S1.E13: Sustainable Commerce: Part 5 - Relationships

Companies have cultivated relationships only from pure self-interest – mostly with shareholders, financial analysts, customers and suppliers. And usually, these interactions have been a pure power play – wining and dining the influential few, while ignoring the rest or pressuring them into conformance. The idea of genuine dialogue with communities, NGOs and government for the sake of enduring symbiotic relationships, rather than as a short-term bargaining tactic, is still somewhat unpalatable for most companies. With their quarterly eye on the skittish profits, spending time and energy on building long term friendships without any immediate reward seems, well, a costly indulgence. But to survive in the sustainability era, companies have to move beyond their aggressive, competitive tendencies. They need to learn to be not only sociable, but genuinely concerned about the perspectives and wellbeing of all of their stakeholders.