Building A Sustainable Business Strategy

All SMEs Should Have This Business Strategy in Common

Amidst the great reset of the past year our region’s SMEs have been exemplary in their ability to radically rethink how we live, work and do business. Developing a strategy to sustain this surge in creativity and innovative thinking has to be top of mind for any SME hoping to stay competitive in the post-pandemic world, but is sustainability top of mind? If you’re an SME leader and your answer is no, this is your sign to consider sustainability, not just as a corporate social responsibility initiative or an expense, but as a business strategy.

To be clear, when I say sustainability, I’m thinking of the whole picture, the triple bottom line of people, planet and profit. Whatever your niche, and dare I say whatever you budget, it’s possible and even profitable to work towards improving your business’ social, economic and environmental impact. The steps towards sustainability can be small and achievable with significant benefits that improve both the welfare and well being of our communities and your bottom line.

First, it can give you and your team an added push to keep growing and innovating especially when we no longer have the pandemic as an external motivator. A focus on sustainability can also help you manage risk, increase efficiencies and save money by forcing you to look closely at your business, its opportunities and its impact from a different perspective. Finally, sustainability can give your business a sense of purpose that will keep your employees engaged and motivated while making it easy for customers to fall in love with your brand. It can do wonders for your brand, not just at the individual company level, but at the country and regional levels as well.

Consider the fact that SMEs account for over 90% of the Caribbean’s private sector, about 40% of our GDP and 60% of employment. Now imagine what it would do for the competitiveness of the Caribbean brand if we could say that 90% of our businesses were actively working towards being more sustainable, that almost half of our goods and services were produced with sustainability in mind and that 60% of our workforce work in places where they feel empowered, valued and supported. That’s the power of a sustainable business strategy.

Now that I’ve made a case for building sustainability as a business strategy, let’s talk about how it can be done. I’ve outlined four steps to building a more sustainable business below. Feel free to improvise and let me know what does or doesn’t work for you.

1. Start by learning more: The UN’s website is a good place to start to get a basic understanding of sustainability and the goals we’re working towards. You can also take your learning further with free online resources like this course on Strategy and the Sustainable Enterprise or this course on Corporate Sustainability.
2. Assess your business and the role you can play: Identify the areas where you can make an impact and look for quick wins while planning for deeper changes. The B Impact Assessment is a free, online tool that can help you measure your sustainable impact and identify areas where you can improve over time.
3. Define your vision and purpose: Articulate what sustainability means to your business, what you hope to achieve through your efforts and why. Communicating your vision and purpose is the first step to getting the support of your employees, customers and other stakeholders.
4. Act: It helps to seek out partnerships with other like-minded organisations and get your employees involved in achieving your vision, especially if you’re just starting out.

To use the Republic Group as an example, we recently signed on to the UN Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Principles for Responsible Banking. In doing so, we have aligned our efforts with the UN and other partner organisations to provide a framework for getting our staff across the Caribbean involved in advancing the region’s sustainable development. An SME can seek out similar partnerships with other organisations of similar size and scope. Remember, as the saying goes, “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.”

Finally, I wouldn’t be me if I didn’t encourage you to measure, measure and then go back and measure again, after you’ve put your plan in action. Our Group will be setting 2030 targets, for our sustainability goals in each of our subsidiaries and we plan on publicly reporting on our progress. I encourage you to do the same. Track your successes, make adjustments where necessary and, most important of all, celebrate your wins!

I hope our SMEs will take up this challenge to embrace sustainability as a business strategy. I look forward to seeing what you will accomplish.