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The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success - And How You Can Too
 
 

The Triple Bottom Line: How Today's Best-run Companies Are Achieving Economic, Social and Environmental Success - And How You Can Too (Hardcover)

by Andrew W. Savitz (Author), Karl Weber (Author)
3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Hardcover: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Jossey Bass (4 Aug 2006)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0787979074
  • ISBN-13: 978-0787979072
  • Product Dimensions: 22.6 x 16.3 x 3.6 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 244,442 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)
  • See Complete Table of Contents

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Product Description

Review
Andrew Savitz recalls a conversation he had with a purchasing manager at a large telecommunications company. The man was adamant that social responsibility had nothing to do with his job, which was to buy products at the lowest price.

"Would you buy from a foreign supplier that you knew was employing 10–year–old girls and paying them 60 cents a day for their labour?" Savitz asked.

"Of course I wouldn′t do that," came the reply.

"Not even if the supplier offered the lowest price, if child labour was legal in that country and if no one could possibly find out?"

"No," the manager replied. "It would not be right."

"Do you think your company would support your decision to sacrifice profit in this case?" Savitz persisted.

"Absolutely, I′m certain of it," the manager said.

Do not be deterred by the unfortunate title of this forthcoming book. In just 250 pages, rich in anecdotes, Savitz makes a lively and cogent case that no company or manager can afford any longer to ignore the world around them. Many of the reasons companies face "the age of accountability" are familiar, but it is useful to see them pulled together: our shared sense of vulnerability, fostered by climate change and natural disasters, coupled with the awesome power that global corporations have accumulated; the goldfish bowl in which companies operate; their increased exposure through networks of business partners and global supply chains; the campaigns mounted by lawyers, non–governmental organisations and shareholder activists.

But this book is not a tract admonishing business to take its responsibilities seriously. Its central argument is an upbeat one that is gaining currency: it makes financial sense for companies to anticipate and respond to society′s emerging demands. In the long run, says Savitz, the sustainable company is likely to be highly profitable.

There is a flipside: companies that fail to respond, or thumb their noses at society, are likely to pay the price.

What is a sustainable company?

Savitz and Karl Weber, his co–author, spend time on their definitions–a sensible move given the confusion and spin that often surround this debate. Sustainability is not about philanthropy, which has nothing to do with the company′s main purpose. Nor is it merely about ethics. The authors even prefer "sustainability" to "responsibility", arguing that the latter emphasises benefits to society rather than benefits to the company.

For Savitz, who created the environmental practice at PwC and has worked with some of America′s biggest companies, it is about conducting business in a way that benefits employees, customers, business partners, communities and shareholders at the same time. It is "the art of doing business in an interdependent world". The best–run companies find "sustainability sweet spots"–areas where shareholders′ long–term interests overlap with those of society. Implausible? Look at General Electric, with its revenue–boosting Ecomagination green technology, says Savitz. Or Toyota′s fuel–efficient Prius. Or Unilever′s Project Shakti in India, training 13,000 women to distribute its products to rural customers and thereby greatly increasing families′ income while expanding its market penetration. Every company can find a sweet spot, he suggests, even if it is the minimal one of cutting costs by reducing energy use, employee accidents or the chances of a lawsuit–though some of this could just as well be called smart risk management.

In the second half of the book, he explains how to translate all this into "business as usual": how to decide what it means for the company; how to work with stakeholders, not against them; how to set enforceable goals in difficult areas such as child labour. Throughout, the arguments are driven by pragmatism, not dewy–eyed altruism. The narrative occasionally suffers from its American slant. The English Quakers, after all, pioneered decent working and community practices long before Henry Ford.

Even if you do not agree with it all, this is a thoughtful guide for managers who still harbour doubts about the point of sustainability, who are taking tentative steps towards it or who are seeking a clearer path through the maze. With luck, it should also help the anoraks in the sustainability industry to distinguish the wood from the trees.

–Financial Times, July 5, 2006

"…excellent new book… a compelling case for change." (The Marketer, January 2007)

"Important issues, well presented, that deserve a wide audience" (Long Range Planning, July 2007)

Review
"...Savitz makes a lively and cogent case that no company or manager can afford any longer to ignore the world around them...a thoughtful guide for managers who still harbour doubts about the point of sustainability..." (Financial Times, July 5, 2006)

"…excellent new book… a compelling case for change." (The Marketer, January 2007)

"Important issues, well presented, that deserve a wide audience" (Long Range Planning, July 2007)

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Customer Reviews

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Average Customer Review
3.7 out of 5 stars (3 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Triple Bottom Line, 19 Feb 2009
By Jill Poet (Essex, UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This book is very easy to read and it started off extremely well, but after a while I realised that the examples were very repetitive - just the same few companies mentioned all the time! A bit more variety would be good, and also using examples of smaller companies as well as the big giants.
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5.0 out of 5 stars Engaging guide to better fiscal, environmental and social performance., 11 Dec 2006
By Rolf Dobelli "getAbstract.com" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
Sustainability is "the art of doing business in an interdependent world" according to consultant Andrew W. Savitz, who urges companies to focus on the "triple bottom line": solid profit, environmental quality and improved human welfare. Drawing on his experience as head of PricewaterhouseCoopers' sustainability practice, Savitz (writing with Karl Weber) makes a compelling case for moving your business toward "a sustainability sweet spot" where shareholders, environmental interests and other stakeholders can all feel satisfied. Sound like reheated corporate responsibility leftovers? Don't worry. This book offers much more than soft-headed "birdies and butterflies" rhetoric or a few threadbare anecdotes. Savitz marshals truly compelling arguments based on widely accepted demographic, regulatory and cultural trends. Even robber barons will feel the pull of his message, partly because the book is so engaging and well-paced that it reads like a novel, and partly because his prescriptions are so clear, coherent and actionable that they seem like common sense. We highly recommend this sustainability guidebook to those who want to begin the journey on which such companies as Toyota, GE, PepsiCo, Nike and Unilever have already embarked. Bottom line: you can't afford to ignore sustainability.
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3.0 out of 5 stars An Anecdotal Accounting of How to Measure a Large Company's Impact on Its Stakeholders, 29 Nov 2006
By Professor Donald Mitchell "Jesus Makes Me a P... (Boston) - See all my reviews
(TOP 10 REVIEWER)      

If you were traditionally trained a long time ago, you probably heard that the purpose of a corporation is to reward its shareholders with earnings, dividends and stock-price gains. Since then, the counterview has been growing that companies need to be responsible as well for the impact they create on users, customers, employees, suppliers, partners, distributors, lenders, the communities affected and the environment. That counterview is common sense in many dimensions today for a typical corporate manager or executive. If you harm people directly or indirectly, they will sue you, boycott your products, make life miserable, and help drive away profit.

The Triple Bottom Line attempts to go beyond that common sense view to establish the concept of a sustainable company, one that "creates profit for its shareholders while protecting the environment and improving the lives of those with whom it interacts." As you can see, improving lives goes beyond the idea of "not harming lives" so it's a proactive concept.

The authors use the example of the whaling industry running their stocks into virtual extinction as a poor way to create long-term profits and jobs. A more recent extended example is the ruckus created when the Hershey Trust decided to sell its controlling block of stock in Hershey Foods for a premium. The trust ultimately backed down due to pressure from all directions. The point: You just cannot optimize the solution for one set of stakeholders any more.

The book takes a long time to establish this premise. I assume that the authors have run into lots of skeptics in the past.

But if you accept the premise, it makes much of the book not terribly helpful.

The substance begins in chapter 13 on page 209 where the authors begin to address measuring and reporting. There's a brief description of the work being done in environmental and social reporting, such as the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI). If you're not familiar with GRI, you'll get a little background. But you won't know what to do next.

In the future, this kind of reporting will be more important. Stock exchanges in Scandinavia, France, Britain, South Africa and some other countries now require that listed companies report Triple Bottom Line results. It's all part of an atmosphere of the public wanting more disclosure.

But if you want practical advice about what to do, you won't find it here.
Think of this book as an appetizer to wake up your taste buds. The major issues involved in how to do this well are substantial and will take many years to work out. I suspect that taking the pathway of the Balanced Scorecard to work on these tasks is a surer route than Triple Bottom Line reporting.

I favor more measuring, reporting and focusing, but this book doesn't provide enough meat to satisfy me. Find a meatier book if you can if this subject interests you.
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