A fact which the small trader or the informal economy worker knows well, as organized work did not envelope them is that they are responsible for their own pay to bring the bread on the dinner table, and that the customer has multiple vendors to choose between. Many folks transition from doing various kinds of work in a year from a stall owner/operator to a driver to a tourist guide as per demands of the market.

This reality has now dawned on the tech bro class which was ensconced in their bubble. Since the pandemic, gig work is now the new normal from the coder to the consultant to the cleaner. The return of the glorified ‘day-rate’ worker to the fore, rings a certain discomfort to the sensibilities offered by the last couple of generations of salaried, lifelong work.

Each employee or the gig worker brings value to the table and that work package is a commodity to be traded at a price. The better and rarer the skills are the more the premium. Think like an entrepreneur, build your own brand. Learn continuously and do live projects through internships at any stage of life.

Find where your key skill is. And it is not your premier MBA nor the ‘ex-xyz’ in your LinkedIn Header.

Being ‘Aatma Nirbhar’ is a reality for survival.

A lot of professionals and academics with a purpose have an uncomfortable relationship with money. Money raised through business development or grants raised is demanding work and leads and proposals pipelines are built over years.

Money is what pays the salaries and funnels your research or development impact. We need to celebrate and build revenue functions way before time.

Sustainability and Resilience, or its quantified cousin ESG is a nudge towards the normative. ESG with all the strengths in reporting and measurement is an accountability instrument to gauge risk. However, it needs to respond to issues of note, such as tech layoffs. Why the silence? This is exactly the juncture where integrity, empathy, and ethics- the other strength of ESG along with transparency can lend a shoulder in the challenging times by saying, we care for you.

If the sustainability paradigm does not respond in the era of mass layoffs, then the soul less performativity will stand out once again, as the raging animal spirits of shareholder capitalism rather than stakeholder will reign.

Automation, and the gigfication of work is a critical call to action for the ESG community.

The Future of Work is a bleak future without proper work, or ones with adequate social protection.

#sustainability #community #empathy #automation #tech #ethics #work #futureofwork

AI (such as ChatGPT) will change a few careers for sure, including research, consulting, and academia. The premium on creativity shall only increase.

The data and divergence deluge and chaos in ESG data is not a weakness, but the plural approaches are a strength as it is a ‘Whole of Society’ problem. How can we approach wicked problems through a simplistic lens?

The faulty assumption behind the Eurocentric understanding of net zero transitions is that all of us have 24×7 power. Many parts of the world are energy insecure and energy inequity should be addressed as a part of the ‘just’ transition.

Many communities in mining areas in fragile states are fueling the metals needed for the EV race. Is access to energy for them a part of the net zero journey?

Responsible mining is a part of net zero transition by ensuring the dignity of communities through inclusive community development plans via marshalling of impact funds.

The ‘S’ in the ESG trifecta stands for Social, which is a shorthand of sorts. Social is ‘Social License to Operate’ where buy-in from your employees, consumers, communities, and vendors in a Global Value Chain is a dynamic process, and it needs a F5 routinely.

With the advent of the digital, each stakeholder is a whistleblower with a camera phone. Reputational risk impacts the brand, and in turn valuation. That should be a material rationale for the ‘fuzzy’ S.

A lot of companies conduct social listening to gauge sentiment to measure reputations.

Funds which integrate ESG factors can be considered as ‘shallow green’, while additionality if proven can be categorized as ‘light green’

Authentic if the funds are directed towards the just transition, then it can be considered as ‘dark green’.

Sustainable finance spans the spectrum. The right nomenclature is key to avoid green washing.

BHR, DEI & Human Capital matters or the ‘S’ in the ESG, the cultural elements, the so-called soft variables are indeed the blood which runs in the circulatory system of responsible capitalism. There is ample scope for innovation in methods for quantification too, yet the fuzzy nature of the ‘S’ in terms of transnational torts amplify the risk, which ESG is a meta framework towards capturing non-financial risk.

Water Risk as a measure of local and global materiality risks, as the virtual water count are better tangible metrics than carbon as the immediacy is felt.

#water