Answer to Question #316363 in Management for akhona

Question

illustrate the adverse consequence of irresponsible management that has given rise to people‐ planet‐profit trade-offs that are unsupportable.

Answer 1

Companies are responsible for providing profit on a long run that satisfies the owners. The management hardly can be irresponsible for the planet-people-profit trade off. Governments, stakeholders and customers build the constraints in the planet-people area, entrepreneurs must focus on profit, otherwise they are going to bankrupt and no more goods produced.

Some company can make profit from sustainability (PV, Tesla, etc.), some others can increase margin and realize the synergy of sustainability and profit (the opposite of trade-off), like fair-trade, organic products or free range eggs.

If the management legally complies, and use the sustainability attribute to get the achievable premium, the stakeholders are satisfied, they are done. No more goals above that and this is completely fair. Customers, stakeholders and governments make companies lift standards.