Page 40 - The Corporate Report Pack

Question: What impact do the following wider stakeholder groups have on your organisation’s strategy?
These respondents stated ‘high’ or ‘very high impact’.
90%
Customers and clients
41%
Providers of capital (including activist investors)
69%
Government and regulators
30%
General public
67%
Industry competitors and peers
27%
Local communities
51% 48%
Employees Your supply chain partners
25% 9%
Media NGOs
Figure 1: Who’s in uencing my strategy?
We all have a basic expectation for clean air and water, safe streets and housing, human rights, a job, peace and so on. It sounds like a low bar to reach, but for many it is still not a reality. When it does happen, it’s not by accident. It takes planning, consensus, investment, enforced regulation, commitment and stability, and two key institutions drive it: government and business.
Government and business make and implement decisions that can have a real and lasting impact on society and the environment, for the better or the worse, and across the short and long term. Government de nes and drives policy and regulation, and business de nes and drives its strategy. Business, alongside government, has a key role in driving the ability for a society to thrive... or decline.
Shaping business strategy
e impact business has on society and environment is o en talked about, whether it’s through advertising or annual reports, or updates in the news about site closures, pro t announcements, relocations or failures to meet minimum standards and expectations. What we hear far less about, though, is its dependencies.
Business is dependent on society for its customers, employees and reputation; it’s dependent on the environment for its basic materials, resources and land. Both in uence decisions and shape strategy as these dependencies o en manifest themselves as risks.
We see this in the megatrends that CEOs believe will be transformational and the threats to growth that they face (see Figure 2: Key threats to business growth). For business to survive, not only understanding these dependencies, but also quantifying their impact and predicting the timing, will be crucial.
Despite all these issues facing industry, CEOs have mixed views about their role in creating a thriving environment. Half of CEOs are concerned about climate change and environmental damage and 80% of CEOs say they are making changes to minimise the social and environmental impacts of their operations, but only 21% of CEOs say reducing environmental impacts should be a priority for business (see Figure 3: Environment is a concern, not a priority).
If CEOs don’t view the environment as a priority for themselves or government, is the dependency that
6 The Corporate Report
Business through a new lens