Sustainability and innovation

SUSTAINABILITY means different things to different people. In this issue of EMR, we focus on the sustainability in the context of our general fields of interest, managing technology, innovation and the people that engage in these practices. Sustainability comes in many flavors; to policy makers the notion of sustainability is rather clear as it takes on the form of social benefit of some type-cleaner environment, favorable macro-economic conditions, stronger geo-political relationships, etc. However, to the manager who is operating at the grass roots level, sustainability can be a nebulous challenge; a quest for designing socially desirable products and processes that are often accompanied with economic disadvantages (at least perceived); building and motivating a workforce with the proper skillset capable of surviving unexpected challenges; innovating production processes and products to accommodate emerging technologies that redefine the marketplace for existing products and services; adjusting to unforeseen economic disruption in global markets; ensuring information security and privacy of customers, employees, and partner firms, etc.