Sustainability: business, life, environment

In the latest Intuit Future of Small Business Report,  new research shows that innovation will be essential for small businesses over the next decade as they try to thrive and survive by seizing new opportunities, improving their competitive position and providing more value to their customers.
 
As a professional consultant in the role of building business sustainability with small businesses, I find the Intuit study to be directly linked with creating business sustainability.  It focuses on the key factors that drive, enable, amplify and shape the outcome of innovation:
 
•    Personal passion
•    Customer connection
•    Agility and adaptation
•    Experimentation and improvisation
•    Resource limitations
•    Information sharing and collaboration
 
 
For traditional businesses operating without a sustainability plan, consider the above values as existing small business resources available to you.  Part of being a sustainability consultant is encouraging clients to take on a shift in perspective.  For instance, the same passion you have for your business can also be expressed in an environmental program that you believe in. 

• Integrating a sustainability concept (recycling, paperless office, energy efficiency) that inspires you and is expressed via your business brings eco awareness to your workplace and also creates a space for innovation to occur within your operations by performing daily operations with an environmental mindset.  Elements of environmental business attract commitment, energizes employees, creates meaningful work, and positively impacts your business as well as the planet.

• Customer connection translates as stakeholder engagement. Stakeholder engagement is a means to capture value through proactively acknowledging and addressing the underlying needs and concerns of those impacted by your business, product or service.  A deep and direct relationship with the market and customers helps small businesses understand customer needs, identify new opportunities, and fix problems quickly and efficiently.

 

• In a previous post, The Power of Small Businesses to accelerate Sustainable Change, I commented that small businesses are more agile and have the ability to quickly respond to changing market conditions, have lower risk than larger organizations, and have a reduced decision chain - all enabling them to integrate sustainability concepts into their businesses quickly and effectively. 

 
 

• Open collaboration and information sharing combined with the competitive landscape of business drives innovation.  Not only are improved products/ services defined, but also the formation of improved sustainable industry best practices, creation of similarly valued eco conscious companies and networks.   Businesses collectively working together can be a catalyst for supplier innovation as well. 

 
It is clear that innovation will be essential for small businesses to thrive and survive over the next decade.  Companies becoming more environmentally, socially and economically responsible are driving innovations in products, services and sourcing.  Commitment to sustainability uncovers opportunities to explore, develop, collaborate, and innovate within your organization and your industry.