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I am proud of the impact it had, and it has become a philanthropy to pretend they are changing the world,
standard feature of business education, but I have also been while maintaining the status quo. Even such well-received
critical of how it has been applied in some areas. So, here’s interventions as BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s letters to
a question. How often are management concepts subjected shareholders, encouraging greater action on ethical, social,
to product recalls by the people who coined them? and environmental matters can be seen as an evasive
tactic as long as BlackRock continues to hold shares in
It is hard to think of a single case. By contrast, if an climate-destabilizing companies like ExxonMobil. Nor
industrial product like a car fails in a well-run market, did Giridharadas have much time for the triple bottom
the manufacturer pulls it back, tests it, and re-equips line, at one point quoting our recall of the concept. About
it if necessary. In case manufacturers become careless, 25 years of corporate sustainability have not halted, let
governments regulate and run periodic road safety alone reversed, the global destabilization of our climate
tests to ensure that public safety is being accounted for. and the accelerating loss of species. It is time, we conclude,
Management concepts, by contrast, generally operate in to think—and act—differently. We worked to reframe
poorly regulated environments where failures, too often, the triple bottom line approach during our subsequent
are swept under boardroom or faculty carpets. Yet, poor Tomorrow’s Capitalism Inquiry, arguing the need to use
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management systems can jeopardize lives in the air, at my 3-D value concept in the context of a necessary—and
sea, on roads, or in hospitals. They can also put entire rapidly evolving—shift from Responsibility to Resilience
businesses, sectors, and economies at risk. With this in and Regeneration.
mind, I announced the first-ever recall of a management
concept via the Harvard Business Review . This was the Responsibility is a necessary condition of change, of
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year before 2019, which marked the 25th anniversary of course, but evidence suggests growing instability in
the triple bottom line, a term I had coined in 1994 to mean our economic, social, political, and environmental
a sustainability framework that examines a company’s systems—as underscored by the climate and biodiversity
social, environmental, and economic impact. We emergencies. That’s why we increasingly hear politicians,
announced the recall to do some ‘re-engineering’. business leaders, and investors talking about ‘resilience’.
But the best way to deliver true, long-term resilience is not
As it happened, it turned out that I had dodged a bullet, to talk about it but to regenerate all the systems on which
even if that was not part of my intention. A few months our future health and well-being now depend. For more
later, Anand Giridharadas published his provocative on that agenda, take a look at Paul Hawken’s brilliant
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book, Winners Take All. With a reputation for skewering new book, Regeneration: Ending the Climate Crisis in
plutocrats, Giridharadas argued that the wealthy are using One Generation. 4

GRIHA: In a developing country like India, how can
the triple bottom line inform economies of scale?
This term has been around since 1987 and is investor-speak for
: Let me draw on the thinking ‘Sustainability’. The financial world has embraced this idea,
JEand work of my friend and former which is reminiscent of the blind men encountering different
colleague Shankar Venkateswaran, now, parts of the proverbial elephant. All seize different bits—and all
among other things, Chairman of Oxfam have very different mental images of what they are encountering.
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India. As a concept, ESG (environmental,
social, and governance) is being talked ESG seems to follow a similar pattern and its three components
about by people in the financial world, tend to be seen separately in silos, therefore, their complex
and even more so in the COVID-19 era. interrelations are often overlooked. ESG discussions tend to

1 For more details, please visit https://hbr.org/2018/06/25-years-ago-i-coined-the-phrase-triple-bottom-line-heres-why-im-giving-up-on-it
2 For more details, please visit https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/539747/winners-take-all-by-anand-giridharadas/
3 For more details, please visit https://volans.com/tomorrows-capitalism-inquiry/
For more details, please visit https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/690153/regeneration-by-paul-hawken/
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5 For more details, please visit https://theobservatory.volans.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/08/GSO-SV-JE-edit-24-07-2021.pdf