Business sustainability can be described as continued development or growth, without significant deterioration of the environment and depletion of natural resources on which human well-being depends. It is “Development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.”
The era of the Pandemic is one of unlearning and new learning. The focus of this brand talk would be to review our existing learnings and see what is working and what is not and highlight the way forward.
According to Margie Warrell the bestselling author of Stop Playing Safe and Find Your Courage we are in the season of cleaning out junk knowledge to allow our new self lift off like a Falcon 9 heavy rocket booster . Says Margie Unlearning is about moving away from something—letting go—rather than acquiring. It’s like stripping old paint. It lays the foundation for the new layer of fresh learning to be acquired and to stick. But like the painter who needs to prepare a surface, stripping the paint is 70% of the work while repainting is only 30%.
Adult education experts estimate that up to 40% of what tertiary students are learning will be obsolete a decade from now when they will be working in jobs that have yet to be created. So new knowledge would be needed for moving to the next level. Indeed, the top 10 most in-demand jobs today didn’t even exist 10 years ago. To say that we live in a changing world understates the speed of both the pace and the scope of ongoing change and societal development.
Businesses that are desirous of been around for a few more decades must unlearn old ways of doing things and adorn a new business mentality. For instance, business leaders should understand that working from home is becoming the new normal but how do you as a business relate to this new business model matters. If you are an industrial entity and your workers must come to the production floor, their health matters now deserve additional care to ensure they are well protected and their personal safety is well catered for and nothing is not left to chance.
According to Bode Ayeku President and Chairman of Council of the Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria (ICSAN) Corporate entities must learn to communicate and trust their staff to get the work they are paid for done as and when needed. The truth is that more hours and job can be done with mutual trust by both parties without the usual bickering.
This is the era of reaffirming existing relationship so that stakeholders can jointly survive this pandemic. A lot of transparency and accountability would do all concerned a lot of favour and build more confidence into the business moving forward. Where the right level of confidence exists, management and workers can talk mutually about salary cut or adjustment to ensure the business is kept out of intensive care just as the support of suppliers and regulators would go along to ensure survival today and thus enabling the business repositions itself for a better tomorrow. In other words, lots of emotional intelligence is desirable in these months of the Covid-19. Higher empathy and clarity of long-term goals would help all parties concerned survive these interesting times.
According to Jack Ma the owner of Ali Baba businesses should focus on sustainability and not too much on profit as economic recession in the case of Nigeria is just one quarter away. Business sustainability can also be aided by quality of government policies. It would not help if government now intensifies revenue generation and drive at this delicate period instead deferring payments to ensure corporate survival
Business survival requires collaboration of all stakeholders to ensure we are all here doing what we love …creating value for all. Michael Umogun works with Institute of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators of Nigeria ( ICSAN)
Mike Umogun
