Four steps that shape a responsible business

The looming climate crisis, ongoing pandemic effects, and a war on European soil have presented enormous challenges for businesses around the world, making responsible practices critical to humanity’s future welfare. However we believe therein lies a unique opportunity for Nordic businesses.

Just as the flap of a butterfly’s wings on one side of the globe can metaphorically kickstart a tornado on the other, so too can the positive changes our local organizations make drive and support the needed response worldwide.

Nordic companies have long been known for their responsible business practices, and other businesses still look to Nordic companies for best practices in responsibility. If Nordic companies reaffirm their reputation as responsible leaders today.

The potential financial rewards of this path also appear attractive. For companies, our analysis shows a correlation between taking responsibility and stronger financial performance. In fact, across the Nordics, the US and the UK, the 25% of companies that are most advanced on responsible business (“Leaders”) achieve 14x higher revenue growth and 4x higher operating profit growth on average than the 25% that are least advanced (“Laggards”).

Accenture and Rehumanize Institute surveyed nearly 400 business executives in Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, the UK, and the US. We also conducted more than 20 in-depth interviews. Our research indicates that a four-step framework can help companies be responsible in today’s world:

1. Consider all decisions through a future-focused lens.
2. Set an intentional direction through Impact Leadership.
3. Engage internal and external ecosystems.
4. Use explicit responsible business indicators to measure and assess progress.

1. Future Focus: Explore what drives long-term impact

To set priorities, organizations need to develop a map that shows what their options are. Specifically, this means exploring potential scenarios, conducting trend and technology research, articulating what success will look like, and creating explicit supports to achieve success—for example, by aligning formal continuous learning throughout the organization to that end.

2. Impact Leadership: Set the intentional direction

Becoming a responsible organization requires intent at the heart of the company. Senior leadership teams at the leading responsible businesses were more than two times more likely than those furthest behind the curve in our study to say that it’s very important to them personally that their organization is a responsible business.

The organization should see it and feel it daily through systems, management practices, and management attitudes. In this way, being a responsible business is always in view; ultimately it becomes part of the company’s culture. As being responsible becomes a default company practice, it also affects the business ecosystem, influencing partner relationships.

3. Ecosystem Action: Turn the intent into the concrete

Ecosystem Action is about how the organization cooperates and sets up new processes to become a responsible business leader, both internally and externally. It’s about making responsible business engrained in the whole organization, not just a small, dedicated unit. And it’s about leveraging the power of the entire ecosystem—suppliers, partners, customers—to drive responsible business initiatives in practice through concrete action.

4. Responsible Business Indicators: Make actions impactful and measurable

Responsible Business Indicators—i.e., KPIs that are specifically oriented towards setting targets and measuring progress within the Responsible Business agenda—play a huge part in becoming a truly responsible business. By establishing explicit Responsible Business Indicators, communicating them externally, and reporting on progress, the organization pushes itself to improve.

At Accenture, for example, stakeholders can access metrics related to responsibility in one place on the company’s website and further explore what frameworks and standards that the company is currently reporting against.

If we are to collectively solve the challenges that the world is experiencing, we need to trigger a Butterfly Effect and accelerate the Responsible Business Transformation. By following the steps described above, Nordic companies have a real opportunity to recommit to their role as Responsible Business Leaders that will not only gain them a powerful competitive advantage but also put them in a position to increase their positive impact on the world.