2013

WHAT'S CHANGING TODAY?

Click below to see key recent change-related headlines and contact us to discuss how we might help you create value from change.

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What's Changing? - Cybersecurity

Please see below selected recent cybersecurity-related change.

June 2018

Cyberattacks are a real and present threat to any organisation and its customers today, and The Economist predicts that cybercrime will become an even bigger problem throughout 2018. To maintain the faith of customers and protect businesses from catastrophic data compromise, companies will need a comprehensive cybersecurity plan, warned getabstract, recommending Beyond Cybersecurity: Protecting Your Digital Business – a manual on how to develop “digital resilience” in an organisation.

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What's Changing? - Society

Please see below recent society-related change.

June 2018

Without succumbing to politically-motivated "Big Society" mantras, we can nevertheless realise that there is a huge untapped potential in civil society and the individuals within it. If we listened more to the surviving members of the "make do and mend" generation that got through the 1930s, WWII and its bleak aftermath, might we learn again not just self-sufficiency, but also a way of pulling together towards a common purpose? But what should that common purpose be anyway? The fat years (for some) of recent times seemed to lead to increasing isolation from one another, as we retreated inside both our traditional brick and our new digital fortresses, so who is now going to articulate a non-utopian shared vision of what "getting better" should mean for society as a whole?

January 2018

What would it take to build a more just society? In contemporary debates about justice, identity is frequently front and centre, but the 20th-century American philosopher John Rawls thought that looking past identity was the key to more equality. In his book A Theory of Justice (1971), Rawls argued that if we could build a society from behind a ‘veil of ignorance’ that kept us from knowing anything about our identity, we would make choices resulting in a fairer society than we now have – one in which all would benefit from greater freedom and ‘fair equality of opportunity’.

January 2018

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What's Changing? - Demographics

Please see below selected recent demographics-related change.

May 2018

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What's Changing? - Cities

Please see below selected recent cities/urbanisation-related change.

May 2018

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On Leonard Cohen

"So come, my friends, be not afraid.
We are so lightly here.
It is in love that we are made;
In love we disappear."

Happy posthumous birthday, Lenny.

You tried, in your way, to be free. Thank you. Now go join that great gig in the sky. So I wrote a year ago, when Lenny left us. However, the legend lives on - listen for example to How the Light Gets In.

'We Love Leonard Cohen' celebrated his 81st Birthday, and then, for his 82nd and final birthday, Leonard gave us a present. "You Want It Darker" is the title track to last album, his 14th studio album in his 49-year recording career. (See also Leonard Cohen Makes it Darker.)

"Leonard Cohen offers the possibility of living with grace, dignity, and integrity, without submitting to illusions, without succumbing to indifference, and without indulging in denial of our own failures and flaws, in a world that is too often corrupt and malevolent" - Allan Showalter

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What Happened? - Responsibility

Please see below pre-2016 intelligence about responsibility. This is a synthesis of major recent developments at corporates, business schools, thinktanks, media, commentators, and other key influencers.

December 2015

In 'Social Saints, Fiscal Fiends', The Economist argued that the CEO school of corporate responsibility has something going for it. Such bosses are right to argue that a business’s main contribution to society is to provide jobs and income. They are also right to argue for tax harmonisation: America has only itself to blame if firms revolt against its high corporate-tax rate. But they should recognise that there is a big difference between moving to a place like Ireland because it has made a more sensible trade-off between collecting taxes and promoting business, and indulging in contortions such as the “Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich”, whose only aim is to avoid paying taxes anywhere. They also need to recognise that there is a big difference between worrying that government is inefficient and pretending that it is irrelevant, and thus that contributing to its upkeep is unnecessary.

A company’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) activity is inevitably tied to its brand perception. Speaking at Marketing’s PR Asia 2015 conference, the director of communications & government affairs for Kimberly-Clark presented a case study on how a company can go beyond corporate "green-washing" to implement truly effective CSR policies that enhance corporate reputations. The company partnered with various NGOs to increase local participation for its CSR initiatives. This helped to forge a new, profitable and more sustainable business future for both Kimberly-Clark and the communities that it has adopted as part of its CSR drive.

However, VW was also a global leader in CSR. Its annual report was packed full of lovingly described projects it backed and charities it supported. It was a “thought leader” on dozens of different weighty issues, and a “change agent” for improving society. Globally, it was ranked as the 11th best company in the world for its corporate social responsibility work.

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What's Happening? - Sustainability

Please see below selected recent intelligence about climate and sustainability. This is a synthesis of major recent developments at competitors, business schools, thinktanks, media, commentators, and other key influencers in our external environment.

August 2016