Last week I had lunch with a salesman from XYZ Company seeking TriLibrium's business.  XYZ Company is probably ranked third in an industry dominated by two giants. 

As I was looking at his card while getting ready to send a thank you note, I was thinking about XYZ Company as a business and my thoughts were: 

1.       Why should I care about XYZ?

2.      It must be a tough and competitive market battling the two giants, especially when you compete on price.

3.      What are you doing to be sustainable?

I sent my thank you and included the following note:

“… I was thinking about XYZ and your business strategy and how a company like yours could benefit by embracing sustainability as a strategic business driver.

The market place is rapidly changing and I believe the future will NOT resemble the past. 

·         Your next generation of employees (Gen Y) care deeply about who they work for and the values of the company

·         Your customers care about this as well and will be increasingly, at least partially, basing their decisions on these factors

·         Sustainability is an excellent differentiation strategy.  Do it now and be a leader, do it later and you will inevitably play catch up forever.

·         Managing carbon emissions and the cost of polluting will be rising and is likely to be regulated.

·         “True” sustainably driven organizations have the highest relative market values

In many ways, sustainability and traditional business and management approaches are as different as night and day.  Appending the strategic plan with “green” practices is helpful, important and appreciated, but ultimately doesn’t go far enough.

I think every business has an opportunity to embrace sustainability as a strategy.  Sustainability has the ability to be a disruptive business innovation and in that environment, you are either a leader or you risk being left behind. …”

As readers and visitors to this blog, I would appreciate your thoughts and comments.