For the latest
report
in its ‘Europe Delivers’ series, Norwegian strategy conultancy
Xynteo asked business leaders from across Europe what
they felt European businesses could do to help build an inclusive, regenerative,
competitive growth model. The findings are based on interviews with 27 European
CEOs and business leaders, together representing a combined market cap of over
€2 trillion, and a further 105 leaders from European businesses (see p.12 of the
report
for the full list of leaders surveyed).
In the report’s foreward, Xynteo founder and CEO Osvald Bjelland explains:
“Though our market-led growth model has delivered huge gains to humanity, it has
become exclusionary, degenerative and dangerous. But it needn’t be this way.
From conversations with 27 CEOs, chairmen and other C-suite executives from
European businesses, Xynteo has identified five ‘jobs to be done’ by business to
enable progress towards an inclusive and regenerative growth model in Europe,
while building competitiveness in an economic system undergoing deep change.
“Our main, and profoundly encouraging, takeaway was that these leaders accept
as an almost foregone conclusion their responsibility to contribute actively to
a new growth model — not least since they see this contribution as a core source
of competitiveness and differentiation. We hope the ‘5 jobs to be done’ serve as
a stimulus for action that businesses from all sectors can take — now.”
‘Jobs to be
Done’
is an approach to innovation that treats customers and stakeholders not as
buyers, but as executors of jobs. According to this framework — popularized by
Clayton Christensen from Harvard Business School — successful companies
are those that, rather than focus narrowly on innovating their existing
products, are best at helping customers solve functional and emotional problems.
Xynteo says it riffs off the JTBD framework because it wants to underscore what
it believes is a necessary shift in business strategy: In order to maintain
their license to operate, businesses need to demonstrate how they are helping
society solve problems rather than creating new ones.
The 5 Jobs to Be Done:
1. Move beyond shareholder primacy
A near-exclusive prioritization of maximising shareholder return is restricting
businesses from driving inclusive, regenerative growth — a fact recently
acknowledged by the Business Roundtable and its latest revision of its
statement re the Purpose of a
Corporation
as, among other things, promoting ‘an economy that serves all.’
The European business leaders envision an evolution in how businesses create
value, returning solid and reliable dividends to shareholders while benefitting
society at large. Measuring this kind of value may no longer be such a challenge
— the recently formed Value Balancing Alliance (VBA) is developing a
metric for quantifying the true value companies provide to
society.
“We have added social and environmental impact to our P&L. We have set-up an
alliance ... to standardize the current models in the market,” says Wolfgang
Weber, VP of Communications and Government Relations For Europe/EMEA at
BASF, one of the founding companies
of the VBA. “What we need now is investors to steer more companies according to
this broader P&L.”
2. Lead the consumer
Our current consumption model is wasteful and degenerative by design.
Transitioning to a circular economy, where functional benefits are decoupled
from ownership, is a hopeful solution. Businesses need to apply the power of
behavioural insights to nudge consumers towards more sustainable
choices,
while simultaneously radically lifting overall sustainability performance of the
products and services offered to consumers, changing the consumption model
itself.
“What would our customers expect us to do if they knew what we know?” Dave
Lewis, now-former CEO of Tesco, asks in the report. “We can’t just rely on
customers to ask us for healthier, sustainable alternatives.”
“Nearly 90 percent of people are willing to change their behavior to fight
climate change, but only 3 percent of them know how — so, there’s a gap there
that we can fill.” — Jesper Brodin, CEO of Ingka Group (IKEA Retail)
3. Shape the future of work
Our approach to work is becoming obsolete; we are not ready for AI, automation
and widespread gig work. Vision: A dynamic workforce delivering high
productivity, sufficient income security and high human development. Businesses
need to help build a new model of employment, in which we have enough good work
for
humans
while reaping the benefits of automation and
AI.
“For businesses in the financial sector, the need for new systems for income
security
is a growth area.” — Michael Miebach, Chief Product Officer at
Mastercard
4. Liberate data through trust
Mistrust of the digital economy could hold us back from using data to drive both
commercial and societal value. The CEOs envision a human-centered data economy
that powers better businesses and better lives. Businesses need to reverse the
downward slide in
trust,
ensuring that data can be leveraged to unlock a new form of growth.
“We feel a lot less constrained to get data and use it through artificial
intelligence to better manage the hardware we have. It’s with the customer data
that we need a lot of governance.” — Francesco Starace, CEO of Enel
5. Reset the collaboration between government and business
Speaking of mistrust, we need the government-business
partnership
more than ever, but mistrust is undermining effective
collaboration.
Revitalizing that partnership, rooted in mutual appreciation of respective value
and collaborative competence, is the only way forward. Businesses need to change
the narrative of the relative roles of business and government to establish
symbiotic partnerships that leverage their complementary assets. Collaboration
between business and government is essential to enable Europe to face the rest
of the world as a united and innovative power.
“I’m very positive about Europe. We know we are in an era of change and in a
change of an era,” said FrieslandCampina CEO Hein Schumacher. “To me, that’s the
ideal time to unlock our potential as a cooperative continent, committed to
collaborating effectively for the long term.”
Xynteo closes by asking leaders inspired by the report to “get to work”: “Our
call to action is that you will now take steps to transform that inspiration
into tangible action.”
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Sustainable Brands Staff
Published Oct 16, 2019 8am EDT / 5am PDT / 1pm BST / 2pm CEST