Capitalism at the Crossroads: Next Generation Business Strategies for a Post-Crisis World / Edition 3

by Stuart L. Hart

Overview

Today’s era of economic crisis has sent a powerful message: The age of "mercenary" capitalism is ending. We must finally embark on a new age of sustainable, stakeholder-based capitalism. While enlightened executives and policymakers understand the critical need for change, few have tangible plans for making it happen. In Capitalism at the Crossroads: Next Generation Business Strategies for a Post-Crisis World, Third Edition, Stuart L. Hart presents new strategies for identifying sustainable products, technologies, and business models that will drive urgently needed growth and help solve social and environmental problems at the same time.

Drawing on his experience consulting with top companies and NGOs worldwide, Hart shows how to craft your optimal sustainability strategy and overcome the limitations of traditional "greening" approaches. In this edition, he presents new and updated case studies from the United States and around the world, demonstrating what’s working and what isn’t. He also guides business leaders in building an organizational "infrastructure for sustainability"—one that can survive budgeting and boardrooms, recharging innovation and growth throughout your enterprise. Discover:

· The new business case for pursuing sustainable capitalism

· Sustainability strategies that go far beyond environmental sensitivity

· How to fully embed your enterprise in the local context—and why you should

· Tactics for making long-term sustainability work in a short-term world

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780137042326
Publisher:	FT Press
Publication date:	06/29/2010
Pages:	322
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.80(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Stuart L. Hart is one of the world’s top authorities on the implications of sustainable development and environment for business strategy. He is currently the Samuel C. Johnson Chair in Sustainable Global Enterprise and Professor of Management at Cornell’s Johnson Graduate School of Management. He also serves as Distinguished Fellow at the William Davidson Institute (University of Michigan) and President of Enterprise for a Sustainable World. Previously, he taught strategic management and founded both the Center for Sustainable Enterprise (CSE) at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flagler Business School and the Corporate Environmental Management Program (now the Erb Institute Dual Master’s Program) at the University of Michigan.

Hart’s consulting clients range from DuPont and SC Johnson to Unilever and General Electric. He is an internationally recognized speaker and has delivered hundreds of keynote addresses on the topic of sustainable business around the world.

He wrote the seminal article “Beyond Greening: Strategies for a Sustainable World,” which won the McKinsey Award for Best Article in Harvard Business Review in 1997 and helped launch the movement for corporate sustainability. With C.K. Prahalad, he also wrote the groundbreaking 2002 article, “The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid,” which provided the first articulation of how business could profitably serve the needs of the four billion poor in the developing world. He invites readers to email him at [e-mail] and to visit his website at www.stuartlhart.com.

Table of Contents

About the Author . . . xi

Acknowledgments . . . xii

Preface: Al Gore, Former Vice President of the United States . . . xxiii

Foreword: Fisk Johnson, Chairman and CEO, S. C. Johnson & Son, Inc. . . . xxvi

PART ONE: MAPPING THE TERRAIN 1

Prologue: Reinventing Capitalism for the Post-Crisis World . . . 3

The Great Disruption . . . 4

The Best of Times, The Worst of Times . . . 5

Environmental Meltdown? . . . 8

The Demise of Development . . . 10

Implications for Corporations . . . 13

The Fork in the Road . . . 15

Chapter 1: From Obligation to Opportunity . . . 19

The Great Trade-Off Illusion . . . 21

The Greening Revolution . . . 23

Shattering the Trade-Off Myth. . . . 25

Breaking Free of Command-and-Control . . . 26

Beyond Greening . . . 30

Raging Against the Machine . . . 33

Smart Mobs Versus Smart Globalization . . . 35

Becoming Indigenous . . . 38

The Road Ahead . . . 41

Overview of the Book . . . 43

Chapter 2: Worlds in Collision . . . 51

The Three Economies . . . 53

Collision Course . . . 60

New Lenses on the Global Market . . . 62

Developed Markets: Reducing Corporate Footprint . . . 65

Emerging Markets: Avoiding the Collision . . . 68

Traditional Markets: Serving Real Needs . . . 72

The Value Proposition . . . 76

Chapter 3: The Sustainable Value Portfolio . . . 79

Sustainability Buzzwords . . . 80

Elements of Shareholder Value . . . 81

The Buzzword Sort . . . 84

Connecting the Dots: The Sustainable Value Portfolio . . . 87

Charting the Sustainable Value Portfolio . . . 97

The Road to Sustainability . . . 99

Pursuing the White Space. . . . 104

PART TWO: BEYOND GREENING 109

Chapter 4: Clean Technology and Creative Destruction . . . 111

Continuous Improvement Versus Creative Destruction . . . 112

From Textile Dyes to Biomaterials . . . 118

Using Carbon Dioxide to Change the World . . . 120

Developing an Ecomagination . . . 122

Whole-Systems Thinking . . . 124

Reinventing the Wheels . . . 128

Technologies of Liberation . . . 131

Eating Your Own Lunch . . . 133

Chapter 5: Innovation from the Bottom-Up . . . 137

On the Horns of a Dilemma . . . 138

Birth of BoP. . . 139

The Tip of the Iceberg . . . 141

Creative Creation . . . 146

Driving Innovation from the Base of the Pyramid . . . 149

Connecting the World. . . 151

Food, Health, and Hope? . . . 155

Power to the People . . . 158

The Great Convergence . . . 162

A New Development Paradigm . . . 165

Taking the Great Leap . . . 167

Chapter 6: Raising the Base of the Pyramid . . . 171

BoP Pioneers . . . 172

It’s the Business Model, Stupid . . . 173

Assessing Sustainability Impact . . . 189

Village Phones: The Triple Bottom Line . . . 192

The MNC Advantage . . . 196

A Common Cause . . . 197

PART THREE: BECOMING INDIGENOUS 201

Chapter 7: Broadening the Corporate Bandwidth . . . 203

Learning from Ladakh . . . 204

The Post-Development Challenge . . . 207

Radical Transactiveness. . . 211

Fanning Out: Extending the Scope of the Firm . . . 213

Fanning In: Integrating Diverse and Disconfirming Information . . . 217

Expanding Our Concept of the Global Economy . . . 222

From Alien to Native . . . 224

Chapter 8: Developing Native Capability . . . 227

Next Generation Strategies and Skills . . . 229

Engage First, Design Second . . . 230

Coinvent Custom Solutions . . . 234

Fail Small, Learn Big . . . 237

Fly Under the Radar . . . 239

Work with Nontraditional Partners . . . 242

Build Social, Not Legal, Contracts . . . 244

Moving Beyond the Multinational Model . . . 248

Chapter 9: Re-Embedding Innovation Strategy . . . 253

Comparing Apples and Oranges . . . 254

Toward a Base of the Pyramid Protocol . . . 257

Learning by Doing . . . 262

Taking the Initiative on Water . . . 267

The Three Big Challenges . . . 273

Leading the Next Great Transformation . . . 276

Chapter 10: Building the Sustainable Global Enterprise . . . 281

Making It Happen in the Real World . . . 283

Aligning the Organization . . . 293

Building the Cathedral . . . 300

Postscript . . . 302

Epilogue: Looking Forward . . . 307

Draining the Swamp . . . 308

The Next Tsunami . . . 310

Who Will Be the Twenty-First Century Watchdog? . . . 312

Index . . . 315