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Re-printed from Seismic Shift – an article by David Kinnear

Sustainability  is a lot like change itself…

It happens. Love it, embrace it, learn to work with it – or get slammed broadside by it. It happens regardless. Sustainability happens to be a commercial survival & transformative issue, which will be played out on a very public, global stage.

So, in context, are you willing to bet against Rupert Murdoch?

What is Your Sustainability Strategy?

Depending on what you and your organization are doing to address Sustainability, there’s your answer. If the answer is nothing – or next to nothing – then may I suggest that you’re betting against the instincts & actions of one of the shrewdest businessmen on the planet. Sustainability is an issue you simply cannot afford to be wrong on – and it’s a lot more about being smart – than being green. I’m not talking about hugging trees. The game is changing and so is the dialog. In some respects, you can throw out a lot of what you may have read or heard in the last 1-5 years about Sustainability. A lot of it was tainted with over-emphasis on politics, carbon-trading, cap-and-trade macro issues and a whole bunch of tree-hugging thrown in.

The Money Game

Let’s talk the money-side of Sustainability and why smart businesses are changing their ways to embrace the road ahead – making money from change, and saving it too. Change is a constant and successful business leaders inspire teams to evolve companies – marrying products, services and solutions to an ever-evolving marketplace. So it is that I have a profound respect for Rupert Murdoch’s navigation of the news industry and how he has set a course for a new era in delivering news – reflecting the tastes and circumstances of his audience, globally. His online publications save paper. But saving paper isn’t really the point, right? It’s a healthy by-product of being smart and creating products that people want to buy, factoring in their preferences for being “green”.

Transforming Businesses, Saving Industries from Decline

It’s hard not to see the extraordinary difficulty faced by traditional news outlets as they pit capital-intensive infrastructure and the physical limitations of print sales against the agility and zero cost-basis of news & content breaking distributing over Twitter, Facebook and the internet as a whole. So, just as in life, those who act  – survive, thrive.

Run the Presses!

Today, the presses are running on Rupert Murdoch’s “The Daily” – the only paper of its kind entirely designed, constructed and targeted for an iPad (virtual) readership. In one masterful stroke, Murdoch has embraced Sustainability, Change. Perhaps he has also shown how an entire industry may save itself from a slow and painful decline. Change is, well, good.

The No-Return Point for Sustainability. Are You Ready for 2011?

We’ve moved beyond feel-good. This is different. 2011 is the demarcation point for something very different. This is where the smart money shakes off the green noise and fluff and gets down to forming real commercial strategies driven by this issue. This is when winners plot a course for winning and others will fall by the way-side.

The World is Your Oyster. Go Conquer It…

The smart money is now focusing on the transformative change and fiscal implications of Sustainability – not just feeling good or filing a report. This is about aggressively embracing change and conquering new markets, new audiences – growing market share. This is an area filled to the brim with opportunity for the smart, the bold, those open to seeing lands beyond the horizon.

Feeding Crocodiles & Dragging Our Feet

As Churchill once observed: “An appeaser is one who feeds a crocodile, hoping it will eat him last.” Businesses cannot afford to turn a blind eye to Sustainability in the unfounded hope that it will simply pass by and leave things un-touched. Rather, consider Sustainability to be a vast weather pattern forming in a global context – and undoubtedly those that prepare best will fare best.

Change is very hard for most people – even those who say they ‘love a change’. But great leaders don’t fight it; they embrace it. It’s a catalyst issue – something that drives curiosity and demands a response. It’s a cave to be explored; a stone to be over-turned just to see what lies beneath. It’s a competitive thing. Mastering the challenge set by change. Turning the issue into opportunity.

I’m with Rupert Murdoch on this one.