Executive Seminar: Driving the Transition in the Face of Planetary Limits

The challenges businesses face as part of the transition are complex and systemic: the physical impacts of climate change, supply chain pressures and resource scarcity, the environmental impact of business operations, changing regulations and consumer habits…

They require a paradigm shift for leaders in how they ensure the company’s long-term viability in light of the emerging global landscape, while respecting the planet’s physical limits. A thorough understanding of these challenges by senior management is therefore an essential step toward a fundamental shift within organizations—namely, understanding the interactions between a company’s physical environment, the low-carbon transition, and its own value chain. It can, however, prove to be a challenging task.

A dedicated coaching program for executives in the form of a seminar is a first step toward overcoming challenges and initiating a strategic review tailored to these multifaceted issues.

It is essential for the executive departments to have a clear understanding of these issues, and this understanding depends on effective advance preparation to initiate long-term planning within a company

What are the expected benefits of an executive seminar focused on key issues related to transition, climate, biodiversity, and resources?

The first benefit is that it allows leaders to understand these interactions and know how to relate them to dependencies and the value chain of the company over the medium and long term, in order to anticipate the profound changes in their business “playing field” that will occur in the coming decades. An introductory phase, such as an awareness-raising workshop or a short conference, allows management to align their level of understanding so that they can share a common framework for discussing these topics.

This acquired knowledge plays a crucial role—through the influence of leaders—in strategic decision-making and corporate culture: it sheds new light on decisions and helps engage middle management and all the women and men who make up the company. The second objective is therefore to create a catalyst for cultural change starting with senior management, a powerful tool for strategic alignment within the organization.

Finally, the seminars provide an opportunity to bring new ideas regarding business opportunities related to the transition. Through the systemic changes it brings about in the business environment, this transformation offers companies the opportunity to find their path and positioning within a vast array of possibilities, in which all economic actors will be in flux—whether by choice or by necessity. The goal is to begin reflecting on this new economic and social landscape, with its technological disruptions, regulations, new consumer preferences, altered competitive environment, and a renewed demand for products and services. A seminar can serve as an opportunity and a venue to redefine the conditions for entrepreneurial success within the constraints of limitations physical and biogeological.

Seminars for senior management face a number of challenges that appropriate support must take into account

First of all, a common mistake made by senior management when addressing these issues is to to underestimate the complexity. Leaders generally little expertise on these systemic issues of a physical (and not limited to vision economic), and still have few options available to address this need.

Furthermore, executives are subject to—and accustomed to—short-term constraints (financial cycles and reporting), yet climate challenges and resource constraints are often perceived as medium- and long-term issuesterm, which can make it difficult to immediately incorporate them into the department's priorities.

These issues stem from to reevaluate business models, projections, and management indicators businesses. On the one hand, it appears that traditional business metrics are not designed to account for carbon and, more broadly, environmental externalities. The need to revise these indicators alone justifies dedicated training and support on these issues. On the other hand, organizations’ forward-looking studies are based on the prevailing assumption of increasing physical production (and consumption)—which is viewed as necessary and assured in an environment generally considered “all else being equal.” However, the physical impact of climate change, the link between energy and production, the low-carbon transition, and access to certain resources will profoundly transform the entire playing field for businesses and societies.

These management approaches are the legacy of a vision in which science and technology enable us to dominate Nature, relegating the environment to a secondary concern. This vision is now being challenged by the multitude of systemic consequences of climate change, as reflected in the concept ofAnthropocene. For example, management’s financial statements are based almost entirely on monetary units (€ or $) that take into account neither the climate nor physical flows (tons of steel, CO2, or liters of water, etc.) nor any other element derived from nature—including for actors that consume vast quantities of these resources (as we learn the hard way when conducting carbon assessments)! To gain an understanding of these flows, it is essential to first use physical metrics rather than simply monetizing them.

The challenge, therefore, for management and their organizations, is toto incorporate an understanding of the planet’s physical limits into the company’s culture and management practices. These new messages therefore imply a paradigm shift that may clash with years of training, a mindset, and a management style rooted in a traditional economic approach—one that envisions a future business environment modeled on the experience of the past few decades, notably characterized by easy access to unlimited resources.

Consequently, Special attention must be paid to the profiles of executives. The need to address the issue of moderation may run counter to a widespread trend that tends to favor techno-solutionism. This involves adapting support formats not only to participants’ expectations but also to their personalities—that is, clearly identifying and overcoming any potential cultural barriers. It can be challenging to convey a culturally disruptive message to people who, moreover, are not directly affected by these changes in their daily lives—neither in their personal environment nor in that of the majority of the people they interact with.

However, a growing number of executive departments are interested in seminars focused on energy, climate, and biodiversity issues. In most cases, these departments reach out to Carbone 4 to address this specific need. They plan to devote half a day or a full day to these topics, possibly as part of their annual seminar. The objectives vary; often, the goal is to initiate or deepen the department’s thinking on these issues, to approach business opportunities from a new angle, or to anticipate major changes in the regulatory framework physics the business or even to plan for the long term.

Support tailored to specific needs helps overcome challenges in raising awareness among senior management, reviewing key business model issues, and outlining strategic avenues for consideration

The Ingredients for Successfully Supporting Leadership Bodies in Launching a Substantive Initiative

• Based on feedback from previous coaching sessions, the key to a seminar’s success on the day of the event is thorough preparation, carried out in close collaboration well in advance, which will ensure that the needs and expectations of executives are met, taking into account their specific constraints and corporate culture.
• The preparatory work leading up to the seminar takes into account the personalities of those attending, as well as their personal beliefs and opinions. This is essential for effectively adapting to the company’s culture, speaking the same language, and structuring the workshops so that participants can contribute under the best possible conditions (group composition, assignment of topics to be discussed, choice of wording, etc.).
• Carbone 4’s facilitators thus position themselves as facilitators as much as experts: we are here to ask the right questions, help participants identify the most relevant and pressing issues, and facilitate the start of a discussion—not merely to present scientific facts in a top-down manner.
• These support programs are all the more effective because they incorporate participatory workshops during the seminars, where leaders can give shape and voice to their ideas and questions. These collaborative sessions allow participants to take an active role and tap into collective intelligence.
• Carbone 4 consultants are always senior-level professionals: this allows management to engage in in-depth discussions with consultants who have several years of expertise in their field.

Some typical examples of support services offered by Carbone 4

Carbone 4's consulting services typically last from half a day to a full day. They include a number of "modules" that can be interchanged and adapted as needed (see presentation Support for Executive Seminars (for more details). The selection of relevant modules is discussed prior to the submission of the commercial proposal.

These support programs are designed to address broad, systemic issues:

• global challenges related to energy, climate, resources, and biodiversity;
• their ties to the company and its ecosystem.

Finally, their goal is to identify strategic avenues for consideration that will enable us to move on to the next stage: developing a roadmap, medium- to long-term strategic planning, and defining clear objectives and phased operational actions. These modules can be grouped into three categories.

Awareness and understanding of global issues and their connection to the company

• MyCO2 Workshop to estimate your personal and organizational carbon footprint
• Mural your choice (Climate, Planetary Boundaries, etc.)
• Conference on energy, climate, and biodiversity issues and their connection to the company’s activities

Forward-looking analysis and identification of transition risks and opportunities

• Immersion in low-carbon worlds and the creation of new visions
• Reflections on the exogenous shocks to anticipate business disruptions related to planetary boundaries (for example, through role-playing exercises using fictional news articles)
• Mapping of Risks and Opportunities business issues related to the transition and the physical impacts of climate change on the company
• Summary existing procedures and gap analysis for an ambitious climate strategy

Systemic Transition at the Level of a Business Ecosystem

• Ruptures Workshop Cross-company or company-specific: forward-looking analysis to challenge business models and ecosystems in a changing environment (can be conducted at the level of a trade association, federation, or sector-specific business group)

Following the seminar, a discussion between the company receiving support and Carbone 4 provides an opportunity to assess how the support was received and what follow-up actions management plans to take.

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