Companies are facing a number of crises, a global pandemic, a recession, systemic racism, and the climate crisis. While businesses have been good at keeping track of metrics such as revenue and growth it has often-times been at the expense of people and the planet which is at the epicenter of where we are challenged today.
If businesses are to succeed in a post-pandemic economy, we can no longer accept business as usual. Climate change is one of the top challenges, CEOs will be expected to take the lead on. There is added pressure on companies now that President-elect Biden is preparing for a transition with climate change as a key priority issue and an opportunity to re-enter the world stage.
In their new book, released late last month, Sustainability Leadership: A Swedish Approach to changing Your Company, Your Industry, and the World (Palgrave), by Henrick Henriksson, CEO of Scania and Elaine-Weidman Grunewald, co-founder of the AI Sustainability Center and former Chief Sustainability Officer at Ericcson, provides business leaders a roadmap to making the leap to sustainability and profitability.
Henrick and Elaine both recognize they were part of the problem and now they can be part of the solution. In interviewing other CEOs and business leaders, such as the CEO of Electrolux, Verizon, and SAS Airlines along with startup-like Karma and Trine, they provide a model to accelerate one’s leadership to becoming a purposeful leader.
The authors cover a broad set of topics in the book, along with the three phases of their Sustainability Leadership Model:
Setting the Foundation of governance, accounting for impacts, etc, creating tone from the top, purpose, and then the Core, how to integrate sustainability into the business, and finally the Leap—how to go from incremental to exponential ambition and impact.
It is a book by and for senior executives. What also sets this book apart from other leadership books is the Swedish angle -- Why is it that Sweden has been light years ahead in sustainability, both in national policy and within its companies (even though the authors acknowledge that Swedish companies are far from perfect). They reveal that “secret sauce,” and explain how and why it can inspire global leaders.
Each chapter has an “up close” interview with a CEO that exemplifies the theme of the chapter.
Purpose-Driven leadership and a millennial founder of a food waste app company, Karma, Elsa Bernadotte, talks about the pivot towards purpose saved their company.
Earning trust and Telia’s former CEO is candid about what went wrong that led to their huge corruption scandal.
Stakeholder capitalism: society as the key stakeholder — Something Sweden was doing a century before the Business Roundtable changed course.
Making business sense of the SDGs and millionaire millennial founder of Norrsken Foundation, Niklas Adalberth on why he put his money into social impact start-ups that would tackle the SDGs.
How the next sustainability frontier is digital—and how to deal with the ethical implications and Elaine’s journey from pioneering Technology for Good at Ericsson to now being an expert on grappling with tech’s darker side.
Here is a link to the News release announcing the book and another Link to the event launching the book in Stockholm in late October, featuring a number of CEOs profiled in the book.
Given the global crises we face, this is a must-read book for any business executive to emerge in a post pandemic economy. To learn more or talk with the authors, please contact North Coast Strategies for interviews.
NOW LET’S START THE CONVERSATION,
DANIEL CHERRIN
