When is Growth sustainable?

„Sustainable Growth“ is one of those post-crash mantras. You can hear it wherever people discuss ways to move out of the crisis. I heard about “sustainable growth” just last week at an event in Munich were key note speakers from Nokia Siemens Networks, SAP, Nokia and other companies discussed the trends that would move the ICT industry out of the economic crisis. Oh, sustainable growth.

What do we actually mean when we put sustainability next to growth? In the contexts that I heard or read about “sustainable growth” it often meant nothing but “any growth”. These were the desperate contexts. In other contexts “sustainable growth” translated as “stable growth”, i.e. a kind of growth that is safe, reliable and comes without disturbing bumps. There is nothing wrong with that, yet I think the aspect of keeping growth in balance with the larger ecosystem is not fully expressed through stability.

Sustainability and growth are not easy bedfellows. If there is one thing that can be learned from the financial crisis then it is that too much growth is not sustainable. Therefore, the talk of "sustainable growth" is not credible without addressing this intricacy.

It seems important to get the priorities right. Would we limit growth for the sake of sustainability? And where is the tipping point? A question that is hard to answer.

Yvon Chouinard, the founder of outdoor-apparel maker Patagonia has a pretty radical aproach: "I'm kind of like a samurai," he told FastCompany in an interview. "They say if you want to be a samurai, you can't be afraid of dying, and as soon as you flinch, you get your head cut off. I'm not afraid of losing this business." With that he wanted to emphasize that, in case of doubt, his vision for Patagonia ("to use business to inspire and implement solutions to the environmental crisis.")will not be compromised, even if it would mean to make a loss.

In fact, Chouinard experienced that the more he did for the environment (like annually donating one percent of sales to environmental groups), the better it was for his company's financials. He encourages other companies to follow the same path: "I'm saying to other companies that every time we did the right thing for the planet, we made money on it. I'm telling them that not only do we have to change, but also that it will be a good thing economically." ( see interview)

That made me think. Is the economy ready for a samurai approach towards growth and defend sustainable values, even if that might (but does not have to) mean to lose shareholders, profits or clients?

The Slumdog Meme

Watching out for trends and recognizing developments early on equals spotting memes that are fitter for survival than others. This thought (or meme) struck me as I was reading "The Meme Machine" by Susan Blackmore.

According to the theory memes, "like genes, are replicators competing to find space in our minds and cultures". If we stick with the idea of memes, then a large part of communication, of the beliefs we hold and the culture we adhere to, in fact, our whole identity is constructed of memes. We lend our energy to memes, imitate and spread them, but we are not the creators of them. Memes that can connect to other memeplexes (e.g. in the form of beliefs and ideas that a person already holds) have a better chance of survival than isolated memes.

Memeplex docking stations could for instance be used to explain the success of "Slumdog Millionaire". With success, I am not just referring to the eight Oscars that the British film won, but also the continued public interest in the life of the street children, the accelerated export of Indian goods that the search engine Alibaba ascribes to Slumdog Millionaire, and the celebrity status that the Indian actors now enjoy in the rest of the world (e.g. Freida Pinto becomes a L'Oreal face, Irrfan Khan on the cover of GQ).

Memeplex docking stations:

• Empathy: A growing share of citizens found that they care for people in need - both far away (which may force a company like H&M to monitor working conditions in its supplying textile factories) as well as next door (e.g. by adding a human touch to the emergency department of a hospital as a volunteer). Being interested in the life of street kids fits nicely.
  
• Fairytale ending: The underdog who wins not only money but also love is an all time favorite - but not necessarily in films that depict the harsh realities of slums! The unrealistic course of the story caused a lot of criticism for Slumdog, yet, it definitely is part of the success: People want the misery (including their own) to end with happiness and not with more depression. Personally, I'd say that giving people an optimistic vision is a noble cause these days - and the spread of various "acts of kindness" initiatives shows that this, too, is a successful memeplex.
  
• Bollywood Fever: Bollywood movies have become popular outside of India and so have Bollywood dancing classes. Bollywood now attracts stars like Kylie Minogue and Wall Street Journal is telling us what managers can learn about leadership from a Bollywood dancing course. Which means Bollywood is in itself a very successful memeplex. While Slumdog Millionaire is not a true Bollywood film, it quotes several Bollywood elements, the most obvious maybe being the dancing scenes in the very end.
  
• Indian culture as such is becoming interesting, as India is increasingly seen as a future super power. For instance, in Germany, the popular children TV programme "Sendung mit der Maus" recently dedicated its total airtime to documenting Indian family life for children (usually the broadcast is a mix of several short animated cartoons and mini documentaries.)

Slumdog may be forgotten in a few months (well, not so fast if the planned sequel becomes a reality), the carrier memeplexes may continue to influence our thoughts and culture, though not necessarily in the form they have today.

Picture: "Slumdog" vs "Bollywood" in Google Trends