Sustaining Excellence

These days it is difficult not to turn on the TV, open a magazine or read a newspaper without being told that our societies, economic systems and consumption patterns are following an unsustainable trajectory.  It seems that on every front there are massive challenges to the status quo: ice caps melting, credit markets collapsing, the first African American in the White House.  

What is certain is that the changes being wrought will not meekly follow the predictions of scenario planners, economic forecasters and the leading thinkers of our day.  Other events will emerge whose impact will be several orders of magnitude greater than the worst - or best - case envisaged by experts.

As professionals working with the most tangible of assets (power stations, mines, chemical plants) we may be lulled into complacency by the abstract and distant nature of many of these threats and opportunities.  A year ago, who knew what a US sub-prime mortgage was, let alone imagine how it could cause your client in China to lay off 3000 workers?  In a world of accelerating uncertainty, the safest bets can turn on the last throw of the dice.  What had sustained Lehman Brothers over 160 years of business, unravelled in weeks.

Yet our license to operate is based on a far more fundamental set of values: the safety of workers, responsibility for the state of the environment, the health of our communities, social justice, long term profitability.  Not only does this mean doing the right thing, but sustaining world class performance.  It means managing change and our emotional response to it; intelligently adapting best practices to be effective in our own environments; expecting, and getting, the most from our people.

SMART Summit 2009 will attempt to draw together some of these frayed threads; to re-focus our energy on what is truly important and within our power to change.  The conference sessions are a cocktail of case studies, thought leadership, product updates, and practical insights from a range of industries.