Bintel Interview with Guillaume Richard de Vesvrotte

This is our continued series of interviews with leaders in Sustainability. We had a chance to sit down with Guillaume Richard de Vesvrotte on May 17, 2023 for a wide ranging discussion on his current work and outlook for the future. The transcript has been edited for this format. 

Guillaume_CroppedGuillaume Richard de Vesvrotte
Co-Founder of We Don't Need Roads

Passionate game changer and team leader, entrepreneur, advisor and executive director, Guillaume co-founded We Don’t Need Roads, a global business initiative dedicated to reducing businesses’ negative impacts, reinventing business models, and scaling positive impact at their core. 

Before that, Guillaume had a successful career in advertising, working with renowned global brands such as American Express, Microsoft and General Motors, during his tenure at Publicis and McCann Erickson. His passion for sustainability and positive change led him to co-create Patte Blanche, the first French communication agency pioneering sustainability, social innovation and branding for global companies, B-Corp certified “Best For The World”. Guillaume also led the charge at Pixelis, a branding agency and a global game-changers community, B-Corp certified “Best For The World”, and launched Sustainable Brands Paris, the major event in Europe on Sustainability, Marketing and Innovation.

Alongside his work, Guillaume also serves as Chair of the International Committee and Member of the Steering Committee in the Global Advisory Board at Sustainable Brands in California, and is an active Member of the Sustainability & Innovation Committee for the French-American Chamber of Commerce in NYC.

With more than 18 years of experience in his field, Guillaume is one of the climate entrepreneurship pioneers in Europe, having taken part in many of the initiatives that shaped the way companies are now addressing sustainability. He advised many global companies, such as Pernod-Ricard, Ferrero, Nestlé, Danone, Guerlain, Total, P&G, and many others, on their CSR and sustainability strategies and has a deep knowledge of the relationship between business and climate. His unique perspective on how businesses can take leadership on Climate and Positive Impact, as well as his very early stage participation in global communities such as the B-Corp Movement and 1% for the Planet, brought him to share his knowledge on stage at various conferences  in the United States (NYC, Austin, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Detroit…) and in Europe (Istanbul, Madrid, London, Copenhagen…).

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Tom Marsh: Thanks for meeting with us today. Can we start with an introduction to your background and experience? 

Guillaume: My personal commitment to positive impact began 18 years ago. I began my career in the advertising industry, in global advertising agencies such as Publicis in France, one of the largest or second largest players in the industry during that time. I also worked at McCann Erickson, which was among the top three or four agencies globally, and I loved that job. I loved the marketing initiatives we undertook for brands, governments, and similar projects. But I hated the complete absence of ethics and disregard for fundamental principles, such as not hurting or lying to people, and the poor added value we brought to our clients. That is why I decided to create my first agency and the first topic my co-founders and I wanted to focus on was people. I know that in the U.S. the topic was more common, but in Europe, particularly in France where the government assumes numerous responsibilities, companies did not typically prioritise caring for individuals, it was not what companies were about. So, we started with that and in less than three months, we signed massive European clients because they actually had no one helping them in the market with environmental claims, and we were the ones to bridge that gap. That is how we started, and since then, the market didn’t stop growing, and we grew with them. From that same mission, I built four other companies, all centered around the realms of sustainability and business.

 

"IN LESS THAN THREE MONTHS, WE SIGNED MASSIVE EUROPEAN CLIENTS BECAUSE THEY ACTUALLY HAD NO ONE HELPING THEM IN THE MARKET WITH ENVIRONMENTAL CLAIMS." 

 
After some years advising on sustainability topics, I realized that most of the global companies I was helping, and the smaller ones, already had a CSR strategy. Almost everyone had something to say. I saw many of them pledge net zero carbon for 2050 or pledge SBTI, or pledge that they will become climate positive.

Job done?

Not so fast… When you look deep inside, almost none of them, I mean like 0% of them, had actual consistent, fast and bold action plans to fulfill their commitments, and it's not even because they wanted to lie or because they are really evil companies. It's really because nobody was actually realizing that if you want to be carbon neutral by 2050, you need to start running tomorrow morning. 

 

“IT'S REALLY BECAUSE NOBODY WAS ACTUALLY REALIZING THAT IF YOU WANT TO BE CARBON NEUTRAL BY 2050, YOU NEED TO START RUNNING TOMORROW MORNING." 

 
Tom Marsh: So, you brought the expertise and sense of urgency? 

Guillaume: We brought the right methodologies and people to accelerate companies’ plans. Early 2020, I met my partners in crime. Rija Goldscheider and Maud Thevenot are former Googlers, and Jeanne Rives is a former engineer from Nestlé. So, everyone's coming from the business side, right? Everyone knows how things work in a global company: what can be slow, what can be powerful. We were all on the same page because my partners had managed the digital transformation of global companies for over 15 years. They were like yeah, the clients are making exactly the same mistakes and they are exactly in the same position doing the same thing. Working with silos, not understanding how sustainability is going to become a standard, not realizing it is going to have an impact on every part of the company. It is not like, ok, we have this new sustainable appliance, and we are doing the job in a way that we are reducing it by 5%. They were not going at the right pace, and so we got together and created a one-stop-shop called We Don't Need Roads, as a tool to accelerate climate plans and reconcile the economic and ecological stakes in these companies.

 

“WE CREATED A ONE-STOP-SHOP CALLED WE DON'T NEED ROADS, AS A TOOL TO ACCELERATE CLIMATE PLANS AND RECONCILE THE ECONOMIC AND ECOLOGICAL STAKES IN THESE COMPANIES."

 

Since then, we have helped more than 72 global groups worldwide, and we accelerated their climate plans, helped them reduce their footprint and create better models. We went after their carbon footprint, biodiversity footprint, water footprint, and we had them speed up their actions thanks to our pack of experts and hybrid commando teams to gather the data, build the right action plans, even when it's very local, even when you must be very fast. 

We measure the time in weeks. Action is not by 2050, it's by next year. What can you get done and how can you really speed up the rhythm of your transformation is critical - transforming quickly is a matter of survival. “Brick and mortar”, “too big to fail”, are things of the past. It's no longer true: now we have massive organisations that are less and less adapted to what is coming, and what is coming is very fast and brutal. 

 

"WHAT IS COMING IS VERY FAST AND BRUTAL.“

 

We have been educated in a world where we were speaking about climate change as a matter of the next century. That it was something that will take dozens of years, and that acting now will ensure our children or grandchildren will not face massive consequences. Now, we realize that the problem is actually in 2023, and that actually in the next month we are going to have massive heat waves in Europe. 

Companies have plans set for 2050, but now we discover that they need to act much faster and nobody's helping them - not even the renowned, big advisory companies that are meant to help them. These traditional consulting entities, despite their power, worldwide presence, influence and experience, don't have what it takes to build the necessary action plans, operate them and speed up the pace. 

So, we did it. We do accelerate the plans. We transition organisations, reducing their footprints to the maximum and speeding up their sustainability action plans. At some point companies will need to innovate and create new models because the ones they are using cannot create massive enough reduction. We reinvent business models, products, services and value chains, whatever needs to be reimagined once you have reduced to the maximum all your footprints. 

Once we have fostered innovation, the next crucial step is to scale these solutions and establish new standards. So, this part is more dedicated to supporting solutions, startups and new brands that are inherently sustainable at their core. 

And to do all that, we have about 15 people in Paris, some more folks in several parts of the world, in New York, Switzerland, Spain and Portugal. We have gathered 600 experts and partners in 34 countries, mainly in the U.S. and Europe, but also in Latin America, Africa and Asia to work collaboratively with commando teams throughout entire value chains. One of our clients is Decathlon, the world’s largest sports retailer, with about 20,000 suppliers in the world, some of them in China, some of them in southern Europe, some of them in Latin America. They need to speed up their climate plans and We Don't Need Roads is dedicated to supporting them by developing comprehensive action plans at both local and global levels. So, when you do that, you need some people to be able to go to the factory in China and ask the right questions, get the right data and create the right action plans for that. This is why we built this global community of experts. And so that means three years later, we can operate on any sustainability topic, anywhere. 

 

"WE HAVE GATHERED 600 EXPERTS AND PARTNERS IN 34 COUNTRIES, MAINLY IN THE U.S. AND EUROPE, BUT ALSO IN LATIN AMERICA, AFRICA AND ASIA TO WORK CONCRETELY WITH THE COMMANDO TEAMS ON THE WHOLE VALUE CHAINS.“

 

Tom Marsh: I'm fascinated by the language you use and your website, you're talking about commando teams and the sense of urgency you believe is important. The almost confrontational language seems very natural to you. Is this because you came out of communications and marketing? And is this just a natural thing for you? Because it seems very deliberate in terms of the language, the website, everything I've seen conveys that energy and urgency. You’re serious, commando is a military term! 

Guillaume: Yeah. 

Tom Marsh: Right. So, your messaging is not for comfortable executives, right? But it is deliberate, and you bring that as part of your culture? 

Guillaume: Yes. And as a matter of fact, we have been looking for fewer military terms. At the beginning of We Don’t Need Roads, we had many things to learn. Basically the work of We Don’t Need Roads, is to open the hood and identify the blind spots to create new action plans. These action plans have to tackle as many massive problems as possible in the shortest amount of time. When you do that, you see a lot of massive problems that have to be solved very quickly. At first, we pushed military terms as it meant what we wanted to say, but our goal was to find another vocabulary. We thought this was a temporary thing, right? But with practice came the conviction that we were actually spot on. It is a battle. A commando team is what you need.

And in our meetings with the clients, we were quite the same, you know, we are not foolish radical leftists or ecological activists that may be perceived as frightening or extreme. We're here to help you, don't be afraid. Please stay with us. Progressively we discovered that we were right from the beginning, and it is actually about building commando teams because it is a fight. It is actually a war. And it is actually a total emergency. And yes, now when we go to the clients, when we go to the meetings, they meet hundreds of advising companies and consulting companies, telling them, “Oh, this is so wonderful what you do.”  

 

"IT IS A BATTLE. A COMMANDO TEAM IS WHAT YOU NEED."

 

And then they meet us telling them, “What you do is just ****. I'm sorry you're not working the right way. You're not fast enough. You're not bold enough. So, let's find out how we can make you a future proof company. Make you a forever company, make you an actual leader in the world.”  

That world is not coming in 20 years, it's coming this year. Every single value chain is now threatened. The price of water in the U.S. in the last 10 years has risen by 60%, and globally, it's skyrocketing. So, when you produce cosmetics that are highly dependent on water, when you produce textiles that are highly dependent on water, it’s a massive disruption of your value chain. Climate change exacerbates these challenges, with forests and crops losing their productivity. These physical disruptions, coupled with pricing and logistics issues, significantly impact the stability and effectiveness of value chains.

It's not only about, “Ok, let's become a pretty leader for the future that is to come.” No, it's really because businesses are facing imminent danger. And so now they are moving very fast, and they need to move faster. This was not a conversation we could have had just three years ago, when approaching global food companies at a very high level telling them, “Yeah, you know, maybe your business is dead.” The meeting ended 5 minutes after that. “You're not serious. How? How come a company like ours can die? We have been operating for 100 years. How come?” Today, these companies are actively seeking answers to the question, "How can we address these challenges?" "When I go to the usual big consulting companies, they are all telling me that what I do is extraordinary and that I need to correct my message, and to be compliant with this law or that.”

Radicality is now accepted in the business community. At the highest levels of global companies, there is a momentum, and this momentum is because they understand how endangered their businesses are. Today, when you talk about degrowth, more and more companies are listening. I'm not saying that it will necessarily be about, you know, killing the business or massively reducing the business, but it will be about reducing the way we do business, reducing consumption. 

 

"AT THE HIGHEST LEVELS OF GLOBAL COMPANIES, THERE IS MOMENTUM, AND THIS MOMENTUM IS BECAUSE THEY UNDERSTAND HOW ENDANGERED THEIR BUSINESSES ARE."

 

There is a lot to say about this, and three to four years ago, it was really an activist topic. I mean it was something that you could hear from NGOs or politicians for instance. But you didn't hear that in global FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods) companies. Now, some of them are starting to think about the business as this: “Ok, how do we create value? How do we restore the margins, but also how do we decrease the volume of things that we ship? How do we build our business model differently? Because this volume is actually what causes our fragility." Because of what I just said about the value chains and all that, I mean, the more you're dependent on these value chains, the more volume that goes through your value chains, the more you are in danger. So, that's why you have more and more companies on the market, even in the U.S., exploring rental products, exploring subscription models, exploring refill and reuse models. It's something that everybody does. 

Tom Marsh: Are there any large companies that are doing it right and doing it fast? 

Guillaume: Well, of course I will speak about Patagonia because this company has been built for it. So, they are fast. They are right. They don't fear cutting some business if it's something they can't make work. Though, they have their own problems, nobody is perfect. That's one thing to learn, is that no company is perfect. But some companies are really serious about the project. They really understood how dangerous it was for their business, but also how their business has a bigger role to play in society than just generating money. Because when you only generate growth, you destroy the planet, the way we are living, the health of people, it's actually not creating value. So, we are going from a society where companies generate cash to a society where companies generate value, which is very, very different. Some companies are already generating value, of course, like Patagonia and Ben and Jerry’s. And if you think about it, they resisted better to the Covid crisis and the latest climate and financial disruptions than other “business as usual” companies of the same sectors. They are safer, tougher, with a long term vision.

And it's very interesting. Each company, as I said, has a deep strategy and a lot to say about that. Many companies are moving not fast enough, not bold enough, but still moving. I think I never met a company that is actually doing things at the pace we all need. For instance, we work with Decathlon as I said, and Decathlon is an incredible company. Sephora is doing a lot, as well as the LVMH group. What is interesting is that if you dig into the different global companies, you often find incredible initiatives taking place within their organisations. But not at the right scale.  

 

"WHAT IS INTERESTING IS THAT IF YOU DIG INTO THE DIFFERENT GLOBAL COMPANIES, YOU OFTEN FIND INCREDIBLE INITIATIVES TAKING PLACE WITHIN THEIR ORGANISATIONS. BUT NOT AT THE RIGHT SCALE.“

 

Let’s look at Danone for instance. It's an amazing company. They built a lot, and they almost created the sustainable finance topic and equipped a lot of experts for the U.N. around that topic. It's very impressive. But it's a massive company with massive challenges. The main cash machine within the company is their plastic bottle company Evian. They have to transform and not everything is perfect. It’s still a very good company and they are trying to do the best they can.  

When you spot some of the brands that are impactful, such as Ben and Jerry's and Unilever, it’s incredible what these companies do. But if you look at the actual global business of the company, they still have more to do. They are so slow at doing everything, not because they don't want to, they want to, and they understand this future proof thing. But they have about 120,000 employees. So, it's very slow, and very hard for them to implement changes. 

Last week I was in Amsterdam at the B For Good Leaders Summit, where we joined 1,200 business leaders in Europe, gathering to talk about sustainable business and having a positive impact. I witnessed 2 things. First thing, many of the companies that came were positive impact companies. Very inspiring ones. Their leaders all said, “We don't do enough. We are not good enough. We still have problems. We still have challenges.” It's very, very hard to build a sustainable business. For now, it doesn't exist, it requires a totally different way of thinking about the actual economic system, about growth. 

I think many positive things are happening today, we'll see how we can build this change together, but it's still slow. What I also want to say is, a totally regenerative business doesn't exist. I mean it could exist at some point, but for the moment it doesn't exist. 

 

"FINALLY, SOMEONE SAYS IT. I SPOKE WITH THE CEO OF A GLOBAL TEXTILE BRAND AND HE SAID, 'YOU KNOW, I CAN'T SAY THAT IN MY COMMENTS. I CAN'T SAY THAT TO MY BOARD. BUT WE ARE SCREWED.'"

 

Many speakers had inspiring messages on how we can build a better world together. But the only two speakers I saw that really created applause from their audience were two speakers saying, “I don't care about what you say. When are we going to talk about the massive problem that we are going to have? Where are we going to go? Talk about the actual rhythm that we need, and are we going to talk about degrowth?” 

It was amazing to see that the 1,200 people who assisted the conference were lacking something. Finally, someone says it. I spoke with the CEO of a global textile brand, and he said, “You know, I can't say that in my comments. I can't say that to my board. But we are screwed.” 

We work on many of these topics at We Don’t Need Roads. Like how to trigger within our client organisations the conversation about degrowth when they don't want to talk about the crisis, about climate change and the impacts on their business. But we know that at some point the company will be forced to go there. 

Melanie Marsh: Get ahead of the rain. 

Guillaume: So, how do you do that first, and how do you prepare to do that? You know the story about Kodak and the digital picture? We often say, well if you don't want to become the next Kodak, you have to become one of the leading companies on these kinds of topics.  

Tom Marsh: I want to stay on that theme about disruption. I've been in tech all my life. Kodak is a great example. Another was Digital Equipment Corporation which was supposed to be the IBM killer at one point. You’ve mentioned the situation at global companies. How much of the change is going to come from smaller fast-growing companies that are addressing these problems from the start and essentially forcing change at the big ones? 

Guillaume: Well, several answers to your question. First thing: SMEs and small companies are equivalent in the U.S. and Europe in proportion. But I have the figure for Europe. Small companies are the majority of the economic system. So, of the 28.3 million companies in Europe, only 50,000 are worth more than €40 million. I think 20 million companies out of the 28.3 million companies have less than 10 employees. So, when you ask only the global companies to make the effort, you're missing the point. We need them to do the effort because P&G, Colgate and Unilever, just these three companies, are worth a massive percentage of the global plastic and carbon, of course, but within their value chain, you have many smaller companies. 

Change is going to come from every company, but small companies have a huge role to play. The other downside to that is the laws are designed first for global companies. For instance, in Europe, the CSRD rule will force every company to comply with new standards on carbon, biodiversity, water, human rights and so on, but it's for companies above €40 million of turnover. 

 

"CHANGE IS GOING TO COME FROM EVERY COMPANY, BUT SMALL COMPANIES HAVE A HUGE ROLE TO PLAY. THE OTHER DOWNSIDE TO THAT IS THE LAWS ARE DESIGNED FIRST FOR GLOBAL COMPANIES.“

 

When you're a very small company, you don't have to comply with that. But then also you don't have 50 people looking at the laws in the EU in Brussels and you don't have lobbyists in Washington, so this will be harder for you to anticipate and have control. 

Tom Marsh: But the regulations flow down to them if they are suppliers to the big firms, right? 

Guillaume: Yes, you're not in that game directly, but at some point, if L’Oréal must comply with the CSRD, they will ask the whole value chain to comply with the CSRD. So, if you work with L’Oréal, you will have to comply with some rules that you didn't expect and didn't anticipate. So, the first thing for small companies is that they will be the first ones to experience problems, and to need leadership on those topics, because they are not ready for all that's coming. And the second point is the reason why at We Don't Need Roads, we built our scale department. It's because if you want to build a solution that is going to change the game, you need to make it the new standard. It's not enough to make it scale. So, right now what we have in Europe and the U.S. are many companies working on plant-based proteins for instance. And, they are raising massive amounts of money, like billions, so everybody is saying, "oh wonderful. This is the future.  

But, in the market right now, it's absolutely not the standard. So, if we want to create change you need to put them in the right position for them to become a standard, and it has to be privileged by retailers. It has to come first for the consumers, who have to understand that it's better for all of us.  

Let’s take Beyond Meat for example, that is quite mature. Their prices are almost good. You can find them almost everywhere now. But because consumers don't know them, they don't really buy their products because it's not what they are accustomed to. It's not standard. Smaller companies, because they are more agile, younger, and can push a lot of solutions, they can even raise a lot of money, they can even become a standard, but this takes time and is very hard. 

So yes, I believe it's a delicate mix if you think about it at scale, it's about economics. The massive companies that are already in the sector are addicted to the rules, some of them will understand how to recreate their leadership and grab this sustainability opportunity. There is a massive opportunity to build the next evolution of the business. 

 

"SOME GLOBAL FIRMS WILL ADAPT. THOSE WHO WON'T, WILL DIE. SOME SPACE WILL BE MADE ON THE MARKET. SOME WILL BE TAKEN BY THE FUTURE PROOF COMPANY I JUST TALKED ABOUT, AND SOME WILL BE TAKEN BY THE NEW SOLUTIONS THAT WILL BECOME STANDARDS. AND THESE STANDARDS ARE GOING TO PUT PRESSURE ON THE GLOBAL COMPANIES TO EVOLVE FASTER AND FASTER."

 

Tom Marsh: How much of your business is with those smaller companies as opposed to the major brands? 

Guillaume: So, for We Don't Need Roads, I mean 65% to 70% is done with global brands, global companies. 

We have maybe 5% to 10% of our business that is meant with hedge funds and investors. Because the classic business is usual, investors are investing in companies, and they need us to help these companies be more sustainable because it's safer for their investment. It's securing the investment; it's securing the strategy. It's better for the value of the company and impact investors are asking us to scale, and accelerate the impact of the companies they invest in. So, this is 5% to 10% of our turnover, and maybe 15% to 20% of what we do is scaling or helping positive impact companies develop their marketing, sales, and business strategies. So, for instance, we worked with Climeworks. They are the global leader for carbon capture. They raised $1 billion last year. We worked on their unique selling propositions and their business model, especially for the business to consumer part of the company. But the most we do is with global groups. It comes a lot from our past as the four founders are from global companies. So, we move easily in those types of companies. 

Tom Marsh: And you can make the biggest impact there as well. I think you really spoke to this a little while ago when you said that, and it's our experience as well, the smaller companies, they either aren't concerned by the regulations directly even though they may be concerned as a part of a larger company’s supply chain. But they also don't have a large staff with the resources to necessarily take on WDNR for work on their own. 

Guillaume: If I may add to that, you're nailing the next step for We Don't Need Roads because it's the immense majority of the economic system in the European and American countries. It's very important to find out how we can also help these companies transition even though they don't have the same budgets or even a team that can do that. They don't have the time, and even though they are much more sensitive to all the new regulations, they don't see them coming. That is why we are in the process of designing the translation of our current work with the global groups towards SMEs and small companies. We will add some tech into that. We will add some AI into that, and we are currently working on how we can operate with smaller companies, but also on smaller topics without using a whole commando team, as we do for global groups.  

 

"WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF DESIGNING THE TRANSLATION OF OUR CURRENT WORK WITH THE GLOBAL GROUPS TOWARDS SMES AND SMALL COMPANIES.“

 

We gained a lot of experience with the global groups we worked with. We are going to continue that work, but we will also leverage everything we have learnt to help smaller companies be faster and bolder, too. This is something that will be put on the market by the end of the year, maybe sooner, maybe by September. We'll be very fast on that because I think it's very, very important, and it's like the Wild West for these companies, they don't understand the topic. They don't know how to tackle it, but they know that they're going to die if they're not ready. 

Tom Marsh: This will require another round of innovation for WDNR. 

Guillaume: You need to do something for the small companies or else you're not doing your job, and nobody in the consulting industry is going there. I mean, freelancers are going there, but Accenture, McKinsey, BCG nobody's going there. They don't know how to create an offer that these companies can afford. 

Tom Marsh: You spoke of the big consultancies in our last conversation. They hold a huge amount of the revenue that the market is generating solving these problems, but it seems they're not really helping with the execution, they're generating plans and PowerPoints and C-Suite communication documents. Am I being too cynical? 

Guillaume: No, I think you're right. I hope some of them will hear us and start working on action plans and activation, but my favorite client is the CSO of a global group having 200 slides from one of these consultancies on his desk, not having a clue on how to activate it. On the other hand, he must go to the board and explain why he doesn't have results. And he paid over $1,000,000 for one month of work from this global consulting company.  

 

"MY FAVORITE EXAMPLE IS THE CSO OF A GLOBAL GROUP HAVING 200 SLIDES FROM ONE OF THESE GROUPS ON HIS DESK, AND NOT HAVING A CLUE HOW TO ACTIVATE IT."

 

So, very often what we do and what has become one of our specialties is to leverage our “one stop shop” for sustainability with our 600 experts, as a consulting, innovation and marketing company. It has really become a pool of expertise with talents for activation. We very often are given the slides from these global consulting companies, and we help the client understand what is actionable, what is something they will never be able to do, what they can do right now, what they can do in two years, because it's actually a very important part of the footprint.  

Tom Marsh: Can you share any examples? 

Guillaume: I have a story about this. One of our clients came with reports from big consulting companies that were about : where their carbon footprint was and how they should work on it as well as their biodiversity footprint. They observed their operations and designed and delivered their footprint. Then, out of the footprints, they delivered the strategy and action plans for the different parts and their priorities.  

For example, if you are a product, delivery or retail company and 80% of your footprint is transportation, it will be recommended for you to tackle transportation first, with a massive action plan that will require five years to implement. But the reality is, if you're a transportation company, then transportation is just how you built your business from the start of your operations, so it's the largest change you must make. You have to work on it, sure, but it's massive work. You won't have any results in the next six months or a year, or even in the next two years. You will need time. You will need teams; you will need partnerships. You will need many, many things. 

But in the remaining 20% of your footprint, you have many smaller things, actionable things you can work on while you activate your long-term strategy, such as your offices, your employees, your materials... A few quick wins that will help you start mitigating your footprint right now. You can work on your massive footprint, too. Of course, you need to do that at the right rhythm and a lot of things are going to happen in the meantime. 

Tom Marsh: Yes. 

Guillaume: And that is an example of a non-actionable strategy. And very often we have, you know, really 200 slides. How do we do that? We take the 200 slides, we keep like 10 of them, and out of the 10 we say, ok these you can do today, tomorrow, you can start doing that, and then look at all the rest. Let's work on a massive action plan and work on that, and we will build an alliance with all your partners. We will build a new business model for the whole company, then implement it, but this will be long. So, you need to implement everything you can as fast as you can. And here is how you do it.  

So very often they say what we have said about the global consulting company: they have a good brand and are working quite well. But we know that what they produce is also what they produce for other companies, and this way of thinking is actually slow and not consistent with the actual challenge we are facing right now. 

Tom Marsh: So, this challenge will take a cooperative effort with everyone to reach our goals? 

Guillaume: Several of our clients also work with these global consulting groups in collaboration, very often on the pilot of the action plans. When you have a global consulting company with 400,000 employees in the world, you have a network, you have the power to operate things, but the people in the organisation are not operators. So, we bring the operator talent and we explain that if they want to activate certain things, that is how it's going to work. 

Melanie Marsh: So, you’re involved with emerging technologies for their advanced R&D, any materials, technology to create a framework that will essentially bring that research to them in a more efficient way, in a more credible way. This has been very interesting and I’m sure we could go on for a few more hours. Do you have any final thoughts?  

Guillaume: This is an enormous challenge and we’re way behind. There are many thousands of companies across the world. In each one of them, at some point, someone important in the business will say, “Hey, where is the problem? Ok, POS materials are not ready. Retail is not ready. The brands are not ready. The packaging is not ready. Distribution is not ready. Sampling is not ready.” And so, that person will say to everyone, “Ok just put something on the rack, and make it sustainable, very fast as we are so late...” And so, they are spinning up, lacking teams, time, plans, operations. They need help very fast. This is new. This speed is the very new world we live in.

Tom Marsh: It’s been a real pleasure and I trust that readers will walk away with the sense of urgency you hope to create. Thank you for your time today.

Topics: circular economy, sustainability, recyclable, Design Strategy, Design Innovation, Data Analytics, Digital Sustainability, Thought Leadership, AI Powered Insight, Strategy, Regenerative Agriculture

Tom Marsh

Written by Tom Marsh

Tom has served as CEO of Bintel since cofounding the company in 2019. Before that he was COO of ai-one inc. where led the projects for NASA Marshall, SwissRe, Boeing and FedEx. For the past 15 years he has specialized in artificial intelligence applications for enterprise and government with a critical integration of Subject Matter Experts, AI, data, and visualizations. For FedEx this included topic classification and visualization of customer experience data collected weekly from survey data on FedEx.com. A project with an Army military intelligence group involved the development of a sophisticated intelligence platform that included GEOINT and provided situational awareness for an allied military. His current mission is to bring that caliber of solutions to counties in the West.