The demand for environmental, social and governance (ESG) progress is pushing the international business community to reconsider their purpose beyond maximising profit for shareholders. Depending on your industry and organisational culture and history, this is something your people are anticipating with excitement or anxiety. Likely both.
Of course, this movement is not entirely new. Corporate social responsibility (CSR) emerged in the 1990s as a conceptual framework to help organisations think about how they affect society around them. What's different now is that stakeholders have the information, voice and audience to demand real, verifiable, substantial change on these issues.
