Topic
Why it fails and what it requires
Transformation fails because most strategies treat symptoms rather than structure. Pledges, audits and certificates sit on top of a supply chain whose incentives are unchanged, so behaviour reverts once attention moves elsewhere. Structural change makes responsible conduct necessary rather than voluntary.
Every organisation in this field has a commitment. Very few have a changed supply chain. The distance between those two facts is the subject of this pillar.
The work here traces the difference between compliance instruments, which record intent, and transformation instruments, which change what is operationally possible. The distinction sounds academic until you watch a signed code of conduct produce nothing for three years.
Transformation
The dominant framing in most boardrooms treats sustainability as a values decision, admirable, but in tension with growth. Fourteen years of field research has convinced us this framing is not just wrong. It is the precise reason transformation keeps failing.
Transformation
The code of conduct is not a transformation tool. It is a compliance instrument. Understanding the difference is where genuine supply chain change begins.
Enquiries
The initiative takes enquiries on its findings, its teaching materials, and collaboration. Correspondence reaches the authors, not an account team.