Speaking at Business in the Community's (BITC) Responsible Business Convention Ian Cheshire, Group Chief Executive, Kingfisher plc will present BITC's new 'Visioning the Future - Transforming Business' programme. He will invite businesses to join him in making a commitment to think seriously about how they can move beyond incremental steps towards the transformational change needed to create a truly sustainable future.

The 'Visioning the Future - Transforming Business' programme will take businesses on a positive journey, helping them to first picture and then plan and build the business models that will lead them into a successful, sustainable future. It will provide an inspiring, positive and structured programme which helps businesses understand what will change, what this means for them and what actions are needed.

Ian Cheshire, Group Chief Executive, Kingfisher plc said: "The changes we are likely to see in our society and environment over the next two decades and beyond will require a paradigm shift in the economy and society. The companies that recognise and plan for it now will be the winners of the future. We need to think now about how business services will evolve in the next two decades and beyond. The opportunities are real for those who help create a sustainable future."

View a new film produced by BITC, aimed at engaging business people via their ‘right brain’ and encouraging them to begin picturing, planning and creating their future business model - www.bitc.org.uk/visioning.

Stephen Howard, Chief Executive, BITC said: "Challenging and supporting businesses to transform their thinking and actions has always been at the heart of what we do at Business in the Community. We know that the future will bring increased pressures or 'push' on businesses to do things differently. We also know that consumers, employees and wider society are starting to 'pull', demanding and valuing very different products and lifestyles. The 'Visioning the Future - Transforming Business' work is designed to help businesses use their unique skills and position to look ahead and shape a future that people really want."

Visioning the Future - Transforming Business Programme
The vision sees a prosperous world, one that can sustain itself, that enriches lives and where we have thriving and cohesive communities. A world that allows human advancement and that embraces technology. And one that addresses the challenges - rising energy costs, extreme weather events, resource constraints. The great news is that this is a world that people really want. When 9 billion people (projected world population by 2050) want something, that's a great opportunity for business.

The Visioning programme helps business to understand this world. What are the biggest issues businesses need to start solving now and what are the opportunities? It will help you understand what will change, what this means for business and what actions business needs to be taking right now.

The aim of the programme is not to give all of the answers. What it will provide is an inspiring, positive and structured programme that is unique and has been created by some of the best business minds. It will help businesses to indentify both short and long term opportunities and will draw on the creativity of hundreds of businesses over the next few years. Thinking, working together and taking action.

The programme aims to makes businesses more resilient, set up for growth - achieving both while being at the heart of creating a sustainable future.

Next Steps

BITC is encouraging three levels of involvement with the programme, depending on readiness and ambitions:

• Sponsor: support the programme as a sponsor and apply the programme to your own business, participate in the 12-month facilitated process, profile as sponsor and supporting partner in the programme
• Partner: Involvement in the 12-month facilitated process
  
• Early Adopter: select elements of the programme from a priced "menu", starting with a facilitated workshop package, access to resources and a summary of learnings that will have been developed by the Partners.

www.bitc.org.uk/visioning.

Business in the Community stands for responsible business.

We are a business-led charity with a growing membership of 850 companies, from large multinational household names to small local businesses and public sector organisations.

We advise, support and challenge our members to create a sustainable future for society and to improve business performance.

Our members work with us to define what responsibility looks like in the workplace, marketplace, community and the environment - and we share what we learn about driving performance through responsible business practice.

www.bitc.org.uk

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