Value creation: the top reason for sustainability initiative

Taking the example of decarbonisation commitments, commercialising these successfully implies six major actions (1). First, corporations should elaborate a target portfolio of sustainable offerings, meeting the expectations and demand of a net zero economy (1) (2). Second, they should deepen the value propositions of each element in this portfolio (1) (2). Indeed, this involves taking into account only 10% of the buyers acquire sustainable products to save the planet, whereas 20-40% buy these if they also present health, safety or quality benefits and 80% purchase such offerings when costs, convenience or information transparency are met (1). Third, corporations should interact actively with first users in market segments showing the greatest potential (1) (2). Fourth, corporations should strategise their pricing policy (1) (2). This is the very important step where you transition your cash inflows from past – sometimes unsustainable – markets you were active in towards sustainable ones. Hence, you materialise the extraordinary achievement of a more sustainable business model (congratulations!). Fifth, shape the market environment of your sustainable portfolios by partnering with relevant stakeholders (1) (2). Sixth, corporations will require to transform from the inside, i.e., by collaborating across departments and developing new capabilities (1) (2). By the way, achieving these six steps repeatedly might end up into a “firm-level transformation”, a dynamic capability in itself (3) that companies should train. Indeed, the latter will progressively allow them to continuously catch green markets opportunities and convert these into relevant value propositions enhancing companies’ market position (3). Last, we mainly focused on the product/service level. However, sustainability should also be targeted at the group level by managing the portfolio of industries the company is active in towards more sustainable ones. Indeed, companies strongly aligned on sustainability can even make it a profitability driver (4). To know more about that, check for instance the solution on the pivotal potential of your sales force by going back to the Solutions Explorer!