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Executive Summary
management ideas reduced mangers ability to maintain a balanced overview of where change efforts are actually leading, and what they are risking. The paper identifies important dimensions in the maintenance of balance: Position within the environment, organizational Context and behaviour of People in the organisation’s community. This three-legged PCP framework is proposed as a structure for understanding and managing complex change efforts and labels the tendency to lose touch with this balance as ‘the drift towards trivia’. PII: S0024-6301(01)00083-8
Sustainability in Action: Identifying and Measuring the Key Performance Drivers
585
Marc J. Epstein and Marie-Jose´ e Roy
Corporate social responsibility is moving higher up the board-room agenda as concern for the environment grows in society at large. But should strategies for environmental sustainability be implemented for their own sake? What are the effects on corporate financial performance of going down this road—or of ignoring it? How can managers be guided through the trade-offs that ultimately must be made and assess how social performance impacts on overall long-term corporate profitability? This article presents a framework that describes the drivers of corporate social performance, the actions that managers can take to affect that performance, and the consequences of those actions on both corporate social and financial performance. Illustrated with references to strategies currently employed by corporations, the authors examine the effects of sustainability strategies on various corporation stakeholders from investors to employees, consumers and the community at large. Showing how companies are increasingly interested in gaining lasting strategic advantage through examining and improving relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, the authors argue that, as external costs become increasingly assignable, forward-looking corporate leadership requires reporting and assessment of both current and potential social and environmental impacts. The framework they present allows for the more careful understanding of both the drivers of social performance and the impacts of that performance on the various corporate stakeholders, permitting better integration of that information into the day-to-day operational decisions and the institutionalization of social concerns throughout the organization. PII: S0024-6301(01)00085-1
Moving From Make/Buy to Strategic Sourcing: The Outcome Decision Process
605
Mike Tayles and Colin Drury
Companies are increasingly considering outsourcing components, processes and services. In some cases, the decision to outsource frees up capital that can be applied elsewhere in the 534
Executive Summaries
Sustainability in Action: Identifying and Measuring the Key Performance Drivers
585
Marc J. Epstein and Marie-Jose´ e Roy
Corporate social responsibility is moving higher up the board-room agenda as concern for the environment grows in society at large. But should strategies for environmental sustainability be implemented for their own sake? What are the effects on corporate financial performance of going down this road—or of ignoring it? How can managers be guided through the trade-offs that ultimately must be made and assess how social performance impacts on overall long-term corporate profitability? This article presents a framework that describes the drivers of corporate social performance, the actions that managers can take to affect that performance, and the consequences of those actions on both corporate social and financial performance. Illustrated with references to strategies currently employed by corporations, the authors examine the effects of sustainability strategies on various corporation stakeholders from investors to employees, consumers and the community at large. Showing how companies are increasingly interested in gaining lasting strategic advantage through examining and improving relationships with a wide range of stakeholders, the authors argue that, as external costs become increasingly assignable, forward-looking corporate leadership requires reporting and assessment of both current and potential social and environmental impacts. The framework they present allows for the more careful understanding of both the drivers of social performance and the impacts of that performance on the various corporate stakeholders, permitting better integration of that information into the day-to-day operational decisions and the institutionalization of social concerns throughout the organization. PII: S0024-6301(01)00085-1
Moving From Make/Buy to Strategic Sourcing: The Outcome Decision Process
605
Mike Tayles and Colin Drury
Companies are increasingly considering outsourcing components, processes and services. In some cases, the decision to outsource frees up capital that can be applied elsewhere in the 534
Executive Summaries