StemCell Therapy

We are only as blind as we want to be is a quote credited to civil rights activist and poet Maya Angelou.

It acts as a stark reminder to many of us of how accountable we are for our actions as people, as well as a warning to businesses not to take the status quo for granted.

Recent times have been characterised by change: fluctuating politics; shifts in consumer habits; growing momentum behind purpose in business. Every business is now alive to the realities of change, and the urgency of aligning profits with purpose.

Next year is the starting gun for the single most important decade of the Post-War era: the decade of cleantech, of environmental preservation, of hope but also of crisis. The blindness Angelou refers to is what threatens all of us. Soon, corporate myopia will be viewed as a wilful choice rather than happenstance.

Next year will be the first time we will be held accountable for how we have embraced change. Are we modifying our behaviour to reduce climate emissions? Have we reduced our waste? The arrival of COP26 in Glasgow will certainly sharpen our senses to these questions.

Whats more, the scrutiny extends well beyond the environment. There are other urgencies. Are we tackling discrimination? Do we do enough to protect vulnerable or minority communities? What about encouraging STEM careers or supporting the next generation of leaders? How are we closing the gender pay gap or supporting the LGBTQ+ community?

These questions are reasonable expectations of businesses, and business leaders. The collective and the individual are not as separate as one might imagine, which should act as a warning signal to anyone at the top of an organisation.

The year 2020 is the year that these questions will become entrenched in the everyday. Cause will have consequence: consumers will vote with their wallets; suppliers will win and lose contracts based on how accountable they prove themselves to be; commercial buyers will ask for more; and shareholders and boards will double-down on governance.

Never before has strategic communications become so intertwined with action even activism, in some senses. Reputation is defined as the beliefs or opinions that are generally held about someone or something, and those beliefs and opinions will be defined by much more than words.

The choices we make now might help to define how well your reputation holds together in the coming years. Considerations include:

As the year draws to a close, businesses should prepare for a change of pace in 2020. Now is the time to ask whether your reputation will stand up to what is coming. As Maya Angelou said, we are only as blind to change as we want to be.

Read the original here:
2020.. the year when corporate actions finally have to match up to our words - Insider.co.uk

This entry was posted on December 15, 2019 at 9:54 pm and is filed under Blindness. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |