Warren Murray– July 16, 2019
Organisations are facing many challenges, “business as usual” is not going to cut it in protecting it from the effects of climate change, excessive waste generation, water scarcity, energy cost and the rapidly changing dynamics of technologies in general.
How do Board Members and senior managers fine tune their organisation in order to adapt to this new frontier we are all experiencing?
In my experience, it is not unusual to hear comments from mid to senior managers such as; “ the Board doesn’t have the stomach for “this”…”, or “…I believe in “this”, but I’m already so over-worked my boss would have to kick me up the arse before I could do it”!
The above comments shock me and should shock all Board Members and senior managers. What is going on here, are these comments authentic and representative of an embedded corporate culture?
How does a senior level manager get the message “the Board doesn’t have the stomach for “this”…”, and how do we reverse this? Standing on the outside is not going to provide me with the answer, all I’m doing is identifying a serious problem.
In the preamble to its Corporate Governance Principles, the OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) says:
'… Corporate governance also provides the structure through which the objectives of the company are set, and the means of attaining those objectives and monitoring performance are determined. Good corporate governance should provide proper incentives for the board and management to pursue objectives that are in the interests of the company and its shareholders and should facilitate effective monitoring'.
How do we see to it that all employees have a pathway whereby they feel they can be pro-active in propagating and escalating “change”?
The above OECD quote provides a powerful, yet simple pathway:
“structure” - is it in good working order.
“objectives” - managing the effects of climate change.
“means of attaining” - this about “the how”.
“monitoring performance” – review, report and verify
“provide proper incentives” – for shareholders this might mean high ROI’s and for an employee; recognition.
When it comes to saving energy, waste and utilities it must start at the Board Room and continue all the way to a light switch in the basement carpark. Get this right and the rest will follow.
Here at UtilityCap we help “reduce your utility bills through Cost Avoidance Programs (CAP)”. This is a vital economic and environmental imperative to every Board member, Director, CEO, CFO, employee and shareholder. Some organisational stakeholders get it, but others don’t.
For more information see https://www.utilitycap.net/identifying-cost-avoidance-programs
We are always available to begin a conversation, call us now on 1300 393 328, visit our website www.utilitycap.net or warren@utilitycap.net
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