Market Forces, Governance, Globalisation, Innovation, Among Major Influencers
Monday, April 10, 2006
NEW YORK, April 10, 2006 (PRIMEZONE) — Sustainable development will steadily advance over the next 10 years, with six major trends influencing industry world-wide, according to a new PricewaterhouseCoopers’ report, “Corporate Responsibility: Strategy, Management and Value.” The challenge of creating strategies that meet immediate needs without sacrificing the needs of future generations will be driven by the growing influence of: global market forces; revisions in corporate governance; high speed innovation; large scale globalisation; evolving societal requirements and communication, the report says.
“Sustainable businesses balance their economic interests with the need to be socially and environmentally responsible. The companies that succeed over the long term are those that integrate ethical considerations into company decision-making, and manage on the basis of personal integrity and widely-held organisational values,” said Sunny Misser, PricewaterhouseCoopers’ global leader of sustainable business solutions.
The report identifies the following major trends:
— Growing influence of global market forces, rather than government policy. The influence of the markets in decision-making will grow as they reflect rising demand, shrinking supply, and changing patterns of demand for natural resources.
— Revisions in the financial model used to set corporate and government strategy. The new model will include new scenarios, new risk factors, and a growing number of intangible and non-financial factors.
— Innovation, particularly in core industries. Changing economic conditions will expand the rate of innovation exponentially to include changes in behaviour, product design, supply chains and geopolitical structure, in addition to technology.
— Globalisation. International institutions will be responsible for formulating global policies; the role of national or local institutions will be limited to implementation.
— Evolution, not revolution. Progress toward sustainable development will be largely incremental. Barriers to rapid change will die hard, but specific catalysts may cause spurts of great change.
— Communication. The global media may influence which issues governments and industries focus on and accelerate the speed of changes in policy and behaviour.
