We recently launched our EMBA on sustainability at the JC Hub, as part of our continuing leadership development programs for John Clements Consultants employees.
One of my personal goals of late has been to apply a sustainability-oriented approach to all areas of the company. In today’s world, debating whether to incorporate sustainability into your business strategy is no longer just an option, but a critical business imperative.
During our session led by Tully Moss, we were empowered with a lot of knowledge and understanding about the topic.
Here are some of our key learning points:
Sustainability
Sustainability (and in particular, climate change) is a complex topic that has not yet been communicated to the masses in terms they understand and in ways that leave them highly motivated to do something about it.
Greenhouse Gas Emissions
There is a timing mismatch: The impact of continued greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is long-term but the costs of addressing it need to be incurred in the short term. Meanwhile, there are demands on politicians to sustain economic growth, and there are demands on corporations to meet the quarterly and annual expectations of investors.
China, EU, and the US
On an international level, three entities need to lead the way: China, the European Union (EU), and the United States (US). The EU has made by far the most progress in reducing carbon emissions. Still, it has come at a cost (higher electricity costs, intermittency issues with renewable energy sources, dependence on Russian natural gas). China is the largest emitter of GHG, and the ongoing construction of coal-fired power plants indicates that it will remain.
The US has made some progress. Although the US lacks national consensus, the sustainability debates there tend to get mired in politics. Picking up the slack in the U.S. have been corporations and individual states, both of which are taking climate change quite seriously and are making concerted efforts to address that issue constructively.
As the session is still ongoing until September, we have yet to tackle other sustainability challenges. So far, we are learning a lot about positioning our goals towards sustainability and deep purpose.
Roger Santos, another participant of the program, also shared his thoughts:
I am currently attending the Executive MBA program organized by John Clements Consultants, Inc. about Sustainability and Deep Purpose. We just finished our fourth session this week and the topics we discussed so far have broadened my understanding and personal approach to sustainability. It’s important to look at and consider not only environmental sustainability, but also social, economic, and cultural sustainability.
Social
As a company, it is our vision to help our economy grow by providing jobs to people from all walks of life. We tap fresh graduates and bring people to other countries for better opportunities. In fact, JCCI President and CEO Carol Dominguez is planning to go to different provinces to hire talents for us. We are helping them improve their lives and in turn, they are helping us sustain our business. The webinars we’ve organized for free– such as Weekly with JC and Youth for Leadership Summit (Y4LS)– are John Clements’ programs that support our society in different aspects. We are building leaders of the future and in return they can become our candidates or clients.
Economy
What is good about our business is we are diversified. Since we are covering all industries, we are not vulnerable if one industry will be affected by an economic downturn or recession. For example, when part of the manufacturing industry and the mining sector went down, our business had to quickly divert the focus to other industries like BPO, consumer or healthcare so we could survive. And we will continue to adapt to the market changes. As Winston Churchill said, “Never let a good crisis go to waste.” We need to continuously think and innovate so we could survive and still be relevant even in a crisis. During the pandemic, we took advantage of the crisis by coming up with new services to address the needs or demands of our clients.
Being in this executive MBA program has also taught me that as a company, we need to think if our current culture is sustainable. We need to continuously assess our operations. Is the culture that we have now still relevant to the new generations? How can we sustain our business if we can’t adapt to the mindset of the new generations? Are we really valuing diversity? Have we considered hiring undergraduates that are very capable? Have we considered hiring part-timers who are comfortable working for a certain number of hours? We are entering a new age where we have lots of options as far as talents are concerned. I believe companies in general should carefully assess their culture so they can sustain their business operations and become successful.
If you want to know more about our leadership development programs, contact us at info@johnclements.com.
