Sustainable Value

Stakeholder value, based on a company’s economic, environmental, and social performance, is a new and largely untapped source of competitive advantage that is likely to grow in the years ahead. Greater public awareness and rising societal expectations of business in terms of its impacts on health and ecology are creating new strategic risks and opportunities. Although much has been written about stakeholders, we reframe the subject in terms of competitive advantage using an approach that systematically integrates stakeholder considerations into business strategy and operations. Such an approach can assist companies to reduce costs, differentiate products and services, develop new markets that serve unmet societal needs, and influence industry “rules of the game.” Success in capturing these opportunities requires a new leadership vision and the courage to understand and engage a diverse set of constituencies.