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Outlast: How ESG Can Benefit Your Business
Black-swan events, global warming, COVID-19 and a host of other natural and man-made disasters have tested the resilience of businesses across the world. Usually, blame for business failures is apportioned to external factors such as adverse business cycles, badly framed government regulations and lack of infrastructure. However, the causes often lie within -- short-term thinking, destruction of natural resources, exploitation of labour and poor management, to name a few.
To outlast their competition, build resilience, gain competitive advantage and achieve greater returns in the long run, businesses must improve their performance on material ESG Environmental impacts such as monitoring their consumption of natural resources, waste discharge and carbon emissions; Social factors such as ties with local communities, diversity and inclusion, and building a good reputation with stakeholders; and Governance, including board effectiveness protocols, approach to senior executive compensation and appropriate reliance on independent directors. The benefits from implementing ESG factors include more efficient use of resources, lower cost of operations, reduced risk, higher employee productivity and increased investor interest.
How ESG Can Benefit Your Business is a clarion call to corporate leaders to follow the pathway of ESG. The authors, Mukund Rajan and Col. Rajeev Kumar, draw upon their considerable experience of working for some of India's largest organizations to present evidence and case studies that show that ESG is the mantra of the future. This is a timely must-read for all those who belong to, or aspire to be part of, the corporate world.
To outlast their competition, build resilience, gain competitive advantage and achieve greater returns in the long run, businesses must improve their performance on material ESG Environmental impacts such as monitoring their consumption of natural resources, waste discharge and carbon emissions; Social factors such as ties with local communities, diversity and inclusion, and building a good reputation with stakeholders; and Governance, including board effectiveness protocols, approach to senior executive compensation and appropriate reliance on independent directors. The benefits from implementing ESG factors include more efficient use of resources, lower cost of operations, reduced risk, higher employee productivity and increased investor interest.
How ESG Can Benefit Your Business is a clarion call to corporate leaders to follow the pathway of ESG. The authors, Mukund Rajan and Col. Rajeev Kumar, draw upon their considerable experience of working for some of India's largest organizations to present evidence and case studies that show that ESG is the mantra of the future. This is a timely must-read for all those who belong to, or aspire to be part of, the corporate world.
- GenresNonfictionBusiness
488 pages, Kindle Edition
Published December 7, 2021
8 people are currently reading
56 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
January 2, 2025
I picked up this book in October 2024 assuming it would offer me some insight into how corporate India sees climate change and sustainability reporting, little did I know that this would be an excursion into the recent history of India's capitalism, an assessment of its challenges and a futuristic outlook of what corporate India must do to walk the much-needed path of sustainable development.
I recently read a series of non-fiction books by Indian authors that had poor referencing and highlighted poor research practices. Refreshingly, Outlast builds its case on solid research from extensive sources, not just the typical media articles but government documents, scientific expert opinions and academic literature among others. I highly appreciate the case studies of both examples and non-examples which are peppered throughout the text, offering practical insight and adding depth to the theoretical concepts explained in each of the chapters. The authors' experience of running teams in the Tata Group also adds insight especially their work on developing a code of conduct and women empowerment programs, although at times it tad bit felt like an extended PR piece for the Group. Third, I appreciate how the book addresses albeit in brief several topics on corporate India which is otherwise not prevalent in discourse such as inequality in compensation, poor treatment of workers in tea plantations, growth of shareholder activism and shareholder resolutions in India and the chapter on dignity in the workplace and the need to train citizens from the SC/ST communities to find jobs in the private sector. Writing this book could very easily have taken a political spin by bashing one or the other side of the spectrum but the authors and their editors do a great job in eliminating almost any bias from the text and sticking to reportage and analysis. This book could only have been improved by adding a chapter on ethical AI and the role of trust and safety especially in the BigTech industry and ensuring data privacy in a world where our lives our entrenched on the internet.
Apart from ESG professionals who would perhaps be the most vanilla audience for the book, I believe this will add value to entrepreneurs especially those seeing sustainability as an opportunity to develop a new product or service and also for students in management or engineering colleges. We need more discourse in young graduates on ESG parameters in the corporate world and this book serves as a great 101 book taking an untrained reader across the breadth of issues that are relevant today. However, I would urge any person to read more about sustainability and understand how the organizations whose products and services we consume are impacting society and the environment. This book will offer the introduction you need to understand these issues better. I would give it a solid 4.5/5.
I recently read a series of non-fiction books by Indian authors that had poor referencing and highlighted poor research practices. Refreshingly, Outlast builds its case on solid research from extensive sources, not just the typical media articles but government documents, scientific expert opinions and academic literature among others. I highly appreciate the case studies of both examples and non-examples which are peppered throughout the text, offering practical insight and adding depth to the theoretical concepts explained in each of the chapters. The authors' experience of running teams in the Tata Group also adds insight especially their work on developing a code of conduct and women empowerment programs, although at times it tad bit felt like an extended PR piece for the Group. Third, I appreciate how the book addresses albeit in brief several topics on corporate India which is otherwise not prevalent in discourse such as inequality in compensation, poor treatment of workers in tea plantations, growth of shareholder activism and shareholder resolutions in India and the chapter on dignity in the workplace and the need to train citizens from the SC/ST communities to find jobs in the private sector. Writing this book could very easily have taken a political spin by bashing one or the other side of the spectrum but the authors and their editors do a great job in eliminating almost any bias from the text and sticking to reportage and analysis. This book could only have been improved by adding a chapter on ethical AI and the role of trust and safety especially in the BigTech industry and ensuring data privacy in a world where our lives our entrenched on the internet.
Apart from ESG professionals who would perhaps be the most vanilla audience for the book, I believe this will add value to entrepreneurs especially those seeing sustainability as an opportunity to develop a new product or service and also for students in management or engineering colleges. We need more discourse in young graduates on ESG parameters in the corporate world and this book serves as a great 101 book taking an untrained reader across the breadth of issues that are relevant today. However, I would urge any person to read more about sustainability and understand how the organizations whose products and services we consume are impacting society and the environment. This book will offer the introduction you need to understand these issues better. I would give it a solid 4.5/5.
January 6, 2022
• “Good and conscious breathing regulates active and logical thinking”.
• The length of the book remains to be 384 pages and the overall theme of the book revolves around carrying forth a pragmatic assessment of business environments and how Ecological factors, Social factors, Governance factors shape up a business model and decide as to whether the same would be profitable or not. The book has been further divided into 7 Chapters with the first chapter of the book laying forth the basic premise of the book and introducing the readers to its concept and further chapters mark a perfect continuation in the same vein. The striking aspect of the book tends to be the presentation aspect of the book as a sense of simplicity and comprehensiveness.
• The writing style of the book has been kept simple and easy to grasp and the concepts as explained remain to be highly pragmatic. Additionally, the book can be considered as one which features the dynamic presentation of information and remains to be contemporaneous to the existing state of affairs of the world thereby making it a must-read for anyone willing to go for a good read with an inclination towards business-related literature.
• The length of the book remains to be 384 pages and the overall theme of the book revolves around carrying forth a pragmatic assessment of business environments and how Ecological factors, Social factors, Governance factors shape up a business model and decide as to whether the same would be profitable or not. The book has been further divided into 7 Chapters with the first chapter of the book laying forth the basic premise of the book and introducing the readers to its concept and further chapters mark a perfect continuation in the same vein. The striking aspect of the book tends to be the presentation aspect of the book as a sense of simplicity and comprehensiveness.
• The writing style of the book has been kept simple and easy to grasp and the concepts as explained remain to be highly pragmatic. Additionally, the book can be considered as one which features the dynamic presentation of information and remains to be contemporaneous to the existing state of affairs of the world thereby making it a must-read for anyone willing to go for a good read with an inclination towards business-related literature.
January 24, 2022
Outlast to Forecast for value creation!
Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) has become critical to corporates for creating Long term value to shareholders. Environment parameters enables the organisation to look deeply into the operations to reduce or optimize natural resources, Social parameters enables organisation to improve engagement and inclusiveness with employees, vendor and community. Governance enables organisation to enhance performance with business benefits leveraging stakeholders value.
Outlast gives an insight on how ESG will be beneficial to the organisation, with context to India on the materiality aspects which through proper framework could help mitigate and value. With stringent norms and compliance requirements, organisation has to put mind and resources to create value through ESG.
The examples and cases used by the author are very useful to understand the concept and for creating awareness or training module.
With ministry and SEBI slowly but steadily ensuring Indian companies not only comply but exceed in creating Long term value, this book comes handy.
Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) has become critical to corporates for creating Long term value to shareholders. Environment parameters enables the organisation to look deeply into the operations to reduce or optimize natural resources, Social parameters enables organisation to improve engagement and inclusiveness with employees, vendor and community. Governance enables organisation to enhance performance with business benefits leveraging stakeholders value.
Outlast gives an insight on how ESG will be beneficial to the organisation, with context to India on the materiality aspects which through proper framework could help mitigate and value. With stringent norms and compliance requirements, organisation has to put mind and resources to create value through ESG.
The examples and cases used by the author are very useful to understand the concept and for creating awareness or training module.
With ministry and SEBI slowly but steadily ensuring Indian companies not only comply but exceed in creating Long term value, this book comes handy.
December 24, 2023
A very good book for those who want to understand the ESG context specific to India. A resource that clearly explains with examples what E, S and G constitutes and how as a country, as corporate India we can manage our sustainability path.
June 2, 2024
The perfect book to start with for any Indian ESG enthusiast.
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews