“If you wish to go quick, go alone. If you wish to go far, go collectively.”
This proverb couldn’t be more true than for these working inside sustainability management.
Sure, particular person firms, governments or nongovernmental organizations can have a cloth impression. However to realize real scalable transformation, organizations should work in tandem towards frequent objectives or to encourage others inside their sphere of affect.
The proper partnership can amplify the impression of your environmental, social and governance (ESG) investments exponentially. It’s what’s referred to as the “multiplier impact.” Talking at our current Impression Leaders Lab, a month-to-month occasion at which main sustainability specialists present sensible suggestions, Sarah Beaubien, impression and sustainability lead at Mondelēz-owned Clif Bar, summed it up like this:
“Should you drop a pebble within the water and thru considerate, intentional model or enterprise activation, it grows right into a ripple, and that ripple finally turns into a wave. That is the place transformational change occurs,” she stated. “We’re a small firm that punched above its weight due to these partnerships.”
Listed below are 5 methods to make your subsequent partnership successful.
Suppose outdoors the field
Don’t make the error of limiting potential companions to business friends, and even rivals. Think about how NGOs or charitable companions, suppliers throughout your worth chain, your workers, and even the tip shopper of your services or products can develop into mutually useful companions, too. Beaubien outlined how the snack model has participated in a plethora of various relationships, from activating firm workers by way of its Clif Corps program, an employee-led neighborhood service program that achieved 90 p.c participation in 2023, to leveraging its relationships with high athletes. In 2022, for instance, the corporate partnered with tennis champion Venus Williams and nonprofit Outside Afro to offer entry to a spread of out of doors experiences. By considering extra creatively in regards to the sorts of partnerships that may very well be mutually useful, you open your self as much as a much more numerous, much more inventive set of companions.
Use a framework to prioritize alternatives
These main sustainability groups at massive organizations might discover themselves fielding a number of requests for partnerships. How do you decide the best one? Clue: The key isn’t to maintain saying sure till you’re at zero capability. As a substitute, filter every request by way of an goal framework that maps presents — and inside concepts, too — in keeping with a set of clear standards. To what extent would it not use a company’s present sources, for instance? Does it align with core enterprise technique? What funding does it require? What’s the long-term potential of the undertaking? At Clif, the group even considers fastidiously whether or not a specific program will assist in attracting and retaining expertise, in keeping with Beaubien, given how aggressive the present hiring panorama is. Analyze potential partnerships by way of this framework and use its clear metrics to achieve the C-suite buy-in.
Be open to (true) collaboration
The most effective partnerships are borne from a real want to collaborate. Which means with the ability to settle for outdoors concepts, delegate tasks and know when to take a step again. Crucially, for those who’re the lead group on a undertaking or trigger, that doesn’t imply you will need to oversee every aspect of its execution. As a substitute, set out the technique after which intention to encourage others to co-deliver, somewhat than instruct. As Beaubien identified, that’s the great thing about the multiplier impact. “All of the work does not need to be accomplished by our group,” she stated. “We’re simply form of the supply of the ‘gentle,’ after which that ripples out. We then have firms and organizations approaching us saying, ‘We have this nice alternative, we have got this nice coalition, do you need to be a part of it’?”
Establish the place you’ll be able to add worth
If it’s not in your wheelhouse — not strategically linked to your core enterprise — then suppose twice about getting concerned. If a partnership doesn’t clearly align together with your core services or products, or to your wider impression technique, then you may find yourself turning into a burden to your personal stakeholders, somewhat than appearing as a catalyst for constructive change. As a substitute, make investments most closely in these points of a partnership that align together with your core enterprise aims and use present sources, somewhat than asking for brand spanking new funding. This amplifies your impression and in addition gives you with the best credibility, each internally and publicly.
Outline what success seems like on the outset
Earlier than you begin delivering on a partnership, either side ought to have already agreed on the enterprise and neighborhood outcomes and impacts. As an example, how will they measure success and who within the partnership can be liable for capturing the info?
This isn’t at all times easy. Whereas purely industrial initiatives can typically be analyzed in keeping with quantitative key efficiency indicators equivalent to revenues, revenue or buyer acquisition, the identical can’t be stated for partnerships rooted in ESG objectives. That’s why it may be helpful to utilize exterior frameworks that measure success, such because the London Benchmarking Group Methodology.
Once I led the London Benchmarking Group, a member group of 100-plus FTSE250 firms listed on the London Inventory Alternate, centered on measuring, managing and reporting on their strategic neighborhood investments and partnerships, we helped firms to set targets on the outset. These targets have been organized into two components: the enterprise and the neighborhood. What have been the enterprise inputs (money, time or in-kind investments) and the enterprise outputs (variety of folks fed, and many others.) vs. neighborhood inputs (volunteers or undertaking administration time) and outputs (variety of homeless offered lodging)?
Measuring outcomes is a key a part of making certain partnerships are efficient, mutually useful and generate a stable return on funding for each stakeholders and shareholders alike.
The proper partnerships will be invaluable in amplifying impression inside sustainability. However to make sure they speed up progress, somewhat than act as a hindrance, it’s crucial that leaders think about fastidiously which partnerships present the perfect match for his or her group and what’s required to realize quantifiable success.
