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Hunter Lovins shares with Tomorrow's Company her presentation shown at the Ecotopia event we co-hosted with Fairknowledge last week.

On 15 November 2011 Tomorrow's Company launched the first report in a programme on employee voice being undertaken in partnership with the Involvement and Participation Association (IPA). The report ‘Rethinking voice – for sustainable business success’ describes how employee voice is critical for the future of UK plc. Employee voice involves a two-way communication and an honest and trusting relationship between the organisation and its staff. Other project partners include BAE Systems, British Gas, HSBC, IAC Group, Thomson and Unipart, who enrich the report with their own experiences and challenges of voice.  Finally it sets out a framework that pulls together the factors that we think impact on the quality and effectiveness of employee voice in organisations.

Companies are responding to global competition and economic volatility by seeking to be more responsive while lowering costs. This often involves down-sizing and out-sourcing: The very things that tend to destroy the trust of employees. At the same time, workers say they want more flexibility, yet this is often perceived by business as a threat to performance. Could there be a way to reconcile these two apparently opposing forces and transform the debate on flexible working and business performance? Workplace experts Career Innovation facilitated an 18-month ‘Agile Resourcing’ programme with some of the world's most respected employers: Boeing, BT, Marriott, Nokia, Pfizer, PwC, UBS and Oxfam. The resulting ‘Manifesto’ provides principles and examples to help create tomorrow's most agile workplaces. www.CiManifesto.com.

The Global Leaders of Tomorrow project is part an ongoing programme of research led by Ashridge Business School as part of the European Academy of Business in Society (EABIS) Corporate Knowledge and Learning Programme and has received financial support from the EABIS Founding Corporate Partners IBM, Johnson and Johnson, Microsoft, Shell and Unilever. The research is based on a global survey of CEOs and senior executives at companies participating in the UN Global Compact conducted in September and October 2008, at the height of the 2008 global financial crisis. This is complemented by in-depth interviews with 33 individuals, including HR and sustainability executives and other thought leaders.

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.