The indomitable Richard Sandor, Chairman and CEO of the American Financial Exchange & Environmental Financial Products, once shared with me that, “no environmental problem will adequately be solved when there are still billable hours to be earned.” I would argue that such a notion also includes social issues and everyone-- law firms, lobbyist and consultants-- should take note. Let us explore how changes in the business landscape and the clear understanding of global challenges will dictate how business plans will need and should change.
“no environmental problem will adequately be solved when there are still billable hours to be earned.”
There are unlimited billable hours in innovative ways of doing business-- in doing good, addressing some of the world’s largest issues [such as those outlined by the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the UN Agenda 2030]. The flip side is that it has traditionally been understood that there is an unlimited number of billable hours in business as usual; but this is a false dichotomy. Certainly there is a limited number of billable hours in addressing and protecting antiquated technologies or unsustainable processes, hours for supporting business as usual. But the smart money is to provide billable hours in implementing business plans that support innovation and establish\ businesses in markets that solve major world problems, such as those outlined by the SDGs. This includes measuring primary, secondary and many times tertiary impacts, and finding business opportunities in those addressing these impacts.
The SDGs are THE blueprint outlining the comprehensive challenges facing us all, they are universally applicable to all countries. They highlight the problems we all face. The Goals share the fundamental premise, ‘leave no one behind.’ This blueprint has been embraced by a myriad of actors. from local governments to federal governments and from not-for-profit institutions to the private sector. The private sector is in a unique position to tailor-make business and bespoke billable hours to positively address the issues outlined by the SDGs; the smart hours gravitate to new markets and strengthening solutions. Indeed, a new way of doing business is to use the SDGs as a road map to new markets and developing expertise to expand billable hour opportunities.
Contrast this with the current political climate in some countries, where officials are reaching far back toward traditional ways of doing business. Witness the popularity of throw-back Thursdays” in some corners, where the throwback is all the way back to Thursdays from the 1970’s. A most notable example is the current government in the United States supporting coal and the drilling for oil, two technologies which have no real future. The billable hours spent on finding new coal (and “clean coal” technologies) or drilling opportunities have not only decreasing marginal returns but are a fundamental waste of those hours.
Industry and the SDGs
There is an industry body in the UK which is uniquely positioned to guide UK businesses to the development of this new business practice. Putting billable hours to “Inform, Influence & Inspire.” This organisation is the UK Stakeholders for Sustainable Development, also known as UKSSD. The organisation has been recently launched by a number of UK organisations covering all sectors and industries; there is great hope that it will move beyond just a place to ‘talk’ about and ‘engage’ solutions to become a ‘ purveyor’ of solutions, reaching beyond the current sustainable development business rhetoric to get things done and establish solutions. This is a big ask for a relatively new organisation, but if no-one is to be left behind then we all must lead.
Another industry which can be seen as the leader in establishing a new paradigm for the billable hour economy is the legal profession. True, not all law firms are set up to push back on the standard revenue stream of the profession; but there are some clever firms who recognise that the SDGs underpin the new economy and understand where there is value is key to the sustainability [of the business] of a firm. These law firms are not just participating and listening to the talk, but are informing themselves on how these global challenges will change the way they do business; beyond corporate responsibility.
Whether or not the adage coined by Richard Sandor will continue to be true, only time will tell. But the smart money and the smart minds are already mining the inherent changes in the business environment to understand how global challenges will be both a threat and an opportunity to business as usual.
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