Leadership Environmental Social and Governance Essay 2022

Running head: LEADERSHIP: ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE
LEADERSHIP: ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

LEADERSHIP: ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE1
The essay focuses on understanding leadership and its impact on the performances of
organization. It has been found in the present times that organizations that are leading on the
basis of their financial performances do not have CEOs that are ranked higher in the CEO
rankings that are provided by organizations such as the Harvard Business Review (HBR 2017).
The study is focused towards the effective analysis of leadership in view of the environmental,
social and governance (ESG) metrics. These factors determine leadership most effectively in the
present times. This is evident from the fact that Amazon CEO, Jeff Bezos was not among the
higher ranked CEOs as per the rankings (Harvard Business Review - Ideas and Advice for
Leaders, 2019). Thus, it is important that the financial metrics are given as much importance as
the ESG metrics in determining the organizational leadership effectiveness. Three important
CEOs have been chosen on the basis of their positive and negative contributions towards
leadership development. The examples of 3 CEOs of large world organizations have been taken
into consideration to develop better understanding of the requisite competencies of CEOs in the
present corporate scenarios. The CEOs selected are Samsung electronics CEO, Kim Ki-Nam;
CEO and chairman of Adobe Inc. Shantanu Narayen and the CEO of Amazon, Jeff Bezos. The
aim is to analyze their contribution towards the development of better performing organizations
and workforces. One of the reason, the CEOs of some of the largest organizations in the world
were unable to make the top list of the CEO rankings was their lack of performance in the field
of environmental, social and governance. However, ESG is driven more by the financial rather
than ethical motives.
There are significant debates concerning the evaluation of the success of leaders in view
of the present corporate environments. Presently, global business organizations have to face
significant pressure from their operational and functional environments. It is important to

LEADERSHIP: ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE2
understand that the businesses today face more turbulence than they have faced anytime in the
past. As a result CEOs need to maintain more functions than they have maintained in the past.
This brings forwards the need for the proper implementation of the ESG metrics
(www.msci.com, 2019). These metrics are valued on the basis of the environmental, social and
governance oriented aspects that guide them. The metrics however are driven more by financial
motives than ethics. The CEOs in today’s world should be evaluated more on the basis of how
they influence the people and the environment around them and help them to positively perform
in accordance of the rapidly changing business scenarios. The ESG metrics very effectively puts
forward these factors in determining the effectiveness of the new age leaders and CEOs (Eccles
& Stroehle, 2018). The need to address the current business problems are important. The CEOs
are the best people that can led organizations towards success. In determining their effectiveness,
the ESG metrics need to be properly evaluated. The ESG metrics tool is designed to provide
investors with a large amount of data that can be compared across more than 8500 companies of
the Investable Market Index (www.msci.com, 2019). This is exactly the area where the metrics
are used to determine financial values. The ESG practices of organization and the ESG practice
competencies of their leaders can hence be measured. A data set is created of major components
that can determine the effectiveness of the organization and the CEO. Concerning the same some
of the important aspects are risk exposure, practices, performance and controversies. Some of the
important factors that are considered in regards to the same are climate change, pollution, natural
capital, environmental opportunities, human capital, product liability, corporate behavior and
stakeholder opposition.
An example can be given in this case of the Samsung CEO, Ki-Nam Kim. He is the CEO
of the electronics department of Samsung. He has been responsible in bringing about changes in

LEADERSHIP: ENVIRONMENTAL, SOCIAL AND GOVERNANCE3
Samsung that have positively affected the environmental, social and governance factors that are
connected with the operations of Samsung. This has in turn helped Samsung electronics to keep
on with their positive position as the top financial performer for the organization. At the same
time the revenue of the organization from the sale of the flagship smart phones have increased.
The South Korean is ranked 13 on the rankings of the best CEOs in the world. Some of the most
important decisions that provided him with better ESG performances were the quick recall of the
problematic Samsung smartphones, making sure that the product lived up to the quality
guidelines and improving the functional effectiveness of the products manufactured by Samsung.
The leadership of Ki-Nam Kim has actually helped Samsung to be environmentally effective,
socially responsible and effective in terms of the governance. The organization has been able to
perform better is these areas due to the effective decision making by Ki-Nam Kim ("CEO |
Executives | Company | Samsung US", 2019). In the present corporate world it has become much
important that the leadership focuses not only towards all-round growth that can not only be
beneficial toward improving the financial performances but also sustaining the performances in
the long-run. All the positive changes that were implemented by the CEO helped Samsung to
gain a revenue of 20.99 Billion US dollars considering its mobile communications segment
(Elsbach & Stigliani, 2018). It is important to consider that the organization has been performing
good as it has been able to be more responsible in handling the major concerns that are
connected with its operational areas. Samsung is now more focused towards eco-management
due to the work of the CEO. Kim has also made sure that the governance of Samsung has been
optimized as per the operational requirements. More emphasis has been provided to employee
welfare and the creation of better workplace environments. These factors are presently much
important as the businesses are focused long term development and effective risk management.