Issue link: https://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/55680
From the Editors Taking the Long View I often feel like a cliché when I drive my Prius to Whole Foods and carry my reusable cotton grocery bags inside. I'm usually sipping water from a BPA-free container, too, and checking cartons for organic ingredients; once I'm home, I recycle any container I can. I'm almost a caricature of the conscious consumer, one who uses her purchasing power to express her social values and her commitment to the environment. But I believe pretty strongly that if we don't act now to preserve the world we have, eventually we won't have a world left at all. I take all of these actions out of a sense of enlightened self-interest. That's an attitude many of today's top corporations are beginning to share. They're re-examining the value proposition of sustainable business and decid- ing it makes sound fiscal sense. If a beverage company doesn't practice water conservation, for instance, it soon will be operating in desert wastelands; if a forestry company doesn't practice land conservation, eventually it will run out of timber. Even executives fanatically focused on maximizing share- holder dividends can embrace classic tenets of social responsibility if they believe those tenets will make them more viable, and more profitable, for the foreseeable future. Retired Coca-Cola CEO E. Neville Isdell is one of the most outspo- ken proponents of the movement he calls "connected capitalism," which posits that businesses must act responsibly because that's the only way they can protect their own interests. Says Isdell, "The statement 'The purpose of business is to maximize profit' is true as long as we add the phrase 'over the long term.'" Our article "The Connected Capitalists" examines this move- ment through interviews with six executives who are members of the newly formed Global Business Leaders Forum organized by Georgia State University. Not only do these leaders envision a new model for capitalism, they lobby for a new interdisciplinary model of management education that emphasizes the connections between business, government, and society. These connected capitalists aren't the only ones calling for a reimagining of business and business education. MIT's Peter Senge also is convinced that executives need to adopt sustainable business practices and focus on long-term goals that impact society as well as the corporation. His solution relies on "systems thinking" that allows diverse groups to work together to make decisions and solve problems. He talks about what that model means for business schools in "Reshaping Business" on page 18. These leaders have a big challenge ahead of them as they try to convince skeptical executives—and management professors—to aban- don or modify existing business practices that might not work so well in the future. But they're committed to doing the hard work. After all, they're in it for the long haul. ■ z 6 BizEd MAY/JUNE 2010 CHRIS STEIN/GETTY IMAGES RAQUITA HENDERSON