The Sustainability Compass: a digital management tool for sustainability management, organizational development and sustainable growth.

The sustainability compass: a digital management tool for sustainability management, organizational development and sustainable growth.During the years 2003-2013, I was the Swedish representative for the global research network Reputation Institute, which worked at management level with reputation rankings of large and visible organizations.

Then my great interest was awakened in working with reputation and brand measurements.I currently work as a lecturer and researcher at Stockholm Business School at Stockholm University.

In my academic courses (both for students and managers) I use, among other things, the Business Model Canvas (BMC) as a tool to teach business development.

In 2017, I launched the SU Business Model Cup, Stockholm University´s competition in sustainable business models, where researchers and students had to "pitch" their sustainable business models based on the BMC to a distinguished jury from the business world.

During the years 2015-2023, I have examined more than 1,000 business models, within the framework of my academic courses, that used the BMC.Measuring sustainability has always been my passion as a researcher and I developed the "Swedish sustainability ranking" model in 2015, which is an analog survey model and it has been used in many customer projects over the past nine years.

Before that, I was one of the pioneers in the Swedish market with annual reputation rankings.The organizations that participated felt that the surveys were good but took too long to complete and cost so much that only large companies could afford to carry them out.

The companies that were involved thought I should create a model that was quicker to get a result from and that had a lower price tag. In this way, more organizations could get a tool to become more sustainable.

That´s how my innovation was born and the natural thing for me was to go from the previous analogue and traditional model "Swedish Sustainability Ranking" to a completely digital model.I contacted the Innovation Office at Stockholm University and tested my thoughts  and received help in developing a digital solution that is automated, can be implemented several times a year and is suitable for all sizes of companies and organizations regardless of industry.

I started The Nordic Brand Company AB to develop the digital model that I call the "Sustainability Compass".

Its purpose is to contribute to strengthening the competitiveness of Swedish organizations and act as a positive force in the transition towards a more sustainable society.The new digital model enables customers to quickly, easily and cheaply (a third of the time and cost) over time strengthen their internal organization and steer it in a more sustainable direction based on a Triple Bottom Line perspective.

The tool makes it possible to easily see the organization´s strengths and weaknesses and identify gaps.

The following areas are mapped in a measurement: Sustainability, Brand, Supporting behaviors and a Driving force analysis.I see clear benefits for all concerned stakeholders from the individual to the management of companies and government organizations as well as society.The customers will become more efficient in running their internal sustainability processes and make the employees feel more involved in that work and that their views on the sustainability work are captured and that there is ongoing change in a more sustainable direction.The management gets a tool where they can follow the sustainability work in "real time" and see if the measures taken create sustainable growth over time.

The compass takes a third as little time as the analog one to complete.Through systematic sustainability work, the organization develops the ability to both retain the right employees and attract new talented employees.

This is an important part of a change work.The tool enables the organization to continuously control and report how they work with sustainability and the connection to growth. This can be