Responsible Business & Employee Engagement

Keys to Addressing Today’s Business Sustainability Questions

Blog by Julie Urlaub, Founder and Managing Partner at Taiga Company
Jun 14, 2011 11:45 AM ET

Taiga Company blog by Julie Urlaub, Founder and Managing Partner at Taiga Compa…

"If I knew then what I know now, I would have done it differently." This is a very common comment we come across in our sustainability consulting.  So why make decisions that don’t result in the way you intended when access to needed information can be made easily available? 

The ability to manage and mitigate business risk depends on the most important of all business commodities: quality information.  While sometimes extremely important and sometimes of little consequence, the value of this information is unfortunately based in ‘hind-sight’ on the resulting outcomes of a business sustainability decision. 
 
Within our professional consulting experience, we recognize that there comes a point when it is simply ‘decision time’.   Assumptions or outright guesses have to be made with incomplete information.  When the result of this decision is not what was expected, the need for information becomes invaluable.  Exploring the factors that often lead to incomplete information, we find the limiters often include:
 
•    Access to additional information is no longer readily available.
•    The cost to obtain additional information becomes prohibitive.
•    The time needed to obtain additional information extends beyond the decision time frame.
•    The perception is that additional information would not alter the decision.
 

The good news is that business sustainability efforts to engage stakeholders are driving new information technology solutions.  The Harvard Business Review post, New Ways to Collaborate for Process Improvement, explains how leading companies such as IBM, Ford, and Avery Dennison are making major improvements in key processes by creating online communities to share deep knowledge.  Click here to continue reading.

 

Home to one third of the earth's trees, the Taiga is the largest land-based biosphere and encircles the globe. Its immense oxygen production literally changes the atmosphere and refreshes the planet. It is this continuous renewal that has shaped Taiga Company's vision to drive similar change in the business world. Taiga Company seeks to be the "oxygen for your business".