The Breakthrough Challenge: 10 Ways to Connect Today's Profits with Tomorrow's Bottom Line

by John Elkington, Jochen Zeitz

The world's most forward-looking CEOs recognize the real challenge facing business a fundamental shift in the nature of commerce. While sustainability programs, government action, and nonprofits are all parts of the solution, CEOs and other leaders must focus on social, environmental, and economic benefit--not only because it will make the world a better place, but because it will ensure lasting profitability and success in the business climate of tomorrow.The Breakthrough Challenge is both an inspiring call-to-action and a guide for this transformation, based on the work of The B Team, a major initiative uniting leaders in sustainability. As a founding advisor and member of The B Team, John Elkington and Jochen Zeitz map out an agenda for change. The most important goal for businesses must be redefining the bottom line to account for true long-term costs throughout the supply chain. To achieve this, leaders must rethink what counts on balance sheets, how to incentivize performance, who does what in the C-suite, and even what inspires us. The Breakthrough Challenge draws on over 100 exclusive interviews to show this shift in action, sharing the pioneering work of leaders such as Paul Polman, CEO of Unilever; Arianna Huffington, founder and CEO of The Huffington Post ; Peter Brabeck-Letmathe, chairman of the Nestl� Group; and Linda Fisher, pioneering Chief Sustainability Officer at DuPont, among many others.Change-as-usual strategies are not enough to move business from breakdowns to breakthroughs. The Breakthrough Challenge shows leaders how to achieve a true transformation and refocus the definition of profitability on the lasting wellbeing of people and planet--for the lasting success of their business.

Genres: Business

272 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2014

About the author

Professor John Elkington is an Executive Director of SustainAbility Ltd. A leading authority on the role of industry in sustainable development, he is a consultant to such organisations as BP, Procter & Gamble, USAID, and the UN Environment Programme.
He sits on advisory panels at the Merlin Ecology Fund and the Nature Conservancy Council. He has authored or co-authored numerous books and has published several hundred reports, papers and articles for a wide variety of journals, magazines and national newspapers.
On World Environment Day in June 1989, John Elkington was named to the United Nations Environment Programme's 'Global 500 Roll of Honour' for his 'outstanding environmental achievements'.

Reviews

[Celeste · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great Concepts, but if you've read The Triple Bottom Line and Abundance, it's more of the similar concepts. It's important that it is outlining a clear call to action and folks like Richard Branson at Virgin and his philanthropy are stepping up.

Of note: mentions the four kinds of capital: "Intellectual, Human, Social, and Natural Capital"

[Theodore Kinni · Rating 4 out of 5]

The thesis is startling: Business must lead the charge to a sustainable planet. And meeting the challenge requires a radical reboot of the traditional mindset