CSR and sustainable development: these challenges no longer concern only the long term or ethics but also the near future of companies. Before they become mandatory, leaders must take them into account in their strategy to turn them into an opportunity.

Isn't arguing 'CSR, sustainable' out of date when so many businesses and entrepreneurs are struggling to make ends meet?

It is true that for many managers, succeeding in the current fiscal year, consumes most of their energy and resources... so great ideas, which have almost no impact on the operating account in the short term, stay aside.

We tell ourselves that after all, entrepreneurs are not there to save the planet, and then, if it is so serious, we must change the rules of the game for everyone!

These arguments are perfectly understandable, except that during this time the expectations of stakeholders are changing: buyers are imposing new standards on their suppliers; consumers are looking for organic products and collaborative services; public authorities are issuing regulations (REACH, Grenelle, etc.); investors are putting pressure on companies to publish information on their CSR approach.

Managing these impacts is no longer a moral or ethical issue, but a managerial issue because it interests all company stakeholders, even employees who are increasingly looking for work in responsible organizations.

The challenges of CSR and sustainable development are therefore nothing out of the ordinary. It is a service to managers to remind them of the importance of integrating them into the strategy and business model of companies.

Finally, managers have no choice, are they obliged to take CSR and sustainable development into account?‍

Faced with the challenges of the beginning of the century, and we can cite low growth, global warming, and an increasingly pathogenic environment, we are forced to adopt the position of explorers, experimenters of new solutions.

We need to reinvent just about everything: a new energy model, new modes of mobility, production and consumption, a revisited relationship with natural resources and biodiversity, a new generational and intergenerational social contract, a new form of international solidarity...

In short, the challenge is the limitation of the resources necessary for our lifestyles. It is a question of resolutely increasing the productivity of the resources committed to meeting our needs, while decarbonizing the economy.

In this context, many sectors of activity will see their technological or strategic fundamentals called into question due to scarce resources, regulations restricting the exploitation of these resources (for example in electronics, medical, chemical...) but also due to the evolution of mentalities on these subjects.

As a result, even service companies will have to position themselves.

Look at the example of the automotive industry: who would have imagined questioning the sacrosanct combustion engine? And yet today, billions are being invested in the world to improve it (hybrid vehicles,..) or to find alternatives (electric vehicles, hydrogen...). Regulations interfere and recommend vehicles that will emit less than 95 g of CO2 per km in 2020 when they emitted 160 g on average in 2006.

In addition, the evolution of our behaviors (with the increasing renunciation of the ownership of a vehicle, which has been an object of pride for so many decades, via the development of models such as Autolib, Blablacar etc.) will encourage manufacturers to design their products differently, the ownership and recycling of which could well remain in their hands!

In fact, leaders don't really have a choice. Businesses are less and less likely to kick in the sidelines or procrastinate. Especially since in a very challenging context like ours, as usual, it is the first to invent adapted answers, offers and business models who will win.

To conclude, what do you want to say to the managers who read us about sustainable development issues and, more generally, CSR?

What I say to the managers I support: don't let your challengers take over! Ask yourself the right questions because the world is moving faster than you think.

How do you plan to change your scope of activity, your value chain, your business model, your resources and your skills to take into account the new challenges and issues of the beginning of the 21st century?

As human beings are often reluctant to change, adaptation is far from being spontaneous or natural, so you will need time... Start quickly...

Rather than getting lost in discussions about whether or not sustainability and CSR create value, it is undoubtedly more relevant and effective to think about the conditions for successful integration within the company.

It also requires audacity to get out of the comfort zone of the known perimeter, the proven business model and classical management methods.

Isn't that the role of a leader?