Structured Nature Standards is The Right Thing to Do for Business and for Nature

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Structured Nature Standards is The Right Thing to Do for Business and for Nature

It’s perfectly clear to me that structured nature standards is positive for both business and nature. It’s honestly surprising that anyone (or any organizaation) still debates this. So, I wanted to share a few thoughts or rather a proofpoint, the counterargument, as well as the rebuttal to the counter (yes, it’s my newsletter, so I can provide all three!) about the promise and positivity of nature standards. Science-based targets for nature, like those established by the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), provide companies with a clear, science-driven framework to assess and mitigate their environmental impact. Over 5,000 companies have already set climate targets through SBTi, significantly contributing to closing the global emissions gap, espcially in light of limited regulation, currently. One challenge in building these standards (the counterargument) is the potential for increased operational costs, which can strain resources, especially for smaller businesses. The rebuttal for this is that we’ve seen climate regulation, like CSRD, delay small and mid-size company compliance around sustainability reporting. So we can assume that if this approach is taken for nature reporting as well, that would mitigate cost challenges in the same way as businesses can begin resource allocation early.

 This alignment with global sustainability efforts ensures that corporate actions are both effective and responsible. Ultimately, these standards help companies thrive while contributing to the health and resilience of our planet. So, what’s left to discuss here? I look forward to sharing more on this story. Meantime, eager to hear your comments.

Source:

• What are Science Based Targets? – Science Based Targets Network

The European Crackdown on Greenwashing: Implications for Investors

Greenwashing poses significant negative market impacts, undermining the integrity of sustainable investing. The European Supervisory Authorities' recent reports highlight the need for stringent oversight to curb misleading sustainability claims. Morningstar's analysis reveals that new ESG guidelines could affect around 4,300 EU funds, potentially forcing over 1,600 to rebrand or divest up to $40 billion in stocks. Long-term, greenwashing can lead to a loss of investor trust, decreased capital flow into genuinely sustainable projects, and distorted market signals that hinder true environmental progress. How can investors avoid this situation which clearly can impact markets, as well as decrease societal trust? Enhanced supervision is crucial to ensure that sustainability claims are genuine, fostering a transparent and reliable investment environment. See the link below to learn more.

Source:

• https://assets.contentstack.io/v3/assets/blt4eb669caa7dc65b2/blt38bbb6582d33a48a/EU%20Guidelines%20on%20ESG%20Funds_Names_June%202024.pdf

CRO Chronicles: Sales and Partnerships

CRO Chronicles : Helene Ackermann

This month’s edition of “CRO Chronicles” features Helene Ackermann, Lead Channel and Partner Account Management - Southern & Central EMEA at Tableau, a Salesforce Company. Before joining Tableau, Ackermann was Chief Revenue Officer at PriceHubble, a B2B property technology firm.

 Climate Money Work: Helene, coming from a background at Salesforce and Tableau, and as a Chief Revenue Officer at a property technology firm, boil your work down into the top three most important things when it comes to sales and revenue strategy.

Helene Ackermann: First, the value that you can bring to your market. What is it that the market needs and how can you really position your value? Second, it's all about people. What kind of people do you have, what kinds of talent do you have on your team? Do they have the right motivation? Are they able to talk to customers and understand what the customer needs? Also, can they position solutions?

Third is the tools. There are so many good tools and software now in the market. So many software solutions that can help you in a sales process to be better aligned and better set up to have a 360 degree customer view around the interaction with your customer and topic points discussed. There is software for marketing automation that can help you track the right customer data in the CRM tool.

CMW: What is necessary to achieve sales growth?

HA: Data has to be at the center of a company and also a sales organization.

 Also, AI helps you to serve your customers much better. I think in the future there will be a mixture between human sales and perhaps more AI that will even help in sales.

AI can support those three things I spoke about too.

A huge necessity is listening to your customer and understanding her problems so that you become her trusted advisor; the only way to help customers grow their business is for you to understand their business. This in turn helps your company grow.

Having a partnership ecosystem is important to growth as well. I work in the partner area, so I think if you really want to grow - internationally too - you will not be able to do everything on your own. It's important to have the right partners to either help implement or recommend your solutions and speak to your value, An example is, in a retail area you can have a distribution partner who helps you to get to the customer. A good ecosystem strategy in place would be for me, central to growth.

CMW: How do you build effective partnerships?

HA: Get clear on key areas of your business, product, or solution. For example, understand if your product delivers a solution for a certain industry, or within a specific region, or for specific companies.

Then research ecosystem partners and the decision makers there that can help you achieve the target. Look for  partners with the right contacts, with the right solution, who can act as an extension to your business. After you clarify who the right partners should be, then define your parameters. That means, knowing which region and which contacts the partner may help you with. Be clear on how your partner adds value.

CMW: What things would you have done differently in your career? What did you do well that you would share with anyone you're mentoring or sponsoring that they should do?

HA: I’ll start with what I did well. I took every opportunity that came my way. I went from a hotel manager to the software industry in the early 2000s. I did not have much experience back then, but I just jumped in, and I tried to get the best out of it.

I understood how to connect with people and  how to  help them. I was always motivated. I speak a lot of different languages, so this helps me in the European market to progress. I was very customer focused and I think that will help you advance. I went on to experience the partner ecosystem, then also leading sales teams and marketing teams. Working internationally - Singapore and other big cities throughout Asia - helped me to grow into that CRO role of a Swiss fintech and Swiss proptech company, where I was responsible for the worldwide sales and marketing. Taking opportunities, not only staying in sales, but working in marketing, in channel roles, and at one stage as a business operation leader. And trust me, the business operations role was not my favorite role, but I learned a lot because there you learn budgeting, you learn forecasting, you learn how to drive demand generation and how to drive a regional plan.

What I could have done better? I could have moved faster. This might be a cultural thing because in Switzerland we tended to be raised (or at least that is what I learned in my youth) that it is more important to deliver than to talk about delivering.

If you want to achieve something globally or in a different culture, you have to really talk about what you’re doing. You have to do a lot more self-branding, self-marketing.

Of course, there are always things that could have been improved. For example, I invested in a few wrong partnerships. I could have positioned something at a customer differently. We're all human. The most important thing is to understand what you did, that there is a mistake and then change it. I think the worst that you can do is not correct a mistake.

CMW: Let’s talk about the typical day or the typical duties of an effective CRO, What must you do regularly to stay on top of things?

HA:  Some of the broad things consist of reviewing the data- like reviewing the pipeline- thinking through the right go-to-market model and designing your governance model.

More tactical items are reviewing the campaigns, and the new conversion leads to get a sense of what is working well, and what’s not working. Here is what I’d measure on a weekly or monthly basis: pipeline generation, close rate, business review sessions cadence, and forecast calls for salespeople.

CMW: What is a secret for success for CRO's or a head of sales.

HA: Be you. Be approachable to people. I have a visual in my head of a leader. A leader is sometimes running with the team on the ground. Then the leader goes up to the balcony, to get a clear view of how the team is working. The leader then adjusts things from that balcony position. Then, they go back to the ground and begin running with the team again.

You cannot stay running with the team. You cannot stay on the balcony the whole time. So, it really needs to be a good mix. And have joy with what you do.

Steal our best value stock ideas.

PayPal, Disney, and Nike all dropped 50-80% recently from all-time highs.

Are they undervalued? Can they turn around? What’s next? You don’t have time to track every stock, but should you be forced to miss all the best opportunities?

That’s why we scour hundreds of value stock ideas for you. Whenever we find something interesting, we send it straight to your inbox.

Subscribe free to Value Investor Daily with one click so you never miss out on our research again.

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