People, Planet, Profit

Introduction

Isn’t it true that the hardest part of driving any kind of change is whether the individual—the employee, the citizen—feels the need to change at a deeply personal level? And in hindsight, when the circumstances that cry out for change are gone, when things have returned to “normal”—don’t we always wish we had been bolder, more ambitious, gone faster, gone further?

—Sam Palmisano [1]

Before the World Wars, a majority of businesses were local to their geography. Companies used raw materials and energy sourced locally. Laborers were from the local community. Their products were sold locally too. At that time, companies juggled a similar number of issues ranging from health and safety, maintaining their assets, generating good-quality ...