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Peter Augsten

Peter Augsten ... Operational Excellence vs. Societal Excellence

Burgess COMMENTARY
You manage what you measure ... and the dominant measure in the corporate world is all about profit which results from operational excellence. Externalities are ignored, so the impact on society and the environment are not part of the equation and not part of decision making.

But it is worse ... most corporate boards have a focus on the present and the immediate future and ignore everything that is in the medium and long term future. The RISK of existential disruption to the status quo caused by modern day impact on climate change and potential game changing social disruptions are not on the agenda

Business has to be the engine for change ... but only a few pioneers in the business space are in play up to now. This has to change.

Peter Burgess http://www.truevaluemetrics.org
Peter Burgess

Operational Excellence vs. Societal Excellence

We want and need to foster sustainability on individual and global level; several indicators are already established to measure how we are doing.

On company perspective the master theme nowadays is Operational Excellence, in order to extract more value from a given investment. In a tunnel vision this is logical and a good idea. Looking at reality, though, various questions come up:

_ Do we need a closer link between Operational and Societal Excellence?

_ Are we accepting to strengthen unethical circumstances / goverments by fostering their Operational Excellence?

_ What responsibility and ownership should companies / consultancies take, to build / foster Societal Excellence around the globe?

_ Does it make sense to drive Operational Excellence with a tunnel view, where at the same time Societal Excellence starves?

_ How could firms truely live up to the acclamations within Sustainability Reports, beyond top-line and bottom-line growth considerations? In order to achieve the global transformation required, I guess companies should expand the self-serving tunnel vision, and define / implement improved decision making processes re client selection and market development.

This sounds tough and illusionary; I'm convinced the pioneering effort to this respect would pay back boldly... not only with regards to reputation, but also eventually regarding profit.