“In recent months, which radical, tree-hugging group has upped the volume on pushing for action on climate change? I bet you wouldn’t have guessed American military leaders.”
-Andrew Winston, co-author of Green to Gold
As you begin researching the world of business, you want to align business opportunities and trends with your skills, strengths and passions. This is a key component of my system to accelerate your military transition success. See Part 2 of the Heroic Journey Series for more details. When I made my transition in the mid 1990s, I focused on the opportunities of globalization and the emerging trend of the Internet to secure a position as an international marketing manager for a US IT company based in Europe. For those of you making your transition now, you may seriously want to focus on the new emerging business imperative for the 21st century – sustainability.
The New Business Imperative > Sustainability
In a recent article, Deloitte consultant Eric Lowittis explains how new circumstances in the economic environment emerge that require radical changes in a business operations. These are called business imperatives and there have been 5 in the last 65 years. Lowitts writes:
Since WWII, business has adapted to at least five postwar business imperatives: quality, business process reengineering (BPR), globalization, the Internet, sustainability. All five have necessitated significant changes to core processes and methods of supply-chain management. Each imperative has driven and continues to drive economic growth. Each one, and the transformations it ushered in, disrupted the competitive balance within industries and even across borders.
Here is an illustration of these postwar business imperatives:
Why the Focus on Sustainability? > The Beginning of the End of the Industrial Age
Before I focus on what this emerging business trend means for you, let’s look at what sustainability is and why it’s top of mind of all business leaders. Sustainability simply means the ability to endure. The word is widely used today to explain the need to live in the present in ways that do not jeopardize the future. “When a process is sustainable, it can be carried out over and over again without negative environmental effects or impossible high costs to anyone involved,” wrote Peter Senge and his co-authors in the book The Necessary Revolution. Sustainability is often characterized by three pillars of value: economic, social and environment (known by most of us as “green”). This is often called the Triple Bottom Line of Profit, People and Planet.
Research is continuing to show that our modern society is not sustainable. We’ve created problems of increasing industrial/consumer waste and toxicity, non-renewable resources in sharp decline (oil and minerals), and decreasing renewable resources such as freshwater quality, forests, topsoil and fisheries.
Now, how did we get to this point? This is not a conspiracy by “evil corporations” and selfish individuals. We are in this predicament because of our success as a society – the modern, industrial society. For the last 300 years, the West has created tremendous prosperity for its citizens. And now the rest of the world is modernizing in the same direction. Many of our greatest problems in the world, such as climate change and environmental degradation, are direct results of this growing prosperity. And as you prepare to enter the business world in the dawn of the 21st century you will be starting with companies who have to navigate the challenges at the cross roads of the end of the industrial age and the beginning of the information age.
Businesses Are Waking Up to the Opportunity
Around the globe companies and business leaders are waking up to the opportunities that sustainability provides. The business world is focusing on solving problems such as energy and transportation, reducing carbon emissions, food & water and material waste. Don’t think this is a major business opportunity? Check out what these business leaders are doing in this area:
- Bill Gates and former CEO of Dupont, Chad Holliday, recently wrote on the need for the US government to invest significantly more on energy innovation, calling it a field central of our national prosperity and security.
- The American Energy Innovation Council was recently created and includes some of the most influential capitalists and business leaders in US such as Bill Gates, John Doehr, Kleiner Perkins venture capitalist, and the CEOs of GE, Xerox, Cummins, Bank of America and Lockheed Martin
- Five years ago, General Electric started it’s ecomagination brand to help solve the world’s biggest environmental challenges while driving profitable growth. How is it doing, you may ask. During the last 5 years it has had 200% revenue growth on $70 billion of sales. And it will invest $10 billion over the next 5 years in Research and Development to grow it further.
- Here is an overview of Walmart’s initiative to make their supply chain greener. As the site GreenTech Media stated: “the company’s motivations may not be out of pure altruism. But the firm seems to realize that long-term competitiveness, value and costs are improved by doing the right thing from a carbon footprint standpoint.”
- And check out these videos for more insights:
Duty, Honor, Planet > The Military Leading the Green Charge
You may be thinking this is very interesting, but what’s it got to do with me? Plenty, but let’s look at two specific reasons why this trend to sustainability is important for you:
- The military is one of the leading organizations in addressing environmental challenges: I’ve highlighted some of the companies that are taking a leading role in the move to sustainability. But the military is making a strong contribution in this area as well. Andrew Winston, co-author of the book Green to Gold, wrote in an article called Why the Military Is Going Green:
“Apparently, the people standing on the proverbial (and actual) walls defending our freedoms are very concerned about the dangers our soldiers face in an uncertain, physically changing world. It’s something that businesses need to pay attention to, since the military’s top strategists are now getting involved in developing solutions that may well be useful to — or even critical to — individual companies’ success.”
The reasons for the military’s green movement may be for security reasons or to save costs (over $1.6 billion in potential savings according to this article) but the military is definitely one of the leaders in the green charge.
- The changes that companies have to adapt to call for a new kind of leadership that the military is ideally suited to deliver: Changes in how company’s lead and management at all levels needed to adjust to the challenges of sustainability. It calls for a new mindset: Duty, Honor and Planet. The military is in an ideal position to build upon its service to the country and use its ethical leadership to serve not only companies, but actually the entire planet.
Resources
Here are some additional resources to get up to speed on everything green.
- Veterans Green Jobs: “We believe that our nation’s military vets, equipped with the skills, tools and resources, can lead America’s transition to energy independence, ecological restoration, community renewal and economic prosperity.”
- BusinessGreen
- GreenTech Media
- Earth2Tech
- Triple Pundit
- World Changing
We are at the end of a long article. The key message? Make sure you consider the business imperative of sustainability in your research as you plan your transition. This is not a passing fancy or short term trend by companies. New industries are being created and companies will make massive adjustments to their strategies and operations. And the military is helping to lead the charge to this exciting future!
Begin Your Heroic Journey!
Related Posts:
- Business Lessons From the Military – And What It Means for Your Military Transition
- Heroic Journey Series, Part 2 – Initiation: Discover the World of Business and Align to Your Skills, Strengths and Passions
- 3 Major Differences Between the Military and the Business World
- How to discover your first post-military job that’s right for you