Hello and welcome to Modern CEO! I’m Stephanie Mehta, CEO and chief content officer of Mansueto Ventures. Each week this newsletter explores inclusive approaches to leadership drawn from conversations with executives and entrepreneurs, and from the pages of Inc. and Fast Company. Sign up to get it yourself every Monday morning.
I’m generally skeptical of corporate coalitions. I roll my eyes when companies sign pledges or form consortiums, en masse, to support a social movement. I cynically assume the announcements are designed to score points with the public but yield little in the way of results. Remember the nearly $50 billion America’s largest companies committed to address racial bias after George Floyd’s murder? A year later, just a fraction had been donated to groups focused on equality, education, and community development, according to a Washington Post investigation.
Team of titans
But increasingly, it seems like we’ll need corporate partnerships to address a problem as big, urgent, and complex as climate change. A few months ago, I learned about a group of unlikely allies that came together to solve a nagging issue in the climate fight: Big companies needed to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in their supply chains, but their vendors (think: farmers, packagers, etc.) weren’t necessarily versed in sustainability and science-based targets.
In 2021, consulting firm Guidehouse and consumer goods giants PepsiCo, McCormick & Company, and Mars unveiled Supplier Leadership on Climate Transition, a collective designed to educate and support their suppliers on climate goals and targets. The group now includes more than a dozen corporations, including Atlantic Packaging, The Coca-Cola Company,The Estée Lauder Companies, General Mills, Nestlé, Keurig Dr Pepper, Restaurant Brands International, Mondelēz International, Yum Brands,The Clorox Company, Heineken, Ocean Spray, Neiman Marcus, DS Smith, McDonald’s, and the Material Handling Institute. More than 600 suppliers have participated in the program since its launch.
Stronger together
It’s notable that fierce rivals like Pepsi and Coca-Cola are linking arms, as are McDonald’s Corporation and Burger King parent company Restaurant Brands International. “From an impact perspective, you can’t make change, move the needle, change the planet if you don’t work together on these issues,” says Matthew Banks, an associate director, sustainability, at Guidehouse, and chief growth officer for Supplier Leadership on Climate Transition.
Competitors form alliances all the time, of course, when lobbying on behalf of an industry’s interests. During a recent interview, Cécile Béliot, CEO of dairy company Bel Group, contends that the motivation for sustainable consortiums is different from other corporate initiatives. “We are the first generation of leaders fully aware of climate change, and we need to embrace [the challenge] fully and with courage,” she says. “The companies that are going to be successful in the future have to be successful at partnership.”
Team players
Has your company ever teamed up with a competitor to tackle a big problem? Send your thoughts on the risks and rewards of partnerships to stephaniemehta@mansueto.com.
Read, listen, and watch: the power of partnership
Science-based targets are working faster than expected. Read more
Solving “lower-tier” suppliers’ sustainability problems. Read more
The insightful way one founder picks her suppliers. Watch here
Meet 7 women tackling climate change as chief heat officers. Read more
Recognize your brand’s excellence by applying to this year’s Brands That Matter Awards before the early-rate deadline, May 3.
