Crunch Time for Sustainability Innovation

Organisational leaders are in an increasingly untenable position as net zero targets loom closer, and legislation tightens the net. For example, in the UK, more than 100 local authorities have pledged to run on 100% clean energy by 2050. Of these, 58 have committed explicitly to neutralising council emissions by 2030 as well as those of their residents and businesses by 2045 – five years ahead of the government’s 2050 target.  In 2022, companies large and small are going to have to show that their whole supply chains respect human rights and the environment.

“Voluntary due diligence standards […] have not achieved significant progress”

EU, 2022

For example, there is going to be a responsibility for conducting risk analyses of indirect suppliers. These changes are happening in 2022 and require a new paradigm of openness and innovation for which most large organisations are ill-equipped. But corporations, the public sector and NGOs are in a catch-22 situation. Their usual suppliers weren’t chosen for their innovativeness or ethics, yet unknown suppliers are too risky. Large organisations need the creativity and speed of SMEs because of the fast-approaching climate imperative. Yet they can’t engage effectively due to their lack of networks, open innovation models and procurement practices. So what now?

Free illustrations of Plane

100%Open Procurement.

We’ve seen that open innovation can provide some of the ways out of this catch-22. Open innovators have wide networks and transparency as an attitude. As a consequence they have a more vibrant supply chain chosen for innovativeness and sometimes ethics, rather than price.

So here’s the thing. What if open innovation became your organisation’s default setting, not just for cutting edge technology but for mainstream suppliers? What if you had a value net rather than a value chain? What if you had a crowd of innovative, expert and transparent companies competing or collaborating to solve your business problems?

We’re calling this 100%Open Procurement. It will give leaders more options to consider, more partners to prototype with or buy from and more transparent supply chain monitoring. You heard it here first!

To begin with, you can do the Open Organisation test here, or the Collaboration Styles test here.

To learn more about 100%Open Procurement or if you’d like to share your thoughts on this topic, send me an email over at david@100open.com. I look forward to hearing from you.

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