Strategy – Page 2 of 2 – André Reichel

2013/10/102013/10/24

The risk and promise of business ethics

“The matter has a name: business ethics. And a secret, that is its rules. But my guess is that this matter belongs to the variety of phenomena like the raison d’etat or English cuisine that appear in the form of a mystery, because they have to keep secret that they do not exist.”*

When you look into the real world you can hardly find any substantial objection to Niklas Luhmann’s verdict. Quite on the contrary there is tantamount evidence that business behaves without any reference to ethics, not even to the ethics of rogues.… Read more

2013/09/25

Economic Sustainability Revisited

When business people and management scholars speak of sustainability, they most often refer to the idea of a triple bottom line for planet, people and profit – sustainability as the integration of ecological, social and economic goals or dimensions. The focus of research, just as the activities of “sustainability managers”, is on calculating and evaluating ecological and social sustainability. Carbon footprinting, lifecycle analysis, employee motivation and human capital as an asset – these topics are often driving sustainability debates in companies.… Read more

2013/08/312013/09/01

Lessons from Gothenburg

After returning from the 6th Lifecycle Management Conference in Gothenburg, where I delivered one of the keynotes dedicated to “Sustainability Beyond Growth”, I noticed that some of the talks and topics really stuck with me. Especially two presentations remain notable. One was from Danone and their new tools for calculating their Carbon Footprint in the supply chain. With their yoghurts they can now see perfectly clear that the “original producers” aka “the cows” are responsible for most of it.… Read more