Business as Mutual: A Blueprint for a Sustainable, Future-Fit Business

During the past years, businesses have experienced a series of once-in-a-generation challenges, forcing them to re-evaluate how they operate.  From COVID-19 to geopolitical instabilities, these challenges have shown that individual events, activities and decisions all have impacts that cascade throughout a value chain, potentially with global consequences.  

The challenges posted by COVID-19 have underscored the true meaning and importance of ‘Business as Mutual’. No man is an island, and no business can act independently. We need to work together in order to thrive. One thing is clear: moving forward, business as usual is obsolete.  We must transition to Business as Mutual. 

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What is Business as Mutual?

Business as Mutual (BAM) is Link’s future-fit leadership mindset and management tool designed to achieve long-term business sustainability through dynamic engagement with stakeholders. 

BAM positions Link and other stakeholders as an ecosystem, in which all stakeholders coordinate and align efforts to address common material issues instead of Link-centric topics alone.

This approach is critical to maximise value creation and build a resilient ecosystem where our business, stakeholders and the community can work together on common and material ecosystem issues collaboratively. 

Not only is this good for Link but it also contributes to creating ecosystem-wide shared value for all stakeholders, such as better economic performance, environmental resilience and social inclusion.

We apply the BAM approach throughout our business, including our approach to sustainability. For any project we execute or ecosystem issue we try to address, we actively engage with and collaborate with our stakeholders to inform and evolve our thinking and decisions.

Integrating BAM at Link

Over the years, we have implemented BAM in multiple areas of our business to help our stakeholder ecosystem flourish. Below are just a few examples:

What’s Next?

As risks and opportunities emerge in a “new normal” environment and broader societal expectations shift, we believe BAM will become more essential than ever in helping our stakeholders and partners achieve long-term ecosystem sustainability.

Going forward, Link will continue to evolve the BAM approach, from strengthening internal governance for BAM to developing a range of tools, metrics and methodologies to accelerate the transformation.