Burgess COMMENTARY

Peter Burgess

Fit Business Benchmark | Public Draft 1

The Future-Fit Business Benchmark offers a set of performance criteria that describe a company that is fit for the future: one that will flourish while adding to the wellbeing of society as a whole.

Before reading, please take a moment to review the three aims of this draft. We’d love to hear from you if you think you can help us build on what we’ve done so far.

Aim 1: To explain why we need a new way to measure business impact.

To create a future where society can truly flourish, we need to change the ways we do business. But CEOs and investors lack much of the necessary information to understand the type, speed and scale of change required to be fit for the future.

Aim 2: To present the goals companies should aspire to if they are to become future-fit.

Using best-available science we’ve outlined exactly how business depends upon — and can contribute to — a healthy society and planet.

This analysis served as the basis for developing a set of future-fit goals that embody the environmental and social constraints within which a future-fit business can thrive.

Aim 3: To solicit public and expert help to refine the future-fit goals and develop supporting KPIs.

To date we’ve received valuable input from 100+ experts on our approach and draft goals. While we’re confident enough in what we have now to publish this draft, there’s always room for improvement. So constructive criticism is very much encouraged.

We also seek help to develop a set of key performance indicators (KPIs) so that companies can measure — and thus manage — progress toward each goal.

Academics, industry bodies and NGOs have spent years wrestling with the issues we’re covering, and we want to draw on their work. We see our role more as curator than creator: to partner with others and integrate the best of what’s out there into a single framework for business to use.