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What does the Big Boss think about sustainability?

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At EarthPM, we've been harping for the last few months about the connection (or lack thereof) between Stragegy and Operations - or Strategy and Execution.

We've most recently blogged about this based on an a great article in the most recent PM Network magazine by Roberto Toledo, PMP.  His article was entitled Bridging the Gap between Strategy and Execution.

In this post, we'll connect that even more strongly to sustainability.

A recent UN report, A New Era of Sustainability, is the focuses on the view from the CEO perspective.  Sixty CEOs from 27 countries were interviewed.  The full report, created by the UN with Accenture, is located here - we encourage you to read it.

Here, for your convenience we provide an excerpt which speaks directly to the gap that is filled by YOU, the project manager.  That is, the gap from strategy to execution.  We like to call this the gap between the rubber and the road.  We - the PM - are that touchpoint where the rubber (strategy) meets the road (execution).

Challenges to overcome: From strategy to execution

CEOs believe that execution is now the real challenge to bringing about the new era of sustainability. Confidence among business leaders about their progress toward this new era is strong, and their companies are taking concrete steps toward embedded sustainability.

Eighty-one percent of CEOs—compared to just 50 percent in 2007—stated that sustainability issues are now fully embedded into the strategy and operations of their company. For example, we saw cases of companies beginning to integrate sustainability issues into their executive compensation packages, as well as design and innovation functions, more than in 2007.


However, our conversations suggest that while sustainability has clearly become part and parcel of how many businesses operate, it has yet to permeate all elements of core business—that is, into capabilities, processes and systems. In particular, the difficulty of implementation, especially across supply chains and subsidiaries, is seen by CEOs as the top barrier to the full integration of sustainability. Our research finds a significant performance gap between those CEOs who agree that sustainability should be embedded throughout their subsidiaries (91 percent) and supply chain (88 percent), and those who report their company is already doing so (59 percent and 54 percent, respectively).

Furthermore, full integration of sustainability into performance management frameworks and approaches to training and development remains some way off.

We think you can tell from this exceprt that the Big Boss (CEO) is absolutely thinking about sustainability.  If anything, she or he is wondering why it is NOT being deployed in projects.  So, when you create a project charter, are you checking to see what statements your CEO is making about sustainability?  Are you linking your project objective to those of the business (in general, and about sustainability in particular)?

Your CEO thinks you should...


Posted by Richard Maltzman on: June 21, 2011 10:56 AM | Permalink

Comments (3)

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Kevin Coleman Subject Matter Expert, Author, Speaker and Strategic Advisor| - Insights Pa, United States
Interesting view thanks

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Vincent Guerard Coach - Trainer - Speaker - Advisor| Freelance Mont-Royal, Quebec, Canada
Richard,

Thanks for sharing.

CEOs have an obligation to maximize profit in most North America corporations and it is embedded in the legal paper of the corporation, that can be a major stop!

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Hassan Al Hajji Al Hasa, 04, Saudi Arabia
Great Post, Thanks for sharing

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