Page 187 - Performance Leadership

176 • Part III Principles from the Values and Social Dimensions

The social dimension could also affect how organizations manage
their processes not only for efficiency, but also for building a better
value proposition. For instance, let’s consider a manufacturer of self-
assembly furniture. If prices are under pressure, a review of the raw
materials used might be needed. Perhaps different materials should be
used. If it is possible to use high-quality synthetic parts that are less envi-
ronmentally invasive than using, for instance, wood, the benefits can
be manifold. Not only is there an environmental advantage, but pro-
duction and logistical costs decrease because of the lighter material.
Using this new material might also affect product design, making it eas-
ier for customers to assemble the furniture. The decreased weight and
easier assembly directly affect the customer value proposition, perhaps
even warranting a price increase. The opposite, just being more effi-
cient, would have been to simply save costs by using inferior and
cheaper materials. A lower price, while keeping margins up might lead
to more pollution as well as exposing customers to risk if the material
breaks.
The furniture manufacturer provides a perfect example of people,
planet, and profit being totally aligned. The performance improvement
initiative added value, instead of extracting it.

The Learning/Growth Perspective
Good press and the opportunity to contribute to society leads to higher
employee motivation, because employees feel proud to be working for
the company. Better-motivated employees have higher productivity,
lower staff turnover, and attract other staff like themselves. It allows
companies to learn and to grow. Organizations need “genetic varia-
tion,” 17 people with different backgrounds, to inspire innovation.
Growth and learning entails multidisciplinary teams within organiza-
tions, but the idea can easily be extended outside the enterprise. Many
business cases for CSR are aimed at innovation:
The TNT example showed how giving expertise and human
resources to the World Food Program of the United Nations was an
investment that had a return on multiple levels. One part of it is that
TNT employees that are part of the project team need to perform all
kinds of activities in difficult environments, varying from specialist tasks
to emergency response tasks. Innovative solutions the TNT employees