“Know thine enemy and victory will be forthcoming” said Sun Tzu about 2000 years ago*. So who are the enemies of your green business?

There are many people out there who love to see ‘green’ businesses ‘exposed’ as ungreen. I call them Hyenas as they are ready to pounce on any weakness:

– Fundamentalist greens who believe that business is intrinsically ‘bad’ environmentally and sees any attempt to build a green business as ‘greenwash’;

– The sensationalist press who know that a story entitled, say, ‘Organic Food Exposed!’ will sell newspapers and magazines;

– Reactionary smart-alecs who just want to be cleverer than everyone else (Jezza Clarkson et al);

– Unscrupulous business rivals who see green companies starting to eat into their market share. Note that in extreme cases front organisations are sometimes used to do the dirty work in these cases.

In my experience, none of these types are particularly bothered about the accuracy of their claims. But remember, Hyenas exist to fill a very important role in their eco-system – they keep the savannah clean and healthy. I recommend you use them as a spur to make sure that your green offering is as robust as possible and rebut any unfounded allegations in a sober manner, using third party assessments/accreditations wherever possible.

But for most green businesses, the most dangerous enemy is much closer to home. I have seen far too many green business managers believe their own hype, delude themselves and even blame their customers for not buying. This is commercial suicide and their business will never succeed with this attitude, nor does it deserve to. Don’t fall into that trap.

* Actually, when I googled the first three words of this quote to check it, all the resulting versions were different. So I assume there’s been quite a bit of paraphrasing over the millennia… did the ancient Chinese use the word ‘thine’?