Sustainability is increasingly part of strategic conversations for finance teams, executives and boards. However, as organisations focus on growing reporting and compliance requirements, there is a risk that the bigger opportunity for growth, innovation and competitive advantage gets lost.
This was the focus of a recent Moir Group webinar featuring Janette O’Neill, Founder of Future Different. Janette explored how organisations can use purpose and sustainability to create long-term business value.
At the centre of the discussion was Creating Shared Value (CSV), a concept that challenges organisations to consider where business opportunities, organisational capabilities and societal needs intersect.
ESG Tells You What to Measure, Not What to Build
One of Janette’s key messages was that ESG and sustainability reporting can raise the minimum standard for organisations, but reporting alone does not create competitive advantage.
The opportunity is to use the information being collected to identify risks and, importantly, opportunities. This means asking what sustainability insights can tell an organisation about new products, markets, efficiencies, innovation and future growth.
Rather than allowing sustainability to become primarily a reporting exercise, organisations can use it as an input into broader strategic decision-making.
Creating Shared Value Complements Sustainability Strategy
CSV does not replace broader sustainability and business strategy, compliance, governance or philanthropy.
Instead, it provides an additional lens for identifying opportunities where societal and environmental needs align with business priorities.
Not every sustainability challenge will have a profitable solution. However, when community needs and business needs genuinely overlap, investment can create value in both directions.
Societal Challenges Can Drive Innovation
Janette encouraged leaders to think about social and environmental challenges not only as risks to manage, but also as potential sources of innovation and competitive advantage.
Changes in areas such as climate, energy, demographics, affordability, technology and supply chains are already influencing customers, workforces and organisations.
Connecting these challenges back to an organisation’s purpose can help identify where its existing capabilities could be used differently to create both societal and commercial value.
Shared Value Goes Beyond Products and Services
Strong shared value strategies are not limited to developing new products.
Opportunities can also come from redesigning operations or business models, improving efficiency, strengthening value chains or investing in the communities in which an organisation operates.
The most effective opportunities are closely connected to an organisation’s core strategy and capabilities. For smaller organisations, Janette also highlighted the value of being highly focused and using partnerships to increase impact.
What This Means for Business Leaders
The key message from the discussion was that sustainability has the potential to deliver much more than compliance.
As Janette explained, shared value aligns societal value with strategic advantage. It encourages organisations to consider societal challenges as potential sources of innovation and a way to strengthen competitiveness.
This is particularly relevant for finance leaders. As finance teams become increasingly involved in sustainability reporting, there is an opportunity to help move the conversation from measurement and disclosure towards risk, investment, strategy and long-term value creation.
During the webinar, 86% of participants said they could see Creating Shared Value as a useful way to think about innovation, growth and long-term value creation.
Ultimately, ESG can help organisations understand what needs to be measured. The bigger strategic question is what organisations choose to build from those insights.
Janette shared the following resources for those who would like to explore Creating Shared Value and purpose-led business strategy further:
- Shared Value Project Australia (now a part of Melbourne Business School)
- Annual Executive Education Program (2027 dates to be confirmed)
- Porter & Kramer – Creating Shared Value (2011)
- Pfitzer et al. – Innovating for Shared Value (2013)
- Purpose and Profit: How Business Can Lift Up the World – George Serafeim
- Net Positive: How Courageous Companies Thrive by Giving More Than They Take – Paul Polman & Andrew Winston
Moir Group is a specialist finance, accounting and ESG recruitment company. We cover temporary and permanent roles from Financial Accountant to CFO level, and we recruit Sustainability and ESG positions across all industry sectors.
If you’re building the finance team your business needs for the next phase, we’d welcome a conversation. Contact us here.