View in partnership with the boston consulting group

view , in partnership with The Boston Consulting Group (BCG),
conducted a global survey. This was the first year that the
United Nations Global Compact joined the partnership.
The 2014 survey response set included more than 3,795 ex-
ecutive and manager respondents from 113 countries. This
report is based on a smaller subsample of 2,587 respondents
from commercial enterprises. To focus on business, we ex-
cluded responses from academic, governmental and
nonprofit organizations. Respondent organizations are located
around the world and represent a wide variety of industries.
The sample was drawn from a number of sources, including
BCG and MIT alumni, MIT Sloan Management Review sub-
scribers, BCG clients, UN Global Compact participants and
other interested parties.
In addition to these survey results, we interviewed practitio-
ners and experts from a number of industries and disciplines
to understand the sustainability issues facing organizations
today. Their insights contributed to a richer understanding of
the data and provided examples and case studies to illustrate
our findings.

JOINING FORCES • MIT SLOAN MANAGEMENT REVIEW 5
increases food insecurity. The cycle can crush up to
2% of a country’s GNP.
5
“Adding essential nutrients to food is not some-
thing governments can do, because they don’t
produce food,” said Andreas Bluethner, director of
food fortification and partnerships at the German
chemical company BASF. “The private sector can’t
do it alone, because public health is not their core
purpose. NGOs can’t do it because they do not have
all the necessary technical expertise. Making nutri-
tion affordable for poorer population groups
requires partnerships between all sectors on a
global scale.”
To tackle global nutrition challenges, BASF became
a founding member of SAFO, the Strategic Alliance
for the Fortification of Oil and other staple foods.
BASF works with NGOs such as the Global Alliance
for Improved Nutrition (GAIN), along with federal
and local governments, to add important nutrients,
such as vitamin A, to basic foods.
2014 KEY FINDINGS
The efforts of Intel and BASF are emblematic of the
findings from the sixth annual global executive sus-
tainability survey conducted by MIT SMR , BCG and
the United Nations Global Compact. Specifically:
Corporate sustainability is moving steadily from the
old model — comprised primarily of ad hoc or op-
portunistic efforts that often produced tense
relationships with the public sector — towards strate-
gic and transformational initiatives that engage
multiple entities. The goals of these collaborations
are many and include corporate benefits such as in-
fluencing standard-setting authorities, garnering
access to resources and developing new markets.
Our research found that as sustainability issues be-
come increasingly complex, global in nature and
pivotal to success, companies are realizing that they
can’t make the necessary impact acting alone. The
sentiment is nearly unanimous among managers:
90% of respondents agree that businesses need to