A Radical Pragmatist

In an interconnected world Sustainability and Reputation risks are inseparable. It’s been nearly 18 months since the industry certification body, the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) suspended the palm oil producer, IOI Corporation Berhard, for illegally clearing 11,750 hectares of forests and peatland in Indonesia. The problems for IOI started when an NGO, Aidenvironment, alleged that the company’s subsidiaries in West Kalimantan, Indonesia, had illegaly deforested 11,750 hectares including a 1,300 hectares plot inside the Manis Mata Production Forest, a conservation area. In most cases Aidenvironment, alleged that the required government permits were lacking. ÏOI was then quickly suspended from RSPO. Promptly, as Ceres pointed out, 27 of IOI’s largest customers, including ADM, Colgate-Palmolive, Johnson & Johnson, Kellogg Company, Nestle, Procter & Gamble, Reckitt Benckiser and Unilever, suspended procurement contracts. Next, as Valuewalk’s Gabrie...

When a shareholder turns activist, corporate Boards go into overdrive trying to fend off potential actions. And when it comes to Reputation, Boards and CEOs get their PR machinery into overdrive. But shareholders no longer act alone. For embedded within the activist shareholder’s demands is the idea that corporate reputations are always susceptible to reputation (and potential financial) damage and consequent impacts whether in the capital markets, or among policy makers or communities. Any shareholder action draws in diverse sets of other stakeholders, whether customers, communities or even NGOs. Sometimes the action draws policymakers into focus. Complexity abounds. How effective is a traditional corporate strategy in today’s age of instantaneous social media echo chambers? Is it at all possible for managements to create ‘pre-emptive strikes’ on potential issues that activist shareholders might raise? Or is it simply a matter of getting ‘bots’ to counter-attack in social med...

Read or watch the media about the elections in France or the soon-to-be elections in Britain. Cast your mind back to the U.S. and the coming of President Trump, or if you’re in India trace every news article on Prime Minister Modi. Fake news, left and alt-right media notwithstanding, for a student and analyst of history it’s all fascinating. And scary! From the points the media makes, no matter which end of the extreme (or even perhaps dead centre) that you believe in, there are subtle sub-texts to be understood, interpreted and applied. They go unapplied as historians of the future may well conclude! At one level, if the media reflects what we are that reflection is truly disturbing. If Trump is an indication, the reflection we see for ourselves is “Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the most beautiful of them all”. And in some senses this is about ignorant, shallow vanity, even narcissism, which in its own way can be dangerously destructive. Yet if some sanity around preva...