America Is Screaming: We're stuck Many can't help but
ask if the nation has lost its competitive edge
VERNON HILLS, Ill., Feb. 9, 2012 - Michael
Zacka, the CEO of Tetra Pak North America, warned that for
businesses to stay competitive, they need to change the way they do
business, and they must change fast.
In his nationally recognized blog on Huffington Post, he
stressed business leaders must focus on Sustainable Profit Growth
-- a new concept that gives corporations the measures needed to
sustain and boost their growth trajectory over time.
He said that CEOs, as their company's team captains, must assure
that the roots of Sustainable Profit Growth are deeply established
within their companies and incapable of being
compromised.
Zacka shared this strategy in response to concerns that America
has lost its competitive edge.
As America looks for solutions amid the heightened concern for
Europe's rising debt crisis, its own sluggish GDP growth and
forecasted prolonged high levels of unemployment, Zacka offered a
compelling answer based on the business model in place at Tetra
Pak, the world's largest and leading food processing and packaging
solutions company.
"Innovation, sustainability and corporate responsibility are
mission-driven and at the core of our culture at Tetra Pak. These
concepts prompt us to think about our actions differently,
especially as they relate to growth and profitability in the
immediate future, and long-term," explains Zacka.
CEOs, as team captains, play a
significant role in winning this battle by effectively
quarterbacking their own teams. And to succeed, they need to focus
on Sustainable Profit Growth, and make sure its roots are deeply
established within their companies, and incapable of being
compromised. Yet many don't realize what this concept is, and
entails.
"The solution for us has been to embrace a number of practices
that have been institutionalized and understood as Sustainable
Profit Growth," he added.
"This focus alone is quite innovative. I haven't heard of any
other company that looks at profit through the same lens or defines
profit in the same way. It's much like cholesterol; there is the
good type and bad type. The same can be said about profitable
growth; there is the type that can be sustained for the long term,
and the type that cannot."
The practices Zacka has identified under the aegis of
Sustainable Profit Growth have been proven over time at Tetra Pak,
which conducts business in 170 countries worldwide and is a pioneer
in its industry, a point substantiated when it won the Thomson
Reuters Top 100 Global Innovator Award In 2011.
In awarding this honor, Thomson Reuters noted, "This designation
proves that companies that invest in innovation, and protect and
enforce their intellectual assets, are significantly more likely to
contribute to economic growth, both within their organizations and
the nations in which they reside."
Zacka and Tetra Pak's corporate focus on Sustainable Profit
Growth has yielded the company's successes. The concept involves
five points, which can be seen as a blueprint for American business
to follow.
These five points call for the following:
- A high tech product or high tech processes;
- A culture of innovation;
- A globally centric culture as opposed to a country centric
one;
- A cost competitive platform with an informed global sourcing
strategy; and
- A bottom-up and a top-down concern for the environment and
sustainability.
In his February 6 blog on Huffington Post, Zacka gave
examples of these concepts to illustrate how they work, and said
that sustainable profit growth companies like Tetra Pak believe in
responsible industry leadership and a sustainable approach to
business.
A company must anticipate what will
be on the horizon, create what they think the marketplace needs and
wants, then create demand for that product or service because the
marketplace doesn't always know what it needs and wants.This
requires a high level of insight, focus, collaboration and flat-out
fearlessness.
In order to compete and succeed in today's complex and globally
interconnected economy, American companies need to practice
Sustainable Profit Growth. Taken together, its five components
create a 'whole' that is far more effective than each of its
'parts.'
Tetra Pak is the world's leading food processing and packaging
solutions company. Tetra Pak believes that all companies have to
their role to play as far running their business in an
environmentally sustainable way.
Based on the United Nation's definition which states that
sustainability is to "meet present needs without compromising the
ability of future generations to meet their needs", Tetra Pak's
goals are designed to enhance our operations running in an
environmentally sound manner.
This ranges from energy reduction in its plants, to
manufacturing equipment that runs on less water and energy, to the
development of new recycling technologies.
More information about Tetra Pak is available at www.tetrapakusa.com
For a more thorough discussion of Michael Zacka's Sustainable
Profit Growth strategy, visit the Huffington Post blog.
Elisabeth Comere, Director,
Environment & Government Affairs, Tetra Pak Inc., USA, will be
one of the business leaders discussing Product Stewardship and
Innovative Packaging: Striving for Zero Waste at GLOBE
2012, March 14-16, in Vancouver.
Product stewardship programs such as Extended Producer
Responsibility (EPR) are encouraging organizations to be
increasingly accountable for products at the end of their lifecycle
in order to minimize waste and reduce toxins entering into the
environment. What is the role for the retail sector in this more
holistic approach? How are these companies striving to minimize
waste?
This session at GLOBE 2012 will discuss how leading
organizations are addressing environmental concerns through
innovative packaging and stewardship practices that are designed to
cut costs and reduce waste.
Confirmed Participants:
Eric Olson, Senior Vice President, Advisory
Services, BSR, USA (Moderator)
Elisabeth Comere, Director, Environment &
Government Affairs, Tetra Pak Inc., USA
Heidi Sanborn, Executive Director, California
Product Stewardship Council, USA
Amy Skoczlas-Cole, Director, eBay Green &
Sustainability, eBay Inc., USA
Charlene Wall-Warren, Sustainability Leader,
BASF North America, USA