We have the power to create a healthier planet, flourishing communities and thriving economies.
Now’s the time to RISE for growth. By emphasising responsibility, inclusion, sustainability and ethics (RISE) businesses can unlock financial value now and in the future.
So where do we begin?
Every successful growth strategy has its own starting point. We need small steps and bold moves to create real change and overcome organisational and commercial barriers. There are six distinct approaches for businesses to unlock responsible growth.
Champion a growth mindset
Good strategy isn’t a knee-jerk reaction to trends.
It comprises several intentional decisions and actions, with the drive to push responsibility connecting commercial growth, employee experience and brand purpose. Businesses must look beyond their products to long-term sustainability and service innovation. By bringing these elements together, organisations can create a multiplier effect to potential value. By keeping to their purpose while providing new product and service innovation, companies can make their products more accessible to wider markets, decreasing costs and building efficiency.
Adopt intelligence responsibly
Data is indispensable for fostering growth, driving innovation and ensuring sustainability. It possesses the power to surface behavioural patterns, highlight end-to-end supply chains, and spot new customer segment opportunities and cost savings.
That said, responsible intelligence is as much about data collection as it is usage.
Checking bias in data sets and recognising gaps is not only important for accuracy, but for thinking more inclusively. As AI becomes more commonplace, it’s importance, impact and management need to be clearly defined and integrated. Above all, inclusion, sustainability and ethics must be at the centre of every conversation.
Embrace the power of connection
Innovation, investment and partnerships are devalued without connection and accountability. As companies, industries and communities we can’t solve big issues alone. Unlocking the power of connections is key to ensuring businesses grow responsibly. To do something never done before, we need to work with people we’ve never worked with before. By joining ecosystems together, we can enhance brand reputation, create a better ROI for innovation and accelerate shared value creation.
We typically see innovation driven from a specific need or challenge – often an element of RISE. However, value is amplified and extended when we stretch innovation to cover the other aspects.
Have courage in your convictions
The path to new growth often rises from great ideas that never see the light of day.
Growth requires time and perseverance. To create value, businesses must make responsible decisions with conviction. Decision makers must look beyond cost, to break down siloes and deliver across the value chain to ensure benefits are fully realised.
We recently used the lenses of Inclusion, Sustainability and Ethics to underpin a women’s charity website redesign to prioritise accessibility. By having energy consumption reduction and increased privacy transparency as core design principles, this ensured their impact wasn’t reduced throughout the development process.
Be a conscious brand
Brand is more than a logo or tagline. It’s everything from the products and services you sell to how you treat employees. A conscious brand fosters emotional connections and drives customer loyalty in a way that contributes to sustainable growth. Achieving this requires an alignment of brand messaging with responsible practices to build trust and loyalty among customers, partners and employees.
Being a conscious brand is more about authenticity than perfection. We’ve seen numerous brands experience backlash for inauthentic messaging. With overwhelming amounts of information available, businesses have nowhere to hide and shifting perception takes time. It takes courage to navigate choppy waters, particularly when trying to embrace responsibility.
Make trade-offs with clarity
Achieving responsible growth requires open minds and collaborative thinking. Ensuring colleagues understand the implication of decision making and the longer-term effect on business trade-offs prevents brand reputation and value being eroded.
Strategic decisions made around inclusion may have consequences for sustainability. Simultaneously, non-financial measures may have short-term commercial impacts. The challenge isn’t about the risks posed, but having enough visibility into what they are and how to address them.
Embracing RISE provides a new perspective on how to build a responsible business. Not as an obligation, but as a route to new, responsible growth.
Let’s RISE to create a new status quo, see past barriers and create a better world.
Abbie Walsh
Abbie Walsh has 20+ years specialising in experience design led growth strategy, innovation and experience transformation for several clients, including B2C, D2C, B2B and public sector.
