Abstract
Triple Value Leadership boldly begins with the assertion that ‘‘with the growing planetary crisis, attacks on democracy and the ongoing health challenge, businesses can no longer give priority to commercial interest and financial gains at the expense of societal and environmental interests’’ (p. 1). This 9-chapter book is a resounding plea to corporate and societal leaders to adopt a fresh, more elevated viewpoint that balances the interests of business with those of society and the environment. By posing insightful questions like: How can business leaders think that they can be successful when the societies and ecosystems that they depend on are on the verge of collapse? How can the supertanker of business transform itself such that businesses begin to provide value for meeting societal and environmental needs rather than just extracting profit? this book seeks to provide a richer and more profound insight into the reflections of the challenges faced by business leaders. This book serves as a practical guide on how leaders can integrate sustainability into the core of their business strategy. The author recognises the lip service of leaders to corporate social responsibility and lays tremendous obligation on the part of leaders to shift their usual business from ‘‘social irresponsibility’’ to ‘‘social responsibility’’ (p. 2). This social irresponsibility is exemplified by businesses that continue to pollute the environment and deplete important resources, harming both our social and natural environments.
This book provides case studies, and a Triple Value mindset model with six different leadership attributes to help business leaders guide their organisation through the sustainable transition. Based on action research with top firms, the book presents a new leadership lens to create sustainable value and is a must-read for emerging and seasoned corporate leaders.
The first chapter explains how the rapidly evolving social and environmental context of business is challenging sustainability and fostering a divide between society and business. According to the author, ‘‘in 2050, our oceans will contain more plastic than fish. Some 30% of all food is wasted, while of all packaging, 91% becomes waste. Only 9% is used’’ (p. 13). According to the author, we have reached a point where the cost of inaction for a sustainable world—which includes gender equality, food security, pandemic prevention, climate adaptation and mitigation to name just a few basic human and planetary needs—becomes higher than the cost of action because our current economic indicators ignore the societal and ecological context in which businesses should operate. According to the author, business leaders cannot continue to leave the resolution of significant sustainability concerns to the government or civil society and should instead look at what they are doing to contribute to the issue and what they can do to address it.
The Growth Triangle, which is the current dominating paradigm for value creation, is examined in Chapter 2. The author opines that businesses may now learn to produce value for their organisations, their customers, and society all at once. This is known as a Triple value, as opposed to the notion of ‘Triple Bottom line’ coined by John Elkington which focuses on economic, environmental and social values (Elkington, 2013). For this approach to be effective, the author contends that it is necessary to build a “systems mindset” that allows one to deal with the world’s systematic, complex, and relational nature (p. 25). To address this, many organisations use a dual (and subsequently confusing) strategy: on the one hand, they continue doing business as usual, while on the other is a CSR policy promoting something else, namely responsible business. Overall, this results in a leadership team that is split and is faced with a growing number of competing goals and trade-offs. The author suggests the “systems view,” a method of problem-solving that considers context, relationships, and patterns to produce systemic answers to problems faced by customers and the society. (p. 33). To close the gap between business and society/the planet, the author urges businesses to recognise their dependence on healthy societies and ecosystems.
The paradigm shift in science is examined in Chapter 3 of the book. According to the author, a shift from the Growth Triangle to the Circle of Sustainability is necessary if the objective is to build a sustainable value creation model—one that produces value rather than destroys it. In the new paradigm, complexity, networks, and organisational patterns are highlighted to build generative and sustainable systems. The author uncovers six essential principles, sometimes known as the six principles of life, that govern the health and vitality of complex adaptive systems and help leaders to create healthy and sustainable business systems. Context-relatedness, Consciousness, Centeredness, Connectedness, Competence and Creativity are the six key principles.
Chapter 4 uncovers six shifts from old beliefs to new beliefs that aim toward a systems view of value creation. The six old beliefs are Business and Society are separate, Homo Economicus, Nature is free, Shareholders first, Markets are (self-regulatory) transactions, Short-term profit; nonetheless, the six new beliefs are Business and Society are one, Homo sapiens, Planetary health, Stakeholder model, Markets are (generative) relationships, Long-term impact. The author makes the case that these old beliefs motivate environmentally harmful and unsustainable business practices and explains how they can be replaced with new beliefs to provide leaders with a fresh perspective on value creation. The effective, forward-thinking leaders are actively questioning the outdated concepts and adopting a more relational and positive vision for the role of business in society as they make the transition to a more sustainable and generative business model better suited to the challenges of today. According to the author, if the outdated ideas and values of the Growth Triangle are the adversary of our age, then we must identify the new beliefs and values underlying the Circle of Sustainability that may displace the outdated ones.
In Chapter 5, a new business perspective on value creation is presented, along with some practical strategies for organisations to create value that will last for a wide range of stakeholders throughout the value chain. The author argues that sustainability may become a part of the core business by increasing value creation to benefit all three key stakeholder groups (business shareholders, primary stakeholders, and secondary stakeholders) in an integrated way. By recognising the interconnectedness between business, people, and society/ecosystem, business leaders will significantly broaden their understanding and uncover strategies to improve their capability for value generation. According to the author, there is a great chance to produce economic value by concentrating on social value by shifting the line of thought from ‘‘generating business value is good for society” to “what is good for society is good for business” (p. 81–82).
Chapter 6 explores the Triple Value Creation (TVC) measurement model. The author was able to develop a new and improved value creation measurement model by studying the cutting-edge business practices of leading sustainability organisations. The model, known as “the theory of change,” is a useful tool for business leaders because it clarifies how to handle the complexity involved in generating sustainable value for multiple stakeholders. This chapter concludes by emphasising the relevance of the model in assisting business leaders in linking the needs of the company (output), its clients (outcome), and society (impact), respectively, with the capabilities of its leaders, employees, and suppliers to create value.
Chapter 7 explores the important role of leadership in shifting organisations towards triple value creation. ‘‘This is not something we learn at business schools. Instead, this has to come from our own humanity, our innate wisdom’’ (p. 111). In this Chapter, the author asks insightful questions like: How can I lead with my innate wisdom? What does holistic leadership imply for me with the way I lead now? Do I accept complete responsibility for all sustainability issues? In addition to being challenged to lead through complexity and produce social benefits on top of business performance, the author notes the difficulties encountered by business leaders in these difficult times, including changing to new technology, developing new products, etc.
The Triple Value Creation systems mindset, which is framed in leadership “archetypes,” is revealed in Chapter 8. The author argues that the TVC leadership mindset consists of six key qualities which are dynamically related to each other to include: the Wise, the Learner, the Grounder, the Connector, the Warrior, and the Visionary. According to the author, leaders who place an undue emphasis on one quality risk overlooking other key competencies and losing balance as a consequence. The leader may have the best of intentions, but if the distinct qualities are not balanced, it might make leadership ineffective, result in performance gaps, and cause leaders to underperform or even fail in crucial competency areas.
In Chapter 9, leaders learn how to develop a systems mindset, a crucial leadership quality that is required to handle the unprecedented and challenging sustainability problem. By integrating a thorough TVC leadership model with a systems view on value creation, the path to the pinnacle of sustainable leadership is revealed. The author concludes this chapter that to heal the wounds produced by the mistrust between business and society, the firm’s potential to create value will have reached its peak when it creates Triple Value for its employees, the organisation, and society at large.
This book review demonstrates that the widespread notion that the Growth Triangle equates to progress for all is false in important ways: it has led to a widening gap between business and society. Business transfers its societal and environmental duties to the government. Additionally, business frequently develops into a powerful yet exclusive entity that strives to extract value from its environment to grow, which contributes to the unsustainable position in which we presently find ourselves. It is not just society that is affected by the rising divide between business and society; business’s ability to operate socially is also under doubt.
One significant gap highlighted in this life-changing book is that with the rise of sustainability, corporations can no longer prioritise their financial and commercial interests while turning a blind eye to societal and environmental concerns. This book’s major goal is to provide a higher viewpoint on how to close this gap by developing new business logic and a sustainable value creation method for businesses that are sustainable for the planet and all of their stakeholders. ‘‘We use outdated ways of thinking: we hold on beliefs, leadership styles, strategies, vested interests and performance models that may have worked in the past, but are no longer fit for purpose’’ (p. 5). Furthermore, little has been done to integrate sustainability into the core strategy of business, which is why this book is crucial. The majority of CSR literature positions CSR outside of the core business. This book offers practical guidance, fresh ideas, and a framework for business leaders to use as they guide their organisations through the sustainable transition. The purpose of this book is to address the unfortunate reality that our corporate leaders are more concerned with making money than with adding value to society. Based on the findings presented in this book, we conclude with the inspiring statement that ‘‘to solve the disconnect between business and society/planet, companies need to become aware that they are dependent upon healthy societies and ecosystems’’ (p. 29).