The need for transforming companies into more sustainable and balanced organizations stems from many reasons. But the stock market crises, such as the one at the beginning of the new Millennium and the most recent one in 2007, have caused companies to look for less risky ways to grow their business and at the same time provide satisfactory returns. This is especially important for the UK  pension funds and insurance companies which constitute about50% of the stock market. Both types of businesses need to provide lower risk, and at least average return in the long-term. To meet these objectives, long-term investments need assets (companies) that are also grown for a long-term return. That will require more and more companies to transform their business from a short-term orientated growth to a growth that is sustainable, and which increases the probability of the company’s longer-term survival.

Symbiosa Business Sustainability (SBS) differs significantly from Corporate Sustainable Development (CSD) or Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) by focusing on improving company’s long-term growth performance rather than just its ethical behaviour, as is mainly the case with CSR. Therefore, SBS should produce more benefits than CSR for all stakeholders, including of course, shareholders.

We have gathered significant empirical evidence on how business management approaches such as SBS, when consistently implemented, can lead to much better economic performance. We have summarized some of this evidence in the graph below, taking  into account most conservative figures:

Equally convincing arguments provides the recent research carried out by Russel Investment Group for The Sunday Times 2006 Annual Assessment of 100 Best Companies To Work For. It shows that even one aspect of following the Principles of Symbiosa Business Sustainability - good employee relationships - can lead to significant boost in financial performance over a longer period:

There is also an indirect reason for applying SBS to maintain high ethical standards and excellent corporate governance. Today, customers expect more often that companies behave in a certain way. One of such well publicized example is adverse customers’ reaction to Nike’s sourcing of their supplies from manufacturers involved in “sweatshop” practice, which in the end caused Nike to abandon such purchases. Traditional PR and marketing will be ineffective if companies’ values and attitudes differ from customers’ values. SBS helps resolve that issue.