Management 13th Edition by John Schermerhorn,Daniel Bachrach

Exercise 14

THINK BEFORE YOU ACT
Sustainability ranked number 9 when the Conference Board asked 729 global business leaders to prioritize their top 10 challenges for the coming year.
Sustainability Ranks Low among Global Executive Challenges

A poll conducted by the Conference Board asked 729 global business leaders to prioritize the top 10 challenges facing them in the coming year. The results showed the top four concerns as: 1-human capital, 2-operational excellence, 3-innovation, and 4-customer relationships. The bottom three challenges were: 8-corporate brand and reputation, 9-sustainability, and 10-trust in business.
Put in a positive light, it is possible that the low rank on the challenges list indicates that business leaders believe their firms have sustainability issues under control. They may be acting with confidence that sustainability isn't a crisis concern anymore, and that their firm's reputations in this area are secure. But if we frame the results in a negative light, these results also could mean that sustainability is losing out to other concerns in the quest for profits. These business leaders may be making decisions that are disconnected from prevailing social values. Or perhaps it may reflect the fact that there is still a lot of global disparity regarding just how important sustainability issues are for businesses today.
WHAT'S YOUR TAKE
What do these results say about commitments to sustainability Do they show that sustainability is already firmly entrenched as an executive priority and thus secure as a corporate value Or, do they indicate that much of the talk about sustainability is just that-"talk," and that the issues of sustainability, reputation, and trust are still not getting the attention they deserve when it comes to executive decisions and actions