In this second module of the Better Business Acceleration Program, we will explore the path beyond business as usual.

We are slowly coming to understand that business as usual is no longer serving humanity and our planet, and that it will need to change. We somehow know it, but we tend to put in our heads in the sand and do our best to ignore it.

Why is this so important?

Because the digital revolution is now being followed by a sustainable one. And business leaders across the world need to acknowledge the problem to learn to surf the waves of change.

Today, even investors have come to understand that the values they have built up over the past century may be at risk if corporate leaders fail to act.

BlackRock, one of the world’s leading investment firms with a focus on sustainability, can testify that the investor community is waking up, and that they will increasingly challenge companies that are not pursuing this agenda.

Still, far too few companies seem to be moving beyond business as usual. In words yes, but not in terms of real action. Why? Possibly because the problems of the world are still considered as something to be solved by governments, NGOs, scientists and other actors, rather than seen as the business opportunities that they really are. Or, perhaps simply because they are so wicked and hard to understand.

Some real and important change is happening, but we are also seeing a flood of seemingly empty promises and greenwashing from businesses across the globe. Researchers can confirm that far too little has happened to mitigate the environmental crisis of our world, or to capture the vast potential that it presents.

A study published in Harvard Business Review for instance found that most corporations seem to be addressing the SDGs on a superficial level. Corporations simply connect what they are already doing to one or a selected set of these goals.

So, how do we move forward? To grasp this, we will need to move beyond what we learned in business school. As a first step, we will need to look beyond business as usual, to build Better Business. Ultimately, however, business will over time need to become Regenerative.

In the coming lessons we will explore each of the three different levels in more detail, starting with business as usual.

Let's get going!