Study: Current and Future Business Leaders

Agree on Most Sustainability Challenges

Current and future leaders believe the most significant leadership challenge facing business
today is the integration of sustainability into core business operations, according to a new study
by BSR, GlobeScan and Net Impact.
The sixth annual State of Sustainable Business survey shows a remarkable alignment between
the perspectives younger and more tenured leaders on the state of sustainable business. The
survey gleans insights from professionals within BSR member organizations on emerging trends,
priorities and practices across a range of environmental, social, and governance issues. This year,
for the first time, a number of the survey questions were extended to undergraduate and graduate
student members of Net Impact, a nonprofit that empowers a new generation of sustainability
leaders. The report compares the perspectives of more than 700 experienced professionals in the
BSR network to almost 500 students in the Net Impact network
Results suggest that prospective business professionals are fairly realistic about the challenges
that current sustainability professionals face. However, there are some key differences in views
on transparency and priorities for sustainable business.
While both current and future sustainability leaders generally rate business as low on
transparency, future leaders have a lower perception of business transparency in general. Net
Impact students were notably more likely to say that business is characterized by a lack of
transparency than BSR members (31% vs. 20%).

Since 2009, professionals from BSR have consistently highlighted human rights, workers rights,
and climate change as the highest priority issues for their companies sustainability efforts for the
next 12-months. Like BSR current leaders, Net Impact future leaders agreed that climate change
is a top priority issue. However, Net Impact students, who were asked to rate what should be the
highest priorities for business, also ranked sustainable consumption and water issues as their
burning issues of importance.
Next generation leaders have high expectations for business in addressing sustainability issues,
especially regarding consumption. Students noted that they tend to be drawn to brands with a
story that display values that resonate with them. Companies need to provide a reason and
reward for selecting their products. Perhaps its even time to rethink the role of sustainability
leaders.
This study resonates with another report released earlier this week by CBRE Group that showed
age is less of a factor than widely thought when it comes to workplace preferences in the U.S.
The study found that, while current assumptions about millennials are driving the design of many
workplaces today, there is actually little difference in workplace preferences between millennials,
Generation Xers and baby boomers. The study is based on aggregated CBRE Workplace Strategy
surveys from more than 5,500 office workers across numerous industries.

Sustainability And Managers

Sustainability has become a major issue during the past years. Adams (2008)
commented that population become increasingly concerned about the values of the
organizations they choose to work for - and buy goods and services from. This
forces manager to implement goals associated with sustainability to ensure
employees are motivated also to keep customer satisfaction of their
product/service. An example of these goals is the one made by Canon. Canon
created what they call Canon Group Environmental Charter that is based on a
corporate philosophy of achieving corporate growth and development while
contributing to the prosperity of the world and the happiness of humankind (Canon
2007).
In its report the World Commission on Environment and Development defined
sustainability as meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability
of future generations to meet their own needs (WCED, 1987). Inevitably,
corporations around the world began to include the sustainability factor into their
decision-making. It certainly then will affect the managers in that certain
corporation. This essay will try to explain how managers react to sustainability and
how it affects the four functions of managers. As well as giving an example of a
corporation that have taken sustainability into consideration in a form of corporate
responsibility.

As managers coordinate the work of his/her subordinates to achieve better

efficiency and effectiveness, they perform certain functions in the corporation.
Although they differ in a way in every corporation, the four functions of a manager
are as follow; planning, organizing, leading, and controlling (Huszczo, 2004, p. 26).
Managers that are performing the planning function set goals, they also identify the
procedures in accomplishing the goal or the strategy to achieve the goals, and
determine the timeframe in which those procedures have to be finished by
(Huszczo, 2004, p. 26). After the planning function, a manager then will organize
his/her subordinates. A manager that are performing the organizing function will
then expand on the procedures that the team have to take in order to complete the
goal. He/she will also assign who, when, what, and how the task will be done
(Robbins et al. 2006, p. 11).
Managers will be affected by the issue of sustainability in a sense that they have to
incorporate the sustainability issue into their planning stage. They will have to put
out clear goals such as reducing paper usage, or/and decreasing the carbon
emission of the workplace. Another case that could happen is if a manager wants to
increase brand awareness, what they could do is start doing environmental
awareness program that can increase their brand awareness. A clear goal is needed
so there are no miscommunication between managers in a corporation or between
managers and other employees.
In Canon, they strive to make products that are environment- and people-friendly
throughout the entire product life-cycle (Canon, 2007). With this, Canons
managers can argue that this adds value to Canons product compared to other
competitors product or if their working places are more valuable to their worker
than before. This argument can be backed up by comments of Adams previously
stated that people are more aware about the values of products they buy and who
they work for.
After a goal have been settled, a manager then have to organize how his/her
subordinates do in order to achieve the goal. If a manager sets out goal that aim to
reduce carbon emission of the workplace, the manager can implement some rules
regarding use of electricity or hot water. Then he/she will have to assign someone to
supervise so the rule is carried out. Managers have to judge who will have to
supervise and adjust the task so it is not affecting other tasks that those people
have to do. Managers also need to minimize the risk of unimportant conflict that can
reduce effectiveness.
As for Canons goal, Canon introduce the three continuous steps, produce, use, and
recycle following the phrase establishing an environmental assurance system
throughout the life-cycle of the products(Canon, 2007). In produce they aim to
design something compact resulting in even smaller and lighter model, with this the
top managers of Canon is targeting those managers lower in the production or
manufacturing process. Then under use, Canon plan to introduce the on-demand

operation technology and other technologies to improve operation and save energy.
Then in recycle, Canon promote the WEEE Directive to customers of Canons printer
which involves retailers of Canon products actually remind customer that they could
recycle their printer and contribute to environmental sustainability by doing so.
After the planning and organizing have been done, a manager the will move into the
leading and controlling phrase of their functions. In leading, a manager will be
involved in motivating subordinates, influencing the team and its individual while
they are working, selecting which communication channel to be used among the
team member and the manager, and also dealing with issues such as conflict and
employees behavioral issue (Robbins et al. 2006, p. 11). As for controlling, a
managers task is to monitor the actual performance of a team or individual
according to what have been planned. He/she might have to take action if it is
needed to keep the team or individuals up to the plan.
In leading, a managers main task is to make sure the procedures that have been
planned and organized is done correctly and effectively also if applicable, in the
most efficient manner. With the added sustainability issue, it can shift the meaning
of effectiveness of a task for a manager from a effectiveness by maximizing profit to
something related to consumer value for the product. It can also means that
managers need to implement new leadership methods to always encourage
employees to practice environmentally friendly behaviors. In her article Greening by
example, Kizilos (2008) encourage leaders to lead by example to achieve
sustainable workplace. A basic example of leading by example will be a manager
coming to work with a bicycle or a manager that turn off the light of a room when
he/she is not using it.
What Canon did in term of encouraging and keeping its employee motivated was
arranging environmental education for their workers (Canon, 2007). The three kind
of education are, specialty education two, specialty education one, and awareness
training. Each education module except the awareness training targets certain
group of employees. Canon trained their workers because training or education that
employees received will increase the performance of the employees (Browning,
2001).
In the end, managers have to assess the team and find room for improvement for
the team. In accordance to sustainability, managers might want to design a
assessment sheet or a method to quantify the issues of sustainability. Managers
also need to incorporate more statistics into the assessment criteria to include
sustainability. Or on a more simple nature, manager that aims to reduce carbon
emission of the workplace can be the last to go home to check any lights or
electronic devices that had been forgotten to be switched off and note it.
As of Canon, they designed what they call environmental auditing. It basically
involves a department in Canon itself called Group Audit Management Division

checking themselves and other divisions according to the Canon Group Audit Policy.
After they have checked each department, they will present a report to a
management representative to be used and distributed throughout Canon
Corporation. This team will give an annual report and also smaller more frequent
reports to the company that the company can reflect upon. It then will help the
company as a whole to keep their focus on the theme sustainability from
deteriorating.
In conclusion, sustainability is affecting the decision making process of the
managers today. This is because sustainability is another factor that corporations
have to face in order to fulfill their stockholder's demand. It affects the managing
process from the start to the end because the four functions of a manager is
interrelated. What was decided as a goal in the planning stage will affect what is
organized in organizing stage. Then what is organized will affect how managers lead
their subordinates. Lastly, what a managers have decided to achieve will determine
what is considered as effective and a work well done when they are assessing the
task that have been done. Sustainability will be more important in the future after
more people realize its importance in society and by then, sustainability will affect
managers more than it was now.