Key 1: Alignment with your Core Business Model
Part 4 in the blog series The New PR
Successful businesses are adept at determining market changes, trends and expectations. They cannot be in such a rush to embrace the “new” trend that they abandon their fundamental and core purposes.
For any program to be valuable to a business, it must further the goals of that company. Businesses must therefore be prudent when it comes to sustainability efforts, and not rush headlong into activities or partnerships that are not aligned with their long-term interests because that, quite simply, is bad business.
Start with your established business model and vision
Most companies develop long-term visions of their future, identifying their objectives, strategies and tactics that they believe will help them to achieve those visions. These provide the basis by which business leaders select, support and evaluate the company’s progress – and strategic managers use those established frameworks to build (not just to justify) their programs.
These visions provide an opportunity to determine which sustainability efforts are most compatible with the long-term goals of the company; which support financial, operations, sales and cultural objectives that the company has determined will define the future. By breaking the company business down into discrete phases – inputs, production, impacts, marketing/distribution and end of lifecycle (for products), it is possible to identify general areas for each of the three pillars of sustainability.
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John Friedman, an award-winning communications professional and recognized sustainability expert with more than 20 years of experience, is co-founder and vice chair of the board for the Sustainable Business Network of Washington (SBNOW).
Friedman has served as both an external and internal sustainability leader, helping companies, ranging from small companies to leading global enterprises, turn their values into successful business models by integrating their environmental, social, and economic aspirations into their cultures and business practices.
His insights on sustainability issues and strategy are a regular feature on Huffington Post.
Friedman authored the e-publication The New PR which outlines how companies must modify the way they communicate to meet stakeholders' changing expectations through five proven keys for developing programs that replace "spin" with transparency and unlock the full potential of a sustainability program to build reputational capital. Friedman is currently working on a new book Your Backyard Is My Front Yard.
He can be reached at johnf@sbnow.org, is @JohnFriedman on Twitter and can be connected on LinkedIn and Facebook.
