, Present & Future of
Alliances for Sustainable
Capitalism
David Grayson
University of Surrey Oct 2013

2. Collaboration

3. Hannah Jones: Nike's global head
of sustainability and innovation
"We believe that the innovations
required to create the future won't
come from a single source. Not from
science. Not from technology. Not
from governments. Not from
business. But from all of us. We
must harness the collective power
of unconventional partnerships to
dramatically redefine the way we
thrive in the future."
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4. Mark Parker: CEO, Nike
"Our future depends heavily
on innovation, collaboration
and transparency."
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5. Paul Polman, CEO Unilever
“In areas where big breakthroughs
are needed, we must step up joint
working with others.”
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7. Business-led CR coalitions
 “independent, non-profit distributing membership
organisations that are composed mainly or exclusively of forprofit businesses;
 that have a board of directors composed predominantly or
only of business people;
 that are core-funded primarily (or totally) from business;
 and whose dedicated purpose is to promote responsible
business practice.”
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8. 8

9. Coalitions by 1990
Business-led CR coalitions by 1990
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10. Global field builders
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11. Business-led CR coalitions by 2000
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12. Business-led CR coalitions today
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13. Industry and issue-specific
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14. Industry and issue-specific
coalitions:
 Incubated by or hosted within generalist coalitions
 Within a broader trade and industry association
 Independent business-led coalitions dedicated to
specific industry or issue
 Multi-stakeholder issue-specific coalition with strong
business leadership
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15. Multi-stakeholder initiatives
 “Non-profit distributing organisations concerned
with corporate responsibility in which businesses
are involved but are not predominant in
membership, funding and/ or governance and
accountability.”
 e.g. Marine Stewardship Council, Extractives
Industry Transparency Initiative, Refrigerants
Naturally
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16. Roles coalitions typically play
 Make business case
 Develop agenda
 Identify and disseminate good practice
 Build-capacity
 Broker
 Direct delivery
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17. Strategic Focus of Organisation
A very important focus (4 + 5)
Not at all a focus (1 + 2)
Business operations
85
Supply chain
75
Environment
10
75
Workplace practices
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71
Community
10
65
Responsible marketing
Philanthropy
8
8
37
15
38
71
Q3aa. Please rate how much of a strategic focus your organisation has in each of the following areas.
Please use the 5-point scale provided, where 1 is “not at all a focus” and 5 is “a very important focus”.
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18. Safe space to think through extreme
events: Telecommunications Industry
Dialogue on Freedom of Expression and
Privacy
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19. Agenda for action
 Helping individual companies to overcome
the “performance gap” and to embed
responsible business policies and
practices into the core of their corporate
strategy, operations and value chains
 Promoting pre-competitive collective
action within specific industry sectors,
geographies and value chains to drive
scale and systemic impact
 Convening companies to be part of more
systemic and large-scale multi-sector
collaboration between business,
government and civil society
organizations
 Spreading innovation from key emerging
markets
 Engaging with small and medium
enterprises
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20. Agenda for action
 Working with governments and
advocating for progressive
public-policy reforms
 Improving the financial enabling
environment
 Partnering with business
schools and universities
 Raising public awareness and
spreading the practice of
sustainable consumption
 Promoting a new vision for
sustainable capitalism
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21. How can member companies
make most of their membership
of coalitions?
 Map and segment
 Prioritise
 Regularly review with each coalition
 Link to management development
 But – all depends on CR function being integrated within
business!
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22. Characteristics of a good partner
What does it take to be a good
partner?
The Partnering Initiative
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23. Partnering is an ‘Art’ and a
‘Science’





Insight / imagination / feeling
Vision (of the future)
People skills
Relationship building
Personal engagement
•
•
•
•
Technical knowledge
Critical analysis /
thinking
Measurement
Admin / project /
financial management
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24. A partnering mindset...
Requires an openness to move from your own individual needs /
constraints / issues towards consideration from the perspective of the
partnership as a whole
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25. A partnering mindset...
 Flexibility and a willingness to compromise where possible
(while being clear about boundaries).
 A willingness to work outside „business as usual‟ and open to
more innovative ideas
 Ability to be transparent about real interests, needs, and
constraints
 Openness to self-reflection and to change
 A humility that others may have better answers than you
 Being comfortable to give up autonomous decision-making
 Drive / tenacity
 Self-awareness
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26. A partnering skill set...
 Ability to listen actively, put yourself into other people‟s
shoes, and understand the real interests, needs, and
constraints of the others
 Ability to communicate your organisation‟s own interests,
needs, and constraints
 Relationship-building and trust-building ability
 Ability to distil and synthesize views
 Achieving balance between your organisation‟s own
interests and the furtherment of the partnership
 Interest-based negotiation
 Well-researched about other partners and context
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