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This article reports on a whitepaper showing the key success factors involved in driving corporate sustainability, and illustrates them using mini-case studies.

Results from a 2015 whitepaper published by Boston Consulting Group and MIT Sloan Management Review in association with the United Nations Global Compact are discussed. The findings are based on interviews conducted globally with 2,587 business managers, experts and practitioners. Best practice examples are provided of what three leading corporations are doing to achieve their sustainability strategies.

Two key drivers of corporate sustainability emerged. First, successful corporate sustainability involves collaborations with a range of other organizations. Essentially, the more partners in a particular project, the more successful the initiative is judged to be. Second, boards drive successful corporate sustainability where directors are interested in setting the sustainability strategy, its implementation and the outcomes.

The findings open many research questions and hypotheses to sustainability researchers and academics.

Guidance is provided for senior executives seeking to improve and/or increase corporate sustainability initiatives, namely, to collaborate with other parties and engage the board.

The planet and its inhabitants will benefit if obstacles to successfully tackling wicked problems such as hunger, poverty and the effects of climate change can be reduced using the power of collaborations between business, government, NGOs, and academe.

This paper provides insight into the perceived current state, obstacles and drivers of corporate sustainability, along with examples of successful approaches.

The purpose of this paper is to address an important gap in the literature by investigating the relationship between organizational climate and performance in small businesses.

Data were collected from 100 retail pharmacies in Sydney, Australia where a manager and up to three staff members and three buying customers were interviewed in each pharmacy.

Supportive climates tend to be associated with higher organizational performance (i.e. financial performance, staff satisfaction, customer satisfaction) in small retail pharmacies, and may reduce staff turnover.

The results suggest that managers should consider creating warm and supportive organizational climates to enhance business performance, employee job satisfaction and organizational commitment, and increase employee tenure.

This paper is among the first to empirically establish a direct link between organizational climate and the performance of small businesses, in particular in retail pharmacies. Both financial and non‐financial measures of performance confirm reports based on larger firms that performance is enhanced in the presence of more supportive organizational climates. A further benefit of supportive climates, namely lower staff turnover in small businesses, was also evident.

Having shaken off the formal mantles of their British forebears, Australians and New Zealanders are eagerly embracing the latest management development (MD) approaches, adopting and adapting North American and European methods. Recent government reports highlight the need for both basic and advanced MD, increasing the receptivity of the business community for fresh, imported MD programs. Successful localisation of overseas offerings depends on an awareness of subtle differences between the two countries as well as between them and other English‐speaking regions. In addition to anecdotal advice for the flying MD consultant, we provide an environmental scan, focusing on cultural distinctions and recent economic developments affecting demand for, and practices in, MD in Australia and New Zealand. Our goal is to maximise your success in prospecting, designing, and conducting MD programs in our countries.

Close inspection reveals subtle differences in managerial style and culture within Austria, Germany and Switzerland. Foreign management development (MD) practitioners are more likely to be impressed by the management and cultural similarities within the German‐speaking nations, especially when contrasted with the North American model. While many of the MD techniques used in the German‐speaking areas will be familiar to North American practitioners, not all foreign MD techniques are directly applicable to management in the German‐speaking region. Nonetheless, these countries face familiar challenges in developing managers into the twenty‐first century. These countries need managers who can cope with rapid change, manage innovation and new technologies, develop their human resource and management skills, face globalisation, deal with information technology, as well as manage teams and external workforces. Many of these areas offer opportunities for foreign MD practitioners. Promoting intercultural development could be a strong argument for exposing German‐nation managers to foreign MDPs

Australian managers’ preferences for situational leadership styles and perceived effectiveness were compared, using both “self” and “other” ratings on Blanchard’s latest model. Overall, supervisors and senior/middle managers preferred supportive styles, and avoided delegating and directing. However, they rated themselves as significantly more supportive and less directive than “other” raters indicated. Approximately 50 percent of the sample was able to use more than one style, suggesting that preferences for supportive styles were not simply due to ignorance of alternatives. Subordinates did not consider their managers’ focus on supportive preferences effective (using Blanchard’s definition of effectiveness). Comparison of subordinates’ effectiveness scores awarded to the 50 most effective and 50 least effective managers, found agreement between managers and subordinates only in the effective group. In the low‐effectiveness group, managers and subordinates displayed little agreement on the managers’ effectiveness. Implications of the findings, limitations of the study and suggestions for further research are discussed.

The present commentary is a call for the inclusion of international education (IE) as part of any leadership studies degree program. A review of the reasons supporting this position is provided, along with a discussion of issues to consider in including IE in the curriculum, particularly as they impact adult students.