CHANGE
Being a Game Changer
by Jayantee Mukherjee Saha

JAN 2012 | The present business scenarios and its corresponding impacts prompted businesses around the world to re-examine their capability to sustain. The term ‘business sustainability’ has become a buzzword in corporate boardrooms and corridors. What is business sustainability all about? What role do leaders play in business sustainability under globalisation?

Business sustainability under globalisation
Plainly speaking, business sustainability is about the dynamics of how a business survives and thrives over the long-term by creating stakeholder value. It is about encouraging 'People' to come together to work, innovate, create value, manage risks, reduce chaos by taking care of the 'Planet' and building the foundations of a 'Prosperous' society which is a harmonious and a happier place to live in.

But, in this globalised and internetised world, how long do businesses actually survive? A study indicated the average life span of companies/businesses to be 12-15 years (Hewitt, 2004). Is that not premature corporate mortality? Why be concerned about business sustainability at all? It is because, as de Gues (2002) states: “the damage that results from the early demise of otherwise successful companies is not merely a shuffle in the FORTUNE 500 list, work lives, communities, and economies are all affected, even devastated, by premature corporate deaths.” The question then arises – why do businesses become unsustainable? Can business leaders be game changers?

Why businesses become unsustainable
The global credit crunch had spread and developed to become a full-blown financial and economic crisis by 2008. It affected many economies around the world. This triggered a general slowdown in economic activity and business cycle contraction. Many businesses, irrespective of their nature, size and geography, faced external as well as internal challenges. It was during that period that I conducted an interesting piece of research (SHRI, 2009) to understand more about the reasons for business unsustainability.

When organisations were asked for reasons of unsustainability, the following five were cited: poor leadership, resistance to change, not being a ‘systems’ thinker, ignoring risk and greed (see table below).

The vast majority of organisations surveyed believed that the rise and fall of any organisation has a direct correlation to leadership ability, particularly, attributes related to institutionalising good governance, vision, decision-making ability and planning. The other reasons given by these organisations were resistance to change, not being a ‘systems’ thinker, ignoring risk and greed respectively. A closer look will perhaps make it clearer that all these five factors are, in one way or another, related to leadership attributes.

Can leaders be game changers?
Periods of crisis are probably a good time in terms of when fundamentally strong businesses emerge, survive and succeed. Successful companies usually have a strong leader with a clear sense of business direction and a sensitive mind while their business strategies and practices adapt to a changing world.

Let me cite a few examples. During the recent phase of economic downturn and rampant retrenchments, many employees were panic-stricken and were not sure whether they had successfully weathered the storm or they should jump ship at the first opportunity. It was during that phase that the CEO of a Singapore- based high-tech and IT services provider handed an employee a paper bag containing a gift. That gift which turned out to be a watch was given to that employee on completion of five years of service to the organisation. ‘Thank you for staying with us through these tough times’ was the message. The CEO also declared that he would cut his own pay by half and support the employees. Consequent to these incidents, there was a dramatic increase in the levels of employee motivation as they felt their services are valued (SHRI, 2009).

Leaders can thus be game changers by evoking ‘people excellence’ (Mukherjee Saha, 2009-1). True leaders recognise that it is through ‘people excellence’ that every difficult situation may be turned into a possibility and that sustaining through people is the key to organisational sustainability.

Conclusion
We often see uncontrollable effects and analyse them in retrospect, most often ignoring the causes, which are far more controllable if the intention is for them to be controlled (Mukherjee Saha, 2009:8). Organisations have a choice to either ‘succeed or sink’ and it is the leaders who make it happen. In the wake of the global financial crisis, Jeffrey Sachs at Columbia University rightly pointed out, “We need to be honest about the fact we nearly blew up the global economy. We need business leaders that can go beyond their own interests and act as `global statesmen' in building a sound global system”.

References
de Geus, A. (2002), A Living Company, Harvard Business School Press, Boston MA.
Hewitt Associates (2004) ‘Business Basics: People & Performance’, Hewitt Quarterly Asia Pacific, Vol. 3
Mukherjee Saha, J. (2009), ‘Driving People Excellence during Economic Debacle ’, ACE, SPRING, Singapore
Mukherjee Saha, J. (2009-1), ‘The Right's rights and the Wrong's might’, Head Hunt-Singapore, 15 January-01 February (Issue 24), P-08
SHRI (2009), Succeed or Sink: Depths and heights of business sustainability, SHRI, Singapore