Last month, the fast-fashion apparel company H&M released its 2016 sustainability report. The company set a commitment to use 100 percent recycled or other sustainably-sourced materials by 2030 and to become climate positive throughout its entire value chain by 2040.  

While they aren’t the first company to make such a commitment, they are an example of the growing trend toward “closed loop” or “cradle to cradle” product development in fashion. (Learn more about this approach from my podcast interview with Bridgett Luther of Cradle to Cradle Products Innovation Institute.) 

This is big shift for fashion companies that have made their money by coming out with new designer lines each season. Lower priced apparel manufacturers have a reputation for making lower quality, “disposable” clothing not built to last. H&M, in particular, has been criticized for this.

A CEO of a Fortune 500 company said to me recently, “If I could do it over again, I’d spend less time at my desk and a lot more time out of the office learning from others.” 

I have worked closely with more than 75 CEOs in my consulting career, and what I hear more than anything else from experienced CEOs is this reflection. They wish they had spent more time outside – out learning from the larger business and community landscape around them – and less time consumed in the internal operations of their organizations.  

Doing the same thing better, time after time, is ultimately a prescription for failure. Why?  Because people outside your company will figure out a better way and beat you. We see it all the time, in every industry. CEOs and boards who believed they could maintain their market-leading position through incremental change. They often say, “No one saw it coming.” That is a rationalization. Those who are forward looking enough to plan for major change can transform their companies and create new value.  

Lou Shapiro, CEO of Hospital for Special Surgery (HSS) in New York City, is definitely a forward-looking CEO. He understands innovation and the need to be a continual learner. HSS is the number one-rated hospital in the U.S. in orthopedic surgery. No one does it better! With all of their success, Lou still told me, “The riskiest thing we can do now is to try and stay the same.”