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Chief Technology Officer at Integrity Management Services, Inc., where she is leading cutting-edge technology solutions (AI) for clients.Throughout...
What is Sustainable Transformation?
The need to reduce environmental impact, while generating social benefits and competitive advantage, is one of the main challenges facing companies today. For this, firms need to invest assertively in changing production processes to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and optimize the use of resources, engaging society and employees so that adaptation is consolidated for the long term with no return. This is called sustainable transformation.
And why is it important?
Sustainable transformation aims to satisfy current needs without compromising the possibilities of future generations. To achieve it, it is important to harmonize three fundamental elements: economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection. question the status quo, try new things, and learn to embrace failure.
So, how do we define Sustainable Transformation?
Sustainable transformation requires an analysis of the production cycle, from obtaining raw materials, proceeding to the use of the product by the consumer and its final disposal. Replacing the energy matrix or incorporating the circular economy are examples widely seen. It means innovating with reused waste, making raw material for the company’s process, or even developing the reuse of waste generated from its process in another industrial sector through good environmental management in line with partnership.
Sustainable transformation has the potential to generate carbon credits, that is, there is the possibility of monetizing this. It has a lot of value – it is a way to get a subsidy to make the implementation of measures economically viable and also to allow a consolidated advantage in the medium and long term.
The carbon market depends not only on the engagement of companies and investors, but also on public policies that can encourage and subsidize it.
Companies are at different levels of their sustainable transformation – some are starting to inventory their carbon emissions, while others are already at the stage of implementing these measures to mitigate emissions, or even further ahead, monitoring the results of changes on the operation.
The Goals of Sustainable Development
The Goals of Sustainable Development
In the United Nations Global Agenda for Sustainable Development (2030 Agenda), the European Commission addresses issues related to the environment and climate change, but not only. The 17 goals to be achieved also incorporate economic and gender inequalities and, with reference to business, outlines sustainable patterns of production and consumption. Such an articulated plan encourages entrepreneurs with a sense of responsibility that today is increasingly appreciated by customers. In fact, we talk about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). That is, the voluntary choice to act in a socially and environmentally responsible manner. This is a value that weighs more and more on the reputation of companies.
Today, when a company chooses to invest in green projects, it can view a mere economic return or take inspiration from ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) criteria. In the second hypothesis, the growth will not only be monetary but also in terms of values. And yet, even though we talk a lot about environmental emergencies, the percentage of companies that decide to take action to make their contribution to sustainability is still low.
Together with our clients we focus on creating innovative solutions and outstanding operational performance for achieving amazing economic output while creating a positive impact on the world.
We selectively chose our clients and projects driven by our mission.
Seven Success Factors For Leading Sustainable Companies
LEADERSHIP TEAM SHOULD BE COMMITED TO SUSTAINABILITY
In order for a business to lead in sustainability, the leaders should be fully on board. Willingness to take risks, commitment to the bigger picture and big investments are necessary to meet the critical sustainability targets.
Such leaderships know how to grasp the interplay between ESG issues and their business goals, this results in a clear, defines business case and can inspire action towards sustainable transformation across the company.
INTEGRATE SUSTAINABILITY WITH BUSINESS STRATEGY
Most of the leaders that prioritize sustainability have made a mistake of isolating the work of transformation in one department. That is why leading sustainable companies integrate sustainability in to the business strategy. This makes it clear how sustainability focused investments can be connected to the business risk, growth, innovation, opportunity and growth.
It is also important to mention that sustainability and social impact targets should be added into the KPIs across all sectors of the business like manufacturing, HR or procurement.
LEADERS SHOULD KNOW THEIR PURPOSE
To make sustainable transformation easier to optimize, money, needed time and resources become much more clear when the company has a defined mission, values and a larger purpose for existing. These questions can help the leaders bring this questions together:
Why does sustainability matter to our company?
Are our employees educated on sustainability?
Where do our competitors stand on sustainability?
What do people outside of our business think about our efforts?
How will we communicate our sustainability efforts?
SUSTAINABLE BUSINESS PRIORITIES SHOULD BE CLEAR
Crucial factor is to have a clear perspective on priorities, linkages to the business operations and the willingness to require investments for the success of their sustainable transformation initiatives.
To start such sustainability initiatives, you must know your know how to the core of your business strategy:
What are your key areas of risk and opportunity?
What are the challenges, geographies, and stakeholders most central to your business?
What are the areas in which your company is primed to make the greatest difference?
These sustainability priorities should be closely tied to the firm’s mission, vision and purpose. This makes the priorities and purpose align providing a clear understanding of investments across the whole business.
These sustainability priorities should be closely tied to the firm’s mission, vision and purpose. This makes the priorities and purpose align providing a clear understanding of investments across the whole business.
COLLABORATION DRIVES GREATER SUSTAINABLE IMPACT
Understandably, with the previously mentioned factors (see above) there is a topic of strategic partnerships to create a wider network of companies with the same core values and know-how in order to meet the commitments and to bring greater sustainable impact, beyond what your firm can do alone. Because of this, many companies that are leading in sustainability turn to partnerships, and some may include:
Do collaborations with other ecosystem players and sectors
Creation of partnerships with key stakeholders
Even competitive partnerships or industry-related partnerships with other companies with overlapping supply chains
INVEST IN INNOVATION!
Leading sustainable businesses encourage innovation, reward learning, take calculated risks, and infuse these values across the entire organization. They make investments in open innovation to develop fresh approaches to issues and incorporate sustainability into their value chain. The best sustainable businesses are supporting social entrepreneurs with innovative new solutions, encouraging farmers and suppliers to employ more regenerative agricultural practices, and much more.
WHEN YOU PROMISE, YOU DELIVER
At the end of the day, even the most ambitious commitments are meaningless unless they are supported by an actionable strategy. Leaders of sustainable businesses back up their lofty goals with a budget and a team ready to act, as well as quantifiable and time-bound targets and milestones and a performance tracking plan. Then, as they learn what works and what doesn't, these companies are willing to pivot and adapt.
Even the most sustainable businesses do not have all of the answers or tools. In this case, they seek collaboration with third-party specialists such as CDP, WWF, Earthworm Foundation, Verité, and others who can assist companies in designing, implementing, and tracking sustainability initiatives.
Creating Exceptional Value Out of Open Innovation
LATEST TOP INSIGHTS “Sustainable Strategy & Business Model Transformation”
CLIENT QUOTES ABOUT IPG on “Sustainable Strategy & Business Model Transformation”
The IPG Open Innovation approach has brought us new ideas and concrete solutions much faster, significantly increased our development productivity and integrated potential development suppliers into the process early on. The expectations we had placed in the project were exceeded.
I greatly appreciate IPG’s guidance on the MNRS strategizing process in exploring a reimagination of our brand and our charity's business model. In this regards, IPG has given us such a powerful approach to scale and innovate how we deliver services to families in need.
We have had very good experiences with IPG and their Open Innovation approach. In a remarkably short time they have found and mobilized the right external experts. The results of the Open Innovation Workshops opened up new perspectives for us in the development of innovations and were therefore very valuable to us.
IPG’s deep experience motivated us to investigate our current business model. Carsten Vollrath’s and his team members full commitment moved us further in building new complement digital business model. Our company's holistic vision has changed, first milestone of the project is done. IPG moved us in the process of digital brewing of our new business model, like the process of making the beer. Thanks to IPG we did START. Now we follow-UP.
IPG's deep experience in Global Footprint & Operating Model re-design was very valuable. Another key success factor was the close integration of concept development with our organization, coupled with a very pragmatic, results-oriented approach. Within a few months, a concise road map was formulated and full buy-in was secured by our management team.
On the way to our new strategy, we asked ourselves the following questions: What are the trends in our markets? How fast are these trends developing? With which market approach do we want to address which of these trends? Under which "guiding idea" do we want to position our new offering? Pragmatic, comprehensible answers emerged in an interplay between "thought ahead" and "developed in a circle of many. The IPG approach paired with very senior consultants has made a decisive contribution to our development.
We appreciate IPG's guidance in the transformation towards DIGITAL FITNESS. In a broad-based initiative, we were able to uncover significant efficiency reserves in our organization and define future solutions for company-wide JOST process management.
IPG's deep experience in Strategy & Business Model Innovation was very valuable. Another key success factor was the close integration of concept development with our organization, coupled with a very pragmatic, results-oriented approach. Within a few months, a concise road map was formulated and full buy-in was secured by our management team.
IPG is a reliable partner in strategy development and implementation. They take the time to involve all stakeholders in the process. Also they have excellent research capabilities that are highly flexible, allowing us to pursue an agile and fast strategy development process. Beyond formulating the strategy, IPG works with stakeholders across the organization to aid implementation, too.
In just a few weeks we identified the existing improvement potential with the help of the IPG benchmarking approach, derived a coherent road map and achieved full buy-in by our Global Supply Chain Management team. Particularly valuable was the trend analysis conducted by IPG, which drew our attention to some key trends and drivers that will change our supply chain in the medium term and which we were able to take into account appropriately in our strategy.
DIGITAL FITNESS along our entire JOST value creation process is a key success factor for us. Together with IPG, we were able to uncover important efficiency potential in purchasing, supply chain and production and define valuable focal points for future digital solutions in company-wide JOST process management
We are driving forward the strategic expansion of our purchasing and supply chain function with high priority. With IPG’s guidance, we have been able to create important prerequisites for further increasing our unit's value contribution to the company's success in the future and initiating the transformation toward digitalization and sustainability.
As recognized Thought Leader and Co-Creator for innovation with an impressive track record in the digital transformation of leading companies, IPG's expertise within the Swiss national INDUSTRIE 2025 initiative, especially with regards to the development of unique digital business models, is highly appreciated!
IPG has helped a lot to focus on creating something really new instead of letting the same thing become more intense. Together with IPG, we have managed to design a fully connected & harmonized operating model and cross-regional shared functions to leverage both our size as well as our expertise. As key result we thereby substantially increased our sales efficiency and productivity.
Thanks to IPG's open innovation approach, we have received interesting solution ideas for our open questions. This gave us fresh ideas and interesting actual opportunities for the future.
As an internationally recognized think tank and consultancy for technology and innovation management, we see IPG as a valuable strategic partner for the expansion of our Science-technology Park. In addition, we benefit from IPG's relevant supply chain expertise in developing and locating highly qualified suppliers for our customers.
The strategic expansion of our commodity group management is a top priority for SBB. With the support of Carsten Vollrath and his team, we were able to realize important steps in expanding our methodological expertise and in deriving commodity group-specific optimization levers and sustainable procurement strategies.
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Digital procurement is a central field of training for us, in which the BME already plays a leading role. We are proud to have won IPG as a strategic partner for the further expansion of our training program. With IPG's relevant innovation and digitization competence, we offer German procurement organizations a first-class range of services to systematically develop and expand their digital competencies.
IPG is one of the leading think tanks and management consultancies for the holistic transformation of purchasing. Above all, with its relevant innovation competence, IPG is a strategic training partner for us for the systematic development of purchasing 4.0 competencies and the initiation of purchasing 4.0 pilot projects in Swiss companies. logo-procure Andreas Kyburz For over 55 years, the Trade Association for Purchasing and Supply Management “procure.ch” has been accompanying procurement employees at industrial, trading and service companies throughout their professional careers. The association links around 1,000 companies from different sectors and of different sizes, along with 500 private individuals.
In addition to intensive analyses on the market and customer side with IPG, the impulses from many external experts and potential development partners that IPG involved in our innovation work were trend-setting on our way from a classical machine manufacturer to a solution provider and strategic business partner for our customers.
We like to work with IPG because they not only have the skills of strategy consulting and facilitation, but also understand our medical and technical challenges due to their in-depth experience in healthcare.
IPG's deep experience in business model development and especially with regard to open innovation was very valuable. Through networked thinking, we were encouraged to embark on something truly new and to open up widely to explore concrete new offerings, business models and set cornerstones to our organization for a new growth area.
With his relevant experience in various industries, Carsten Vollrath and IPG are an important source of inspiration and sparring partner for us on the topic of "Transformation of the SBB Supply Chain in the Direction of Digitalization and Sustainability”.
When it comes to topics related to innovation and digitalization (AI, IoT, automation, etc), Carsten Vollrath and his team are a top address.
IPG has helped us a lot in sharpening a common understanding of the topic of strategic procurement management across all purchasing units and raising the entire purchasing department to a new level of professionalism. The structural & cultural challenges in the organization associated with the necessary transformation were recognized early on and actively addressed.
IPG is one of the first addresses for supply chain transformation. For us, IPG is an ideal strategic partner not only as an initiator and pioneer, but also as a strategic implementation partner for innovative supply chain solutions and associated digital business models.
As recognized Thought Leader and Co-Creator for innovation with a long track record in the digital transformation of leading companies, IPG's expertise within the Swiss dialogue about digitalization and technology management (i.e. in the national INDUSTRIE 2025 initiative) especially with regards to the development of unique digital business models is highly appreciated!
On the way to our new order fulfillment organization, we harmonized the roles, tasks and competencies between the functions involved and established a common end-2-end process understanding. In the interplay between "thought ahead" and "agreed within the circle of stakeholders", the IPG approach has contributed decisively to our new setup and our collaborative approach.
IPG has made a strong contribution to our brand relaunch. Thanks to the collection and evaluation of hand-picked customer voices (voice of the customer), we were able to sharpen our positioning and strengthen our brand.
The acknowledged expertise of IPG has helped us a lot in setting up an integrated global Supply Chain & Procurement function which fully supports the new Getinge Operating Model in the best possible way. This included a new organizational setup and corresponding roles and responsibilities as well as a new governance structures for coordination between all SC functions in the group. As one key success factor IPG managed to integrate all relevant functional areas systematically into the redesign process from the very beginning, thereby achieving a high buy-in.
On behalf of the Chamber of Commerce, I`m using the opportunity to express satisfaction for the joint fruitful collaboration in the matter of industrialization and digitalization of Serbian economy. As an international think tank and top management consultancy with an impressive track record in the digital transformation of leading companies, IPG's expertise is highly appreciated within the public-private dialogue within the framework of the elaboration of the new industrial policy strategy, as well as the initiative of digital transformation in industry the Republic of Serbia! chamber-of-commerce-serbia Vidosava Dzagić The Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Serbia is an independent, modern and responsible non-budget institution, a national association of all Serbian businessmen who puts their traditions, experience, knowledge and expertise to the best interests of their members and the Serbian economy.
In the comprehensive exchange of knowledge and the global networking of know-how from different areas and perspectives, we see IPG with the relevant industry 4.0 competence as a valuable partner and impulse generator for the further development of Smart Factory solutions.
Future based, disruptive and out of the box thinking. Those who want to shape the future learn methods and skills in the "Certified Digital Procurement Manager" (CDPM) certificate course.
In the "Certified Digital Procurement Manager" (CDPM) certificate course teach Top advisers, who make the red thread in the well-structured course structure clearly noticeable. The final thesis enables the immediate transfer into the daily business.
The "Certified Digital Procurement Manager" (CDPM) certificate course opens the perspective for the current way of working in purchasing and gives new perspectives for a sustainable purchasing organization. The interaction of theoretical basics, practical examples and the work with concrete use cases provides the participants with a suitable tool for the implementation in their own company.
The challenges of a future purchasing structure in Purchasing 4.0 are manifold and decisive. With the certificate course "Certified Digital Procurement Manager", IPG has laid the foundation for us to be able to plan and implement a market-driven & strategic development at an early stage. The methods imparted are innovative and show a trend-setting analysis of upcoming necessities.
My expectations of the "Certified Digital Procurement Manager" (CDPM) certificate course in terms of content, quality and speakers were exceeded. Despite the packed six days, there was no shortage of group work; the class size was ideal for this. In each module we were able to practice the topics in a practical way and at the end we could embed them in the individual case study. I can use this "one to one" in my daily business.
As one of the first classes to be allowed to complete the majority of the "Certified Digital Procurement Manager" (CDPM) certificate course online, the need for digitization was clearly demonstrated to us. Thanks to the exciting modules and the practical case studies, taking into account the entire value chain, my view was sharpened to think and act in digital processes.
