People are now living in one of the most profitable yet most unforgiving times in the history of commerce. Businesses nowadays are forced to bend over backward to accommodate the needs and wants of their markets. To survive, they always have to think and sympathize with how their customers and clients curb their spending habits. Flexibility has become the name of the game for clever businesses to endure in this ever-changing market. Just recently, companies around the world were forced to adjust accordingly because of the financial crisis brought about by the pandemic.
Thanks to technology, we are extracting more than we should from our natural resources. Almost all processes are more efficient, cutthroat, and cost reduced. The world is changing too much to the detriment of the natural way of living. If it is not the people who are suffering, it is the environment. At the expense of labor and our environment, capitalism stays winning. According to a journal, capitalism and the environment are two ventures that are inherently incompatible. For one to survive, the other must concede. The warnings are not stopping most businesses, however.
The market is, fortunately, responding in favor of nature. The market now craves and wants a business that is flexible enough to care for the environment. Many business ventures inherently harmful to the environment, like mining, power generation, logging, and general manufacturing, are trying hard to erase their bad images and shift the blame on something else entirely.
Others resort to introducing socially responsible projects within their communities to paint a better picture of how they are as a company. Maintaining goodwill is already a billion-dollar effort across thousands of corporations around the world. Their efforts are barely noticed, however.
The secret lies in business flexibility. By being flexible, we can reach a win-win scenario in favor of the environment.
Historical Values
Flexibility has always been the strongest point of businesses. Adapting to change is easy when there is profit. Adapting to change is difficult when there’s no profit, even though it is the right thing to do. In 1954, while the world was still in the grasp of the second industrial revolution, metals were only bent one-way: externally.
However, through ingenuity and necessity, metal molds were allowed to be bent and molded through the power of cartridge heater devices. Through the creativity and resourcefulness of the manufacturers, a need previously dealt with less efficiently was solved and fulfilled. Business flexibility did not start from there, but it is a glaring example of how adapting to a specific need will open new doors and opportunities.
Now, these devices are used in almost all industrial applications — including computers! There are thousands of examples of how ingenuity saved various companies during those times. However, it is essential to note that there was wanton disregard for other things outside the enterprise. Companies did not care for anything that does not involve the product or the firm.
Modern Flexibility
Entrepreneurs in the 90s considered business principles of the early part of the century as expensive, slow to change, and indifferent to the desires of clients and customers. This limited the pioneers’ creativity to adapt to world trends. Contemporary entrepreneurs took note of the businesses which were slow to adapt to trends and overcompensated in the modern era.
The modern concept of business flexibility was highly volatile and experimental for the most part. This trend of becoming experimental was reflected in the fashion industry of the 90s. Colorful wardrobe became the norm and was acceptable for those who lived through those times. Similar to the old business ventures, the environment is again taken for granted. During these times, sympathy for the environment was not yet taken into account when marketing their product. The environment was merely an afterthought.
Post-Modern Concept
People now understand that the environment is what sustains us. Flexibility and creativity can be bent and curved towards something that can help against a very pressing issue or crisis. There is only a win-win scenario if the businesses come on board. More and more companies are joining the bandwagon to help the fight against climate change.
All things considered, entrepreneurs should be the ones supporting this struggle because they are significant contributors to this problem. The post-modern concept of business flexibility is the changing of the entire business structure to accommodate environmental sustainability. Going on business as usual without regard to the environment will be costly in light of the current laws being imposed by the various governments.
Modern customers are also less likely to patronize your product if your product is deemed harmful to the environment. An example of this is a significant movement against an already popular conglomerate for being exploitative of the natural resources of a state. No matter how hard the conglomerate tries to clean up its image, activists are slowly lining up to hammer the giant to the ground.
