New book puts sustainability into peak performance

New book puts sustainability into peak performance

Leading global retailers such as Wal-Mart, Marks & Spencer and Tesco have made sustainability core business. Suppliers to those companies who don't do likewise risk being choice edited off the shelves – and this trend is spreading to most consumer industries.

That’s the message to New Zealand business in a new book by blue sky thinker and international business consultant Professor Mike Pratt.

“Sustainability presents a powerful opportunity for New Zealand business,” says Dr Pratt, who’s former dean of the University of Waikato Management School and currently Adjunct Professor of Sustainability and Leadership there.

“But there’s limited awareness of how fast and how far this new trend is developing, and that presents a serious risk to New Zealand’s exports. Our new book Sustainable Peak Performance – Business Lessons From Sustainable Enterprise Pioneers explains how sustainability strategy and practices can contribute to enhanced profit, productivity and performance.”

Peak performance – the business and leadership theory based on the world’s top sporting organisations – took the business world by storm a decade ago. One of the authors of the original business bestseller, Dr Pratt has updated the concept in his new book, co-authored with his wife Helga.

“Peak Performance came out of a research journey to discover business lessons from elite sports; Sustainable Peak Performance is the logical next step,” says Dr Pratt, who chairs an organisational development business, Inspiros Worldwide, numbering leading global companies among its clients.

“The book is all about the potential of companies to do well by doing good through building sustainability principles into their business models. In many ways it’s the story of our lives. Helga and I have long been involved with the sustainability movement – one of our earliest projects involved growing kiwifruit organically and today we run a business consultancy, Sustainable Enterprise. ”

The book tells the stories of nine trail-blazing global sustainable enterprises: from New Zealand they include Snowy Peak and Comvita, the others are Putumayo World Music, Stonyfield Farm, The Body Shop, the Eden Project, Forum for the Future, Patagonia and Dilmah Tea.

“All these iconic enterprises were founded on sustainability principles, and have grown from grassroots to international success, becoming globally recognised brands,” says Helga Pratt. “We spoke directly to the founders of these enterprises to find out what it takes to become a super-successful sustainable entrepreneur.”

From these stories, the authors have developed a theory and practice of sustainable peak performance – creating a better world through business.

“Business enterprise has always been an energiser for human progress,” says Dr Pratt. “Our book offers practical guidance to aspiring entrepreneurs and established firms seeking a roadmap to sustainable business success.”

Mike Pratt will be talking about sustainable peak performance, and how it presents a powerful opportunity for business at the Waikato Chamber of Commerce BFIT Breakfast in Hamilton on Wednesday 18 August.

Sustainable Peak Performance – Business Lessons From Sustainable Enterprise Pioneers, by Mike Pratt and Helga Pratt, is published by Pearson. More information is available on the publisher’s website (http://www.pearson.com.au/storesnz/styles/professional/titleDetails.asp?GroupItemID=37406&StoreID=19 and on Mike and Helga’s own site www.sustainableenterprise.org

ENDS

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