Business Lessons from a Radical Industrialist by White Robin & Anderson Ray C

Author:White, Robin & Anderson, Ray C. [White, Robin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
Published: 2011-03-28T21:00:00+00:00

10 | The Circle of Influence, or Love on the Factory Floor

Visiting Interface and seeing the creativity applied to establish more sustainable practices made it undeniable that the rest of us can do the same. We don’t have to spend time wondering if we can do something. Instead, we can move on to figure out how.

DOUG MCMILLON, CEO of Wal-Mart’s Sam’s Club

Henry Ford once said, “I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.” To that wise quote, though it splits an infinitive, I would add, men and women, because this chapter is about all of us. Men and women. People.

To conquer Mount Sustainability’s sixth front—what we call “sensitizing stakeholders”—you can set aside all the new chemistry, the new engineering, and the new ways of financing sustainability measures. Because without people—from our own associates to our suppliers and installers to our customers—we’d still be wondering how to answer that first question, “What is Interface doing for the environment?” Without the engagement of all stakeholders, the answer would be nothing.

I know “stakeholder” is a familiar enough term in the business world, but what does it really mean when we say it? Just this: To us, a stakeholder is anyone with an interest (or a stake) in what Interface does. Our stakeholders include our employees and customers, our investors, our suppliers, the design community, and the folks who live in towns where we have offices or factories; any place we have an effect on the local economy or environment. And that is a lot of people, because for an industrial company that really acts as if there is no away, everyone lives downstream.

So what does it mean when we say we want to sensitize them all? It means we want to draw a wide circle of influence around our industrial processes, our people, and our capital and energize everyone inside with new and better values, values that honor the earth and offer a chance—perhaps the last one—for a healthy planet for our children’s children. And we seek to widen that circle and the community it embraces with every step we take up Mount Sustainability.

I’ve already written at length about changing our manufacturing processes. What Mr. Ford was getting at, and what this chapter is all about, is the power of men and women to change themselves, their corporations, and their communities, and through their example and leadership, the world. This is the Power of One.

As you might expect, this wide circle covers a lot of territory, but it all begins with the Natural Step’s fourth rule:

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