Final Thoughts

1. Final Thoughts MGT710

2. Overview • Clean Commerce • Implementation & Final Thoughts • HR practices of successful firms

3. Entrepreneurial Thoughts CLEAN COMMERCE

4. “Green” is the New “Black” Key Questions: • If “green” is the new “black” and if everyone is doing it, what new opportunities are being spawned by this seismic shift? • How can entrepreneurs create and seize the opportunities? • How can a company differentiate itself in this rapidly greening market space? • What are the risks associated with ignoring the green imperative?

5. Clean Commerce Defined . . . • Clean means more than just nontoxic • It refers to the net balance of costs and benefits to” • shareholders, • stakeholders, and • to the planet. • This is not a zero-sum game – the benefits are shared across sectors.

6. Sustainability • Includes the concept of economic viability. • Revenues and earnings must sustain ongoing business success, and profits must be reinvested into products and service improvements to drive future growth. • Sustainability changes the role new ventures play in • Supporting communities • Improving human health • Protecting ecological systems • Truly delivering on the promise of prosperity.

7. Looking Through a Sustainability Lens • Three strategic facets • Weak ties • Systems thinking • Thinking like a molecule • The lens illuminates new tactics: • Value-added networks • Radical incrementalism

8. Example: Green Chemistry • Is the utilization of a set of principles • that embrace the reduction and • elimination of hazardous substances in the • design, • manufacture, and • application of chemical products.

9. When Considering A Product’s Entire Lifecycle (1 of 2): Smart leaders ask: • Where do we get our feedstocks? • Are they renewable or limited? • Are they vulnerable to price and supply fluctuations? • Are they vulnerable to emerging regulations? • Are they inherently benign, or does the management of risk incur costs in handling, processing, and disposal?

10. When Considering A Product’s Entire Lifecycle (2 of 2): Smart leaders ask: • Do chemicals in our products accumulate in human tissue? • Do they biodegrade harmlessly? • Where do the materials go when thrown away? • Do they sit in landfills for eternity, create toxins when incinerated, or break down to pollute water? • Can they be carried by air currents and influence the healthy functioning of natural systems far from the source?

11. Principles of Green Chemistry 1-6 • Prevent waste • Design safer chemicals and products • Design less hazardous chemical syntheses • Use renewable feedstocks • Use catalysts, not stoichiometric reagents • Avoid chemical derivatives

12. Principles of Green Chemistry 7-12 • Maximize atom economy • Use safer solvents and reaction conditions • Increase energy efficiency • Design chemicals and products to degrade after use • Analyze in real time to prevent pollution • Minimize the potential for accidents

13. Cradle to Grave • Is a concept of sustainability. • At the end of a product’s useful life, its constituent materials (understood as assets, not waste) become inputs for new products or return safely to the earth. • Thinking like a molecule allows you to understand the complete cradle-to-cradle life cycle of your products and manufacturing processes – not just the visible outcomes, but the microscopic ones as well.

14. E-Factor Defined • A metric to measure the ratio of inputs to outputs in any given product. • E-factor measurement tells you how many weight units of output one gets per weight unit of input. • This figure gives companies a sense of process efficiency and inherent costs associated with waste, energy, and other resources’ rates of use.

15. Transition to Sustainability and Clean Commerce • Requires new: • technology • products • markets Providing these has historically been, and remains today, the role of the entrepreneur.

16. ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS IMPLEMENTATION & FINAL THOUGHTS

17. Block on Implementation • 1st edition of book had 2 pages on implementation – now 3 chapters • Implementation is the point of consulting • Concept of engagement vs. installation • Technical rational engineer vs. emotional feeling humanist • Too many projects result in cosmetic change • No single person runs a business, no one general ever fought a war…hearts and minds

18. Implementation • Traditional blueprint • Articulate vision, set standards for what is expected, put rewards on new behavior, train in new skills, measure the change • All legitimate (in perspective) • Avoid leadership by lamination • Authentic consulting is about teaching clients how to solve the problem themselves next time • There is always a temptation to do it yourself

19. Engagement • People choose to commit to a decision based on emotion, feelings, intuition, trust and hope. • A core strategy for building emotional commitment to implementation is to design new ways for people to engage each other. • Results occur when members of a system collectively choose to move in a certain direction • Implementation boils down to whether people at t several levels are going to take responsibility for the success of the change and the institution. Period. • Thus, there is a balance between PRESENTATION and PARTICIPATION

20. Participation • Change the conversation from left brain to right brain • It needs to help employees feel connected to one another • Avoid recycled positions and old arguments • Discuss the personal impact change has on me/us • Discourage discussion of anyone not in the room • Be careful about discussing history • Postpone discussion of action plans as long as possible • Care about the location you have the discussion

21. Questions to Ask • How valuable an experience do you plan to have in this session? • How engaged and active do you plan to be? • How much risk are you willing to take? • How invested are you in the quality of the experience of those around you? • Have the group rearrange the room to fit their intent • Ask them questions about personal experience in rearranging – ask how the room has changed • Allow breakout groups to generate questions about the change (but not solutions) • Finally, ask the question, “what do we want to create together?”

22. Commitment • Ask people to choose their level of commitment and accountability • Seek peer accountability • Make promises • Create measures that have meaning to them • Get peers to ask “Is that enough?” • The group picks a time to review commitments • Provide positive feedback • State the value/gifts each has brought to the session

23. Weiss on Implementation • If change is in my best interests I’ll help to lead it. • If not in my best interests, I’ll ignore it • If against my best interests, I’ll fight it • What perceptions are you creating in your clients? • Trust • When you find someone micromanaging, it is almost always because of a lack of trust. If you don’t do the job the way he or she would do it, you must be doing it incorrectly. • If you have trust, simply providing the goals should be sufficient

24. Post-heroic leadership • The leader: • Must listen carefully and never cut off others’ contributions • Never reacts rashly or abruptly • Leads by example, empowers, embodies diversity, and is accessible • Creates a clear strategic thrust • Is innovative, knows the difference between right and wrong and bestows credit • The ultimate consultant seeks to create the ultimate leader • Leadership is driven by values and measured by results

25. Final THOUGHTS

26. Success in the Entrepreneurial Process • Two habits necessary • A passion for achieving goals • A relentless competitive spirit and desire to win • Perseverance – the secret ingredient?

27. Secrets to Success • Seven points for your contemplation and amusement • There are no secrets; understanding and practicing, along with hard work, will get results • As soon as there is a secret, everyone else knows about it, too; searching for secrets is a mindless exercise • Happiness is a positive cash flow

28. Secrets to Success • Seven points for your contemplation and amusement • If you teach a person to work for others, you feed him or her for a year, but if you teach a person to be an entrepreneur, you feed him or her, and others, for a lifetime • Do not run out of cash

29. Secrets to Success • Seven points for your contemplation and amusement • Entrepreneurship is fundamentally a human process, rather than a financial or technological process; you can make an enormous difference • Happiness is positive cash flow

30. ENTREPRENEURIAL SKILLS PEOPLE SOLUTIONS

31. High performance work practices • One standard deviation increase in HR practices resulted in a $41,000 increase in market value per employee (about 14% of market cap) • Seven practices of successful firms • Employment security • Selective hiring • Self managed teams and decentralization • High compensation contingent on performance • Extensive training • Reduction of status differences • Sharing information • Collectively known as a High-Involvement Work System (HIWS) – take up of these practices is LOW! Pfeffer & Veiga (1999)

32. Research on HIWS • Is higher productivity from fear or satisfaction? • Which factor is having the greatest effect? Or is it a complex interaction of all factors (a bundle of practices)? Or is it a third factor (e.g. culture or narrative) • Perhaps just formalizing HR practices in a consistent way is enough to improve productivity/performance? • Also, high performing firms seem to do everything well – why is that? • Perhaps HIWS is really difficult/costly to do successfully (hence performance gains for those who pull it off but not everyone can)

33. Conclusion • Not a given technique but “…more in the impact of [HIWS] language and thinking on the meanings employees and managers attach to their organization, themselves, and their work • Edwards and Wright, IJHRM, 2001