The Pursuit of Sustainability

The Pursuit of Sustainability: Creating Business Value through Strategic Leadership, Holistic Perspectives, and ExceptionalPerformance focuses on the hierarchical levels of sustainability, strategic leadership, holistic perspectives, strategicand financial performance. It also focuses on management constructs for developing and implementing cutting-edgesolutions to the exciting opportunities and daunting challenges facing strategic leaders. It discusses the requisite strategicthinking, methods, techniques, and practices for examining, understanding, and managing in today’s complex and turbulentbusiness world. Sustainability and sustainable development are critical for creating positive outcomes and achievingsuccess given the dynamics of the global economy and the ongoing shifts in customer expectations, emerging markets,and the intensity of competition.The aim of the book is to articulate concepts, constructs, and methodologies pertaining to how global corporations andsmall and medium size enterprises can develop and deploy enhanced solutions and more integrated systems that facilitateleading change in a more interconnected and dynamic business world. The basic perspective is that insightful strategicleaders and astute professionals and their companies can enhance performance, create extraordinary value, and sustainsuccess through sophisticated leadership, cutting-edge management constructs, and state-of-the-art systems that reach across space and time. This includes establishingmetrics on how companies can measure their progress in relation to global opportunities and challenges and the needs and expectations of people and society.The book is intended to provide strategic leaders, professionals, and practitioners with the insights, guidance, and methods for developing and implementing sustainablesolutions and holistic management systems without prescribing a generalized model that supposedly would fit every situation. The strategic logic is really the opposite ofthe prevailing mindset of the last century in which generic concepts were developed by leading theorists (academics and business leaders) who believed that they couldarticulate 'one-fits-all' business methods and models. In today’s more complicated business world, businesses and their strategic leaders and senior professionals have todevelop unique management constructs and business models for achieving the desired outcomes and sustaining success. The book describes and articulates how strategicleaders and professionals can take advantage of opportunities and challenges by addressing sustainability, sustainable development, and the pursuit of sustainability andhow they can develop and deploy exciting solutions and effective systems in the quest for excellence. Excellence providesthe mantra for positive change and sustainable success.The book consists of two parts. Part I examines the hierarchy of sustainability, external context, and sustainable solutions.It includes defining and examining overarching concepts and constructs pertaining to sustainability and sustainabledevelopment, highlighting the importance of the pursuit of sustainability, examining the social world and thenatural environment, and discussing holistic perspectives and management constructs used to achieve sustainablesuccess. Part II explores sustainable strategic leadership, creating business value, and management constructs pertainingto performance, vulnerabilities and sustainable success. Most importantly, Part II presents a strategic sustainabilityperformance model that allows strategic leaders and professionals to discern where they fit in the hierarchy ofsustainability.