What are the preconditions for initiating sustainable growth efforts in a company? First, external market conditions need to be conducive to initiating sustainable growth. They include growing customer expectations, increasing resource constraints for energy, water, raw materials, and other inputs needed by the company, heightening stakeholder expectations and increasing environmental regulations.
In addition, market conditions need to be such that sustainability presents business opportunities for growth. This issue has been explored in greater detail recent business literature; for example, Ram Nidumolu, C K Prahalad and M.R. Rangaswami's article "Why Sustainability is Now the Key Driver of Innovation" in the September 2009 issue of the Harvard Business Review. At both Alcoa and PUMA, many of these external drivers were sufficiently in place by 2007 to create an environment for initiating sustainable growth efforts.
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