Net Positive by Paul Polman

Author:Paul Polman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harvard Business Review Press
Published: 2021-10-05T00:00:00+00:00

What Net Positive Companies Do with Multistakeholder Groups

Lead multistakeholder collaborations, inviting all the players that are needed, no matter how complicated it gets

Look holistically at their operations and communities to find gaps and opportunities to improve well-being

Explore innovative business and financing models to solve societal problems in new ways

Strength and Resilience in Numbers

There are more partnerships to choose from than ever before. It’s hard to know where to begin. We can say with confidence that a few key organizations are involved in the majority of efforts that have scale. Look to WBCSD, We Mean Business (or one of its member organizations, such as Ceres or the Climate Group), UN agencies like the UN Global Compact, or other multilateral organizations, such as the World Bank. It’s not a big risk to join multiple partnerships. It’s important not to spread yourself too thin, but you will know quickly if a group is action-oriented enough for you—or moving too quickly if you’re not ready yet.

These groups allow for leadership in a safer environment. Being half a step ahead of the parade, calling the cadence, can create advantage, but you don’t want to get too far ahead, or you might take all the heat for what doesn’t work perfectly. You can push boundaries more by working together. When you gather groups, people are braver, creating what Paul’s firm IMAGINE calls “courageous collectives.”

That’s one of the many benefits of these partnerships. In total, they create resilience for the members. Nothing can protect a company from all possible outcomes—after all, a pandemic was technically foreseeable, but was impossible for sectors like hospitality to fully prepare for. But working together means having allies, the proverbial boats to lash together to ride out the storms. And when seas are calm enough, the group can move fast toward net positive.

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