For decades, business leaders lived by a single rule popularized by economist Milton Friedman: maximize profits for shareholders, and worry about the rest later . Doing good was treated like a side hobby, a shiny sustainability report published once a year just to check regulatory boxes . Today, that old playbook is obsolete . Thanks to AI, social media, and instant global connectivity, businesses now operate inside what is effectively a "glasshouse" . Supply chains are searchable . How a company treats its workers, impacts the environment, or serves its customers can be broadcast to millions in seconds . Misleading PR and hollow pledges no longer cut it; in an era where an AI-assisted fact-checker or disgruntled employee can scrutinize claims instantly, authenticity is a company’s most valuable shield . Real purpose is not philanthropy, nor is it ignoring financial returns . It is about solving an actual human, societal, or environmental problem in a way that is financia...
Not Everything That Can Be Sustained Should Be Sustained The missing question in sustainability is not “Can we continue?” but “Should we continue?” Imagine a company discovers a business model that is highly profitable. It can repeat the model year after year. Customers keep buying. Profits keep growing. Is that sustainable? Perhaps. But what if those profits depend on exhausting employees, exploiting suppliers, misleading customers, misusing personal data or damaging the environment? Suddenly, “sustainable” doesn't sound so sustainable. Sustainability Needs Ethics I like to define sustainability simply: Sustainability is doing something again and again because it continues to create value for yourself, others and the world. But there is an important question hidden inside this definition: What do we mean by “value”? Something can create financial value for me while destroying value for somebody else. That is why ethics matters. Sustainability asks: “Can we continue?” Ethics asks: ...