ENGAGING THE C-SUITE AND THE BOARDROOM

The Next Sustainability Wave

This book provides guidance on how to sell sustainability. The question that screamed in Bob’s head as he finished his first book was: “If the business case for sustainability strategies is this good, why isn’t every company using them?” To rigorously research the answer, he undertook a doctorate at the University of Toronto. His PhD thesis was this book. His research found that the biggest obstacle to executives embracing sustainability strategies is mindset. The book explains how to sell sustainability initiatives to skeptical business leaders: understand their needs and priorities, talk their language, gracefully handle their objections, and help them see how sustainability strategies can be good for business.

Designed for quick reading and reference — right-hand pages furthering the argument, while left-hand pages provide support materials — the book is especially useful for those wanting to convince busy executives and board members of the wisdom of sustainability-oriented business strategies. It even includes effective responses to use when confronted with 26 typical objections from skeptics.

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Post-Publication Correction 
The bad news is that because of a calculation error, the bottom line of the table in the Appendix on p. 284 indicates that a typical SME would obtain a 46% profit improvement over five years. The good news is that it should be a 66% profit improvement. The even better news is that when the business case was re-calibrated in 2012 in The New Sustainability Advantage, it concluded that if a typical company were simply to  use best-practice sustainability approaches already being used by real companies, it could improve its profit by at least 51% to 81% within three to five years, while avoiding a potential 16% to 36% erosion of profits if it did nothing.

Handling Objections

This discussion paper summarizes the ideas shared at a Toronto Sustainability Speaker Series workshop event. To assist sustainability professionals in addressing and overcoming any objections they encounter, both general and specific strategies are presented. This paper outlines not only how to ‘win over’ objectors, but also how to effectively present and implement sustainability initiatives through an understanding of the psychological mindsets and principles of organizational change. The techniques echo recommendations in The Next Sustainability Wave.

Engaging the C-Suite and Boardroom slides 

The Master – Leading Change slide deck is one of the six slide decks available to Master Slide Decks subscribers.  The deck includes:

    • 7-Step change model
    • 7 Leadership practices
    • 7 Leadership paradoxes
    • 7 Derailers
    • Leadership attributes and styles
    • Handling objections

The master decks are updated quarterly. The slides can be used to build your own slide decks for presentations, and are excellent micro-courses / tutorials / refreshers on key aspects of sustainability topics. They are Bob’s most valued resource.