the last couple of years we have seen sustainability
dramatically rise on corporate agendas around the world.
And it has been triggered by many different factors.
And I believe that the sustainability has
been triggered by many different factors. One of the key factors is us
realizing how vulnerable we are to external shocks.
And so companies really want to be part of
moving and contributing to positive change.
But working with this topic and especially out in the
value chain and in the supply chain can be very complex.
And not all solutions and not all answers are known.
So my question to you,
Martin, is how do you
steer and how do we ensure progress in such
complexity and without having all the answers?
Well, Siva, that's a really good question.
And I'll be frank with you.
I think the biggest mistakes companies are doing right now is
to squeeze sustainability into one department and outsource
all the responsibilities to those people to solve that problem,
right?
And that's really history repeating.
I mean,
that is what happened with marketing,
which now has somewhat of an existential crisis,
I think,
in a lot of companies around the world.
It's what's happening with sales.
These people over there are responsible for sales.
It's not me.
And you can't do that with sustainability
because basically everyone needs to own it,
right?
So what I think we should do now is to reset the whole org chart
or redefine functions and wave sustainability into the whole game.
I mean, if you think about this,
you have sustainability,
you have sustainability,
you have the comms department,
you have the marketing,
and then I put it in with a dotted line,
the culture area,
because no one owns culture today.
And as Val said to you just previously
in the previous interview with Pedro,
well,
that is super important as well.
So what I tend to say is these things have to come together
and they have to be surrounded or driven by one single purpose.
So that is the first piece of feedback to you.
The second thing becomes even more complex because here's the issue.
So you are saying we need to have a big change right now.
That's true.
But I don't need to tell you.
It takes quite some time before we can see a
real sustainable change in our environment,
right?
Probably you and I won't see it, to be frank.
So many years ago,
around 15 years ago,
I developed a methodology which I call the PGS. It stands for Perceived Justification Symbol.
And it really is to take long-term objectives and make them become
short-term,
at least from a perception point of view.
Let me just give you one example.
Acrofresh, right?
Acrofresh has three different colors.
And when we did a research study on that,
we had people brushing the teeth using first
Acrofresh with all the beautiful colors on it.
We didn't explain why they were there.
And the second time we did exactly the same.
We explained for the respondents that
red means it makes your gums stronger,
white means your teeth are whiter,
and of course the calcium is the blue.
But when people are brushing away using this toothpaste,
people felt that the toothpaste with all the colors
were much more powerful than the one without the colors,
even though it's exactly the same.
And this is the foundation of PGS. PGS,
if you go even further,
is exactly what we developed in partnership with P&G back in 2005,
where we learned that people don't want to buy flat batteries.
And if there's dust in a store on the batteries,
people don't want to buy it.
So they want to make sure there's batteries in it.
And that battery power was developed by the power check concept.
Now, this is interesting.
We're taking intangible stuff and making it become tangible.
And that we then further worked on with Shell some years later,
where we said,
well,
let's make sure the driver in the car can see if they're sustainable.
So we had a little potted plant growing.
So if you have a light sort of speed,
it's actually growing faster than if
you're rushing ahead down the street.
What I'm saying to you right now is you have
to break down these huge issues down to small,
tangible,
bite-sized objectives,
make them emotional,
and wave it back to the customers and
the employees and the organization.
Then it's possible.
If you have a goal,
which is 2069,
do you know what?
People will give up after three months.
And I think that also goes very much.
I mean,
what you are onto is the change of behavior.
And I mean,
the whole stintuality,
and especially with the circular economy,
is us rethinking our behaviors and the way we are doing things.
So Martin,
thank you so much for your inputs and for your thoughts.
We unfortunately need to move to the next subject,
but we will have you back.