Consilient Health enlist the help of Imperial College Business School MBA students
Can you briefly explain your background?
We are 5 MBA students from Imperial College Business School with combined experiences in finance, consulting, supply chain, and pharmaceuticals. We all have a passion towards leading a more sustainable life and have become more aware of the challenges that come from driving sustainability within a business from the teachings of our MBA. Through our learnings we were able to consult Consilient Health in applying their own sustainability strategy within the organisation.
What do you hope to see as an outcome of this project?
We are confident that these initiatives will increase the reputation of Consilient Health in the pharmaceutical industry. We also want some of the core initiatives implemented to bring engagement between Consilient Health’s management and their teams. It would be great to see Consilient Health be an inspiration to other small and medium size companies that want to bring their own ESG (Environmental, Social & Governance) strategy into their workplace. I hope that Consilient Health can share their success with other organisations that look to do the same.
A lot of ESG ideas bring teams together and create a greater sense of purpose within the organisation. Consilient Health’s sustainability roadmap aligns the organisation to deliver a solid strategy across the key pillars coined as People, Planet and Profit.
What companies do you think are doing this well and why?
ESG focus is no longer a nice to have, customer needs are evolving fast and it is imperative to address these needs from the core of the organisation. I have seen a lot of larger corporations leading the charge on sustainability such as Bayer and Unilever. They are supported by their strong pool of resources to make bold and ambitious commitments and so have an advantage to smaller companies with less resources. But it is important that these larger companies make a statement for others to follow.
However, I have also seen smaller players driving ESG well and because of their size are able to be more agile and innovative to disrupt status quo. A great example is NOTPLA who have been successfully driving scalable impact through strong partnerships.
The key recipe for success for these organisations in our view are rooted in the following:
- Due diligence: Deep-dive into the industry and organisational context
- Evaluate available options & impact
- Commit to a core purpose, initiatives & resources
- Monitoring and incentivising the right behaviours
- Innovation & partnership across the value chain
- Re-iterate: celebrate and take learnings from successes & failure equally.
Why do we think sustainability initiatives are important for a company to implement?
Atanu – “An organisations role in society has shifted rapidly over the last decade. Customers and society at large demand organisations to have a more positive impact on environment and society. Companies leading this transformation are winning the hearts and minds of the next generation of customers.”
Sharon – “It is important for any company to care about a sustainable future for future generations to come. When a company starts implementing sustainability initiatives, it shows that they care about more than just profits, they care about the future generations, their people, their communities.”
What trends do you think we need to be embracing?
Research suggests ESG goals not aligned with business goals lead to weaker performance and have a negative impact on future ESG initiatives.
It would be great to see innovative ideas from all team members of the company that will greatly increase buy-in to the sustainability strategy. This could be setting up a hackathon day for creating new sustainability initiatives or training staff to forming ESG initiatives that also benefit the business. Increasing buy-in to the strategy will likely boost morale within the company and overall wellbeing, an ever increasing focus for companies as part of their ESG strategy.
Are there any key learnings from other sectors/industries which can be applied to Consilient Health’s journey?
When looking at larger organisations I saw that Microsoft aim to be water neutral by 2030, the idea being that they will replenish more water than they consume. I think it’s the next area of focus with other companies to start following soon including Consilient Health. Whilst it may not be possible to fully replenish what is consumed for most companies, it can have huge impact on companies reducing their overall water waste and consumption.
What do you see as success with establishing Consilient Health’s sustainability strategy?
Atanu – “Like most strategies, this will be a journey. I believe Consilient Health’s sustainability strategy will recharge the organisation with a stronger sense of purpose and can form part of its key competitive advantage in the industry.”
Sharon – “Success to me, is when the whole team has embraced the efforts and we see the return in customer interactions.”
What are the key barriers and how might they be overcome?
I think Consilient Health will need to ensure that everyone is on board and believes in the initiatives. However, many will want to be looking for immediate impact to the business straight away. Patience must be communicated to keep the momentum going. One way to overcome this is to look at initiatives that enable small but quick wins and recognised when these achievements have been met. Over time the sum of these minor impacts will make a big difference to the overall improvement on their staff’s wellbeing, business operations and environmental impact.
What do you hope to see as an outcome of this project?
Atanu – “Sustainability game changers are born from innovative ideas and persistence. I hope this project leads to innovation becoming a core part of Consilient Health’s ethos and will help power the next phase of growth for the organisation.”
Sharon – “A complete uptake by the whole team on this initiative so that the ethos flows through to how we interact with customers.”
Interview date: 02 December 2020
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