Sustainable Business in a Changing World

It is evident that the world is changing in fundamental ways. As Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney put it at the World Economic Forum’s annual meeting in Davos last month, we are experiencing not an evolution, but a “rupture” in how the global economy operates. Evidence of this was also on display as I participated in this year’s edition of Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), where business leaders from the Gulf, and across the world, demonstrated the leadership and innovation so central to building a just and sustainable world.

Companies now face a strategic context defined by fragmentation, geopolitical tension, contested information, and uneven economic and social conditions. At the same time, climate impacts, inequality, and technological disruption are accelerating. These shifts call for strategies that are sharper, more resilient, and more directly connected to enterprise priorities.

Six long-term shifts are resetting the foundations for sustainable business

• Global cooperation has fractured, or at the very least, realigned.
• Institutional norms and trust have eroded, magnified by misinformation and disinformation.
• Trade arrangements have been disrupted, and volatility is the new normal.
• Work, labor, and mobility are being rewired.
• Radical technological change, including but not limited to the AI revolution, will bring massive social and economic change.
• The impacts of climate change are here now, and will only increase, in potentially unpredictable ways.

Together, these shifts mean past assumptions no longer hold, and strategies require a fundamental update.

Changing strategies for sustainable business

The current context calls for companies to adopt new approaches that enhance the strategic relevance, credibility, and impact of sustainable business.

Anchor sustainability in enterprise priorities: The days of “nice to have” objectives won’t meet today’s needs. It is essential to focus on sustainability that truly matters to and enables business strategies.

Connect sustainability to strategic insight: Amid today’s “structural volatility,” companies should apply foresight to surface emerging issues, test assumptions, and understand long-term uncertainties. Foresight tools reveal connections across business, sustainability, and society, and highlight evolving risks and opportunities.

Prioritize results over process: Sustainable business has relied heavily on frameworks, processes, and transparency mechanisms. Companies achieve greater value by concentrating on a small set of transformative opportunities that produce demonstrable results for people and business.

Capitalize on the “new geography of sustainability:” Sustainable business is no longer being defined mainly in the US and Europe. This has the benefit of shaping sustainability with a genuinely global mindset. It is essential to capitalize on new centers of leadership – including the Gulf – and finding ways to build global consensus and cooperation that multilateral processes can no longer promise.

Build for durability in a volatile external environment, not for reactivity: Numerous factors have led to a more diverse array of influential individuals, networks, and institutions becoming more important for companies that are navigating a more polarized and fragmented external environment. Companies need to hear and understand divergent viewpoints, and to consider impacts on affected people and communities, then build credible, durable strategies centered on business value, company values, and impacts.

What kind of world do you want to do business in?

Underlying these shifting foundations are deeper threats in many parts of the world: weakening democracy and rule of law, declining public investment in education and science, politicized rulemaking, and eroding public support for market economies. Business depends on these foundations to innovate and operate.

The question is not only how companies adapt but also what kind of world they want to do business in, and what kind of world they need to conduct business successfully.

Three shifts can contribute to stabilizing the operating environment in a way that strengthens trust.

• Defend the basics: Support an open trading system, rule of law, science-based decision-making, global cooperation, and reliable data infrastructure through industry associations, communities of interest and multistakeholder platforms. This allows companies to act credibly and collaboratively, and with reduced political risk.
• Align policy engagement with long-term objectives: Businesses suffer when there are wild swings in policy that interfere with investments needed for a resilient future. Focusing only on near-term tactical positions risks undermining the institutions or rules companies need for a functional economy.
• Increase focus on widespread economic vitality and opportunity: The turn away from open markets is due in large part to public dissatisfaction with current and future economic opportunities. Companies should focus more on using their actions, enabling capabilities, and influence to support economic opportunities for all, and on solutions to income inequality.

Business thrives with a stable, predictable, and open system. Companies should not stand by as the world around them shifts. In addition to the traditional role of employer, innovator, and taxpayer, businesses should play their role in shaping the profound changes in the operating environment. No business succeeds by being passive. In a world undergoing transformation, companies both benefit and contribute by shaping these changes.