Paul Marushka is Sphera’s founding CEO and President. Paul has served as President of Marsh ClearSight, a business unit of Marsh & McLennan and has developed and launched a variety of software and analytics products recognized by the Gartner Group for their impact on the industry.
What a customer wants, a customer gets—and what people are asking of businesses now is safe, sustainable products.
As newspaper headlines herald the profits of big business — and the policies of big government — it’s hard to believe that any individual could be a force for change in this world. Yet, Sphera CEO Paul Marushka sees things differently. Years spent in the EHS management industry have convinced him that customers are “having an impact on business in a way the world doesn’t know.” After all, how big can a business be without consumers?
Of all the concerns that consumers voice about businesses, climate change is at the fore. No one wants to buy a harmful product. So long as customers ask about the sustainability of their purchases, firms must be ready to provide an answer. That’s where the economics come into play — companies can establish a competitive advantage simply by investing in climate-friendly sourcing and supply chain initiatives.
As Marushka puts it, businesses must “create a safer, more sustainable and productive world. Otherwise, incidents will happen, the environment will get worse, and overall production will suffer. So, business leaders are crucial to anything that happens in the world.”
Unfortunately, not all businesses behave responsibly. Preventive measures tend to be overlooked until it’s too late. If the costs of failure are high enough, even leaders who have not executed preventive measures will have no other option but to invest in health and safety measures. By keeping the pressure on leaders who don’t see the risks they are taking, consumers will increase corporate responsibility.
Happily, he doesn’t think that being responsible is a scarce resource. In an article in the UN’s yearbook, Marushka noted that 48 percent of survey respondents believe sustainability actively influences their growth strategies. Over two-thirds of companies with the most mature sustainability programs reported their initiatives helped them to bring in new business. That’s exactly what Marushka had in mind when he talked about “doing well by doing good.”
