A parable that contrasts the leadership styles of two CEOs:  one operating in the old business paradigm; the other embracing the new business paradigm, in which success is inextricably tied to the success of business stakeholders.  It is based on a new, proactive business model that works better in the 21st century than the old-world, protectionist, risk management formula, because it turns business networks into aligned and consensual communities that get things done faster and better.  It balances traditional defensive, risk management practices with new, offensive, Trust Enablement approaches to business.

This diagram was developed by Corporate Culture to explain how CR evolves within a business. Disparate – disparate stage a business is conducting a random mix of activities with no clear strategy or link to the business Silos – this is the phase of CR where the business is working in silos, for example the HR team may be looking at the diversity of the business, someone in facilities management maybe looking at recycling for the building, there may be someone with overall responsibility for CR activities (possible at Board level) but there is no overriding strategy Cross-cutting – this is the phase where the business starts to join up activities and cross cut their CR activity into an overriding strategy which different parts of the business talking to each other. There may be a CR steering Group, CR strategy and will probably be a person or team co-ordinating activities Fully-integrated – this is the phase where the CR activity is fully integrated into the business and decisions...

As part of the Centre for Social Markets’ Climate Challenge India Initiative, this paper looks at the state of renewable energy in India.  The challenges faced by India, projected by the International Energy Agency to be the world’s 3rd largest emitter of greenhouse gases by 2015, are fairly daunting.  Although this means there are many opportunities as well. The Centre for Social Markets (CSM) is an independent, non-profit organisation dedicated to making markets work for the triple bottom line – people, planet and profits.

This presentation was given by Dr. Matthew Kiernan, Chief Executive, Innovest Strategic Value Advisor at the 2008 Tomorrow's Company Annual lecture. In it he powerfully brought together the arguments for the importance of recognising the link between the management of environmental, social and governance factors as an indicator of business performance, sustainable value creation and long-term investment returns. You can read Tony Manwaring's blog about the event here.

   “A lack of long-term stewardship by company heads and shareholders is at the heart of the current financial crisis, an influential think-tank says in a report published on Wednesday. Tomorrow’s Company, whose previous research has helped shape UK company law, urges the government to understand better the effects of the growing “casino economy”, where activities such as derivatives trading are often far removed from the real economy activity to which they theoretically relate. The report warns against the search for scapegoats for the current crisis and says that it is wrong to attack private equity, hedge funds and sovereign wealth funds for irresponsibility, noting that different shareholders perform different functions. However, it condemns the practice of borrowing shares for voting purposes and asks if investors need to toughen up their engagement to change company behaviour or divest holdings in companies with particular shortcomings. Mark Goyder, Tomorrow’s Company...