Profit - People - Planet

We help our clients link communication and business strategies across three different value landscapes: Profit, people and planet.

PROFIT is what business is all about. Operating in this value landscape, key factors are the ability to spot opportunities, the willingness to take chances and the ability to take action. Healthy businesses generate profits because they are innovative and able to efficiently produce what people want. They remain profitable in the long run to the extent they are able to continually reinvent themselves and stay ahead of the competition.

PEOPLE come next. In this value landscape employees focus on living a meaningful life. Sometimes those that see the world through a people perspective are in conflict with the profit approach. What makes them stay and deliver their utmost is the feeling of togetherness, achievement and being acknowledged.

Those who are in charge in a people environment need very good communication skills: Enough information at the right time; visible leadership and integrity at all levels. One of the most important skills as a leader is your ability to meet others with empathy and to set free the energy that is tied up in negative emotions and ideas. This will strongly influence what kind of employees you are able to attract. Competent and happy people with creative drive are what make a company thrive in a networked world.

PLANET we use as a metaphor for being able to see the bigger picture and to both include and transcend the profit and people perspectives. Those that operate in the planet value landscape focus on flow and wholeness. They are able to deal with the entire world as it is and they also have the skills and the will to start changing it into something better, here and now.

Their focus is not restricted to "my company", "my country" or "my part of the world". At the same time those realities are not denied. The point of view is integral which means that different value landscapes are included, valued and used actively to facilitate human evolution.

Go for all three
At Direction we embrace the view that organizations whose leaders allow these three value landscapes or perspectives to co-exist are the ones that will thrive and prosper. Such organizations provide the most meaningful workplaces. They are more effective and competitive because they are able to deal with and minimize destructive value conflicts. Their products and services will be the most wanted because they cover all bases. They are the ones that are able to create a reputation that lasts and stands out from the crowd.

We work with our clients to get there.

Recommended reading:
Profit for Life

Here is some interesting news that has not made big headlines yet:

During the 10 year period 1996 to 2005, those of the world’s largest companies that had their primary focus on people and planet performed roughly twice as well as the S&P 500 and the MSCI indexes, measured in terms of stock prices. This is now well documented in Joseph H. Bragdon’s groundbreaking book, Profit for Life.

Bragdon documents that it is not enough just to do “the right things”. It all depends on how you do it. The companies that try to reach sustainability and social responsibility through command-and-control and strongly hierarchical organizations underachieve badly, they have problems adapting to change and have high dept because they expand through acquisitions.

The ones that work based on long term visions about improving the world and the quality of life perform best. They encourage their employees to work decentralized, take responsibility and have a shared vision. They adapt easily to abrupt changes and they have low debt because they grow from within.

Examples of some of the world’s largest corporations that successfully work this way are: HSBC Holdings, Johnson & Johnson, Toyota, Canon, Nokia and Stora Enso. A Danish example is Novo Nordisk.