Few birds stir our imagination like swans do. They’re part of many motifs, legends, and in India, even religions. Swans are a grace in motion. They appear as if they don’t need to evolve any further.
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, trader-cum-academic, used the black swan metaphor as the title of his book ‘The Black Swan – The Impact of the Highly Improbable. When he showed the extreme impact of rare and unpredictable events, business leaders could relate to it easily.
A decade later, the swan is back. This time it’s color is green. John Elkington, renowned sustainability guru, published Green Swans – The Coming Boom in Regenerative Capitalism.
I’ve read many of John’s 20 books. In terms of their contribution to profound transformative thought process, Green Swans is only next to The Cannibals with Forks. Both were published at critical moments in business history and provide an excellent framework for moving ahead.
In The Cannibals with Forks John questioned businesses’ single-minded focus on bottom-line. In Green Swans, he shows how, capitalism in the current form, is broken and how the world needs to transform to a new economic system that is regenerative.
John’s style of writing is a mix of in-your-face approach and calls out challenges the way he sees them. He sees these challenges with measured optimism. He sees the ugly ducklings of today transforming into green swans of tomorrow.
John explains how we are headed towards a systemic breakdown with numerous examples, yet, he believes in the extraordinary creativity of humankind that has the potential to create a radically different future. Many things that used to be fiction, fantasy, or the magic of the past, are a reality today. He weaves old stories and counters them with the new and explains how transformation is taking shape.
The book switches between the wicked problems and the green swan evolutions that are happening concurrently. It contains several well-researched case studies. Through many examples, John tries to convince the reader that the change towards green swan capitalism will indeed be a paradigm shift. If organizations and leaders are convinced of this shift, it’s the beginning of them becoming future fit. It’s not enough if a single or a few organizations become future-fit, the whole market and the eco-system needs to become future-fit. This book is a must-read for business leaders. It will help them overcome their cognitive biases so that they can steer themselves and their organizations to a greener future.
The Author is Global Head – Sustainability, HCL Technologies Limited
a
Support Green Journalism
Dear Readers,
Since March 2013, SustainabilityNext (SN) has been educating and exciting thousands of entrepreneurs, executives and graduate students about the power of Sustainability in influencing our future. It’s purpose is to inspire and provoke Indians to move swiftly from awareness to belief to ACTION.
As of December 2021, SN is India’s most read digital magazine on the business of sustainability. It has been covering Green Business, Green Products, Social Entrepreneurship, Green Literature, Green Technology, among others. A youth section was added in 2021.
SN launched India’s first Green Literature Festival (www.greenlitfest.com) in June 2021 to offer a robust platform for readers and writers to hold meaningful conversations.
For SN to grow and stay relevant it needs to transition from a grant and self-funded model to a community-funded and/or institution/corporate-funded model.
Looking forward to your timely and generous support.
Why Support SN – https://sustainabilitynext.in/support/
Subscriber
Supporter
Benefactor
Sponsor
All supporters get two-year subscription to SN. You can Gift Subscription to your colleagues/friends/family.
For sponsorships and advertising please contact
Benedict Paramanand
Publisher & Editor
benedict99@gmail.com
a
