Leaving Planet Simple

Sustainability, resilience, ESG. What does it all mean? In his groundbreaking book, Leaving Planet Simple, Dr. Alex Gold cuts through the clutter and sensationalized headlines to explain how you can truly transform your business. Many business leaders today are stuck on Planet Simple. It’s a pleasant place—and state of mind—but it’s not the real world. For centuries, particularly since the Scientific Revolution of the 1700s, humankind has sought to master and rule over nature. While this has brought many benefits including increased human health, nutrition, and quality of life, it has also brought catastrophe, environmental degradation, a warming climate, and an often-inequitable society.

Now, Dr. Gold, with a PhD in resilience science and extensive corporate experience, shows us that rather than trying to master it, nature has quite a bit to teach us. With his deep background in resilience science, which emerged nearly fifty years ago from the world of ecology, Dr. Gold explains that what often hinders business leaders today is an outdated mindset. This is life on Planet Simple, a world where businesses can operate in isolation, separate from the environment and the communities they inhabit. Instead, Dr. Gold shows us that a business, really any organization, is much more like a natural environment, an ecosystem where all the parts are interconnected and changing all the time. Business leaders must leave Planet Simple, abandon this simplistic mindset, and embrace a new resilience mindset better suited for Planet Earth.

Companies and organizations around the globe are increasingly being asked—or required—to report on how they are resilient to environmental and social change. As a modern-day business leader, you have a choice. You can ignore these trends—although that is quickly becoming impossible in many jurisdictions—or treat these requirements as just another compliance exercise; a series of boxes to be checked or reports to be filed. Alternatively, as Dr. Gold argues in this book, you can embrace them, transforming your operations to build a resilient business that learns, evolves, and adapts in the face of uncertainty.

It's time to leave behind the simplicity of old paradigms and begin a thrilling journey toward a sustainable, resilient, and thriving future.