Humanity faces major disruptive challenges such as climate change, loss of biodiversity, increasing inequalities, the potential of new technologies, growing cyber-insecurity, future recessions, and serious geopolitical threats. Business has a crucial role to play in addressing some of these global challenges, especially in sustainability, the resolution of which is a precondition for long-term resilience and new business opportunities.
Despite progress by many companies in sustainability, the effective contribution of the business sector remains insufficient. An increasing number of voices in the business world call for addressing this inadequacy by reviewing the functioning of the economic system.
From this perspective, the discipline of corporate sustainability must broaden its focus of analysis and action. As well as acting inwards (internal governance, operations, and value chain), companies must act outwards (sectoral alliances, and a review of the economic system and relationship with society, stakeholders, and ecosystems). Companies have long explored, discussed, and codified how they should organize themselves, what should be the role of management, and how to optimize strategy. They must now do the same around these systemic challenges and learn how to influence the economic system by offering solutions for market failures. New business opportunities will emerge from responding to the systemic risks associated with sustainability.
SistemicO supports the business debate on vision and systemic thinking in corporate leadership. Its main objective is to define a new leadership model that provides a transformative vision and facilitates a new framework for sustainable action.
The Observatory aims to build a community of action-oriented discussion, with the involvement of senior business and public management – and guided by Esade Business School faculty.
The barriers and opportunities for the application of systems thinking and impact leadership will be explored in depth, based on an analysis of a representative group of Spanish business leaders.
Research will bring theoretical approaches to leadership closer to the practical vision of top business leaders.
Sectoral debate forums and leadership conferences will be held with the main business actors, public leaders, and academia.
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