Findings from the 2012 Sustainability & Innovation Global Executive Study and Research Report.
Read the Report
Introduction: Sustainability, Innovation and Profits
- A Clear Trajectory
- The Sustainability Bull’s-Eye
Section I: The Hallmarks of Sustainability-Driven Innovators
- Sidebar: A Framework for Analyzing Business Models
Section II: The Crux of Sustainability-Driven Profit: Business Model Innovation
- The Potent Combination
- Doing Things Differently, Doing Different Things
- Making Sustainability Efforts Happen
- Integrating Sustainability into the Company
Section III: The Business Case Effect
- The Hard-Nosed Numbers
Section IV: Customer and Stakeholder Effects
- Sidebar: Portrait of a Sustainability-Driven Innovator: Greif
Section V: Hitting the Sustainability Bull’s-Eye
- Five Practices
About the Research
- The Survey: Questions and Responses
Acknowledgments
Authors
David Kiron is executive editor of MIT Sloan Management Review’s Big Ideas initiatives. He can be reached at dkiron@mit.edu.
Nina Kruschwitz is MIT Sloan Management Review’s managing editor and special projects manager. She can be reached at ninakru@mit.edu.
Knut Haanaes is a partner and managing director in the Boston Consulting Group’s Geneva office, as well as head of BCG’s Strategy Practice Area. He can be contacted at haanaes.knut@bcg.com.
Martin Reeves is a senior partner and managing director in the Boston Consulting Group’s New York office and leads the BCG Strategy Institute worldwide. He can be contacted at reeves.martin@bcg.com.
Eugene Goh is a principal in the Boston Consulting Group’s Oslo office and a core member of BCG’s sustainability team. He can be contacted at goh.eugene@bcg.com.
Contributors
Carola Diepenhorst, marketing manager, BCG
Stian Glendrange, associate, BCG
Olivier Jaeggi, managing partner, ECOFACT
Jason Jay, director, MIT Sloan Initiative for Sustainable Business and Society, MIT Sloan School of Management
Martha E. Mangelsdorf, editorial director, MIT Sloan Management Review
Edward Ruehle, writer
Diederik Vismans, project leader, BCG
Douglas Woods, partner and managing director, BCG
Portions of this article previously appeared in “The Benefits of Sustainability-Driven Innovation,” MIT Sloan Management Review 54, no. 2 (winter 2013): 69-73.
6 Comments On: The Innovation Bottom Line
This MITSloan Management Review innitiative is and will be very important in the future for business sustainability, not only to achieve more and more higher profits levels but to allocate them to support financial sustainability, as well.
Financial sustainability is a fundamental key component of a whole concept of business sustainability, distributed by:
(1) Restricted financial sustainability
(2) Dividend policy sustainability
(3) Overall financial sustainability
These kinds of financial sustainability are essential to guarantee the financial conditions related with the diversified fields of sustainability (in terms of environment actions, raw materials recycling, biological diversity, etc.) without putting in question the companies’ value creation.
This value creation is a strong dterminant to allow a balanced dividend payout to shareholders.
[…] To varying degrees, green companies are taking advantage of five key benefits of a focus on sustainability (Kiron et al., 2013): […]
[…] meaningfulness seeking in their job. Besides, according to the MIT Sloan Management Review and BCG surveys, enthusiasm and engagement are the first responses of employees when the company is developing a […]
[…] [3] MIT Sloane Management Review Research Report, The Innovation Bottom Line, Winter 2013. Available for download at: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/reports/sustainability-innovation/ […]
[…] de Estados Unidos) de la Sloan School of Management del MIT y Boston Consulting Group, concluye que las empresas usan el Desarrollo Sostenible para reducir costes. Reducir residuos y gastar los menores recursos posibles para lograr el producto o servicio deseado […]
[…] [2] MIT Sloane Management Review Research Report, The Innovation Bottom Line, Winter 2013. Available for download at: http://sloanreview.mit.edu/reports/sustainability-innovation/ […]