Articles

For more than a decade, Peter Graf, a computer scientist by training (Ph.D. in artificial intelligence), has focused on marketing at SAP, the business management software company. Since March 2009, Graf has had a new role: as SAP's first-ever chief sustainability officer for the company leading a global team that oversees all sustainability-related initiatives, from the creation of solutions that enable sustainable business processes for SAP customers to SAP's own sustainability operations, including key social, economic and environmental programs. Graf's first task as an inaugural CSO was one of perception. "I had to be very careful not to come across as a marketing show," he says. "That means when we talk externally, the initial conversation is all about SAP as a role model." Once SAP established their credibility based on their own initiatives and metrics, using their own systems, they were able to communicate to customers that they too could reach their sustainability goals using SAP's systems. Graf's second, and bigger task, was to grapple with internal corporate strategy. He had to make the business case for sustainability-driven actions -- and the case for trying to build SAP into a sustainability role model -- to SAP's own board of directors. His case was built on compliance, resource productivity, market opportunity, energizing the work force, and sustaining a business model. In this interview, Graf discusses how he made the sustainability case internally, what the payoffs have been and how SAP customers have -- and haven't -- responded.

There’s an alarmist view of sustainable design that tilts toward the all-or-nothing. But it’s not the best path, says new-product design expert Steven Eppinger. When it comes to the practice of what Eppinger calls “design for environment,” he rejects the radical and argues for the incremental. For one thing, allor- nothing isn’t an approach businesses are especially good at; it takes too long, and fails too often. For another, the sum of continuous incrementalism is likely, he says, to carry designs further toward the no-impact outcomes everyone desires. Plus, there’s a method to it. It can be learned. The secret is to focus on materials. In this MIT SMR Sustainability Interview, Eppinger addresses the question of how environmental concerns can drive product design and innovation. Among his main points: 1) Design and product innovation for environmental sustainability should be framed as a materials problem; 2) How much material is used is less important than what material is used; 3) Don’t try to eliminate environmental impacts all at once. Try to get a little better each time you design any product.

The authors make the case that a shift in risk management approaches is needed.

There are five steps managers can take to protect their complex and vulnerable supply chains.

MIT Sloan's Andrew Lo on the importance of analyzing the uncertainty levels of a business.

Too many companies do not effectively target growing ethnic and immigrant markets within the U.S.

Once managers grasp the patterns of employee interactions, they can reduce network inefficiencies.

Are your customers in a concrete or abstract mindset as they think about purchasing your product? The answer can affect how much they buy.

What's smarter: To charge separately for extras -- or to combine all charges into one total price?

Some companies have discovered that a commitment to tackling societal problems can lead to high performance and profits. It can help strengthen a company in the eyes of its customer base, its employee base and the general public. Technology has made information about a company's behavior anywhere in the world more readily available. If companies take a proactive approach, they can turn this increased consumer awareness into a benefit. Rosabeth Moss Kanter explores how companies like Proctor & Gamble, Starbucks and Diageo thought about societal benefits and created new products to support them.