Among the most important lessons I have learned over the past 40 years in business, military and government service both in combat and in garrison - in the field and on the shoproom floor - is that successful and effective organizational sustainability is a synergistic function of "customer delight, employee loyalty, and multi-stakeholder satisfaction." Focus on the battlefield - military or corporate - requires tactical and strategic "asset allocation and alignment" aimed at continually balancing customer, employee and shareholder satisfaction for success. If maximizing sustainable shareholder value is the ultimate objective, i.e., the building of sustainable highly-valued organizations with perpetual profitability, then "optimizing these three domains" is mission essential. But it is not enough. Social and environmental variables must be continually factored with economic variables for value maximization. I further suggest that paradoxical thinking and global trans-unified action must be maintained in an atmosphere of high moral integrity and trust at all personal, team, organization and alliance levels. In addition, a requisite balance of effective entrepreneurship, management, intrapreneurship and leadership performance must be maintained within the context of personal, social, economic and environmental demands.

An industrial-age leadership maxim popular in the 20th Century was "keep it simple stupid" which even today in the so called digital-age organizational leaders continue to embrace. "Connecting-the-dots" in these opening years of the 21st century requires intelligent, open-minded, well-informed, constructive-oriented collaborators with the paradoxical ability to embrace "rigid flexibility" - order and openness as mission essential partners. Today following the "keeping it simple stupid" maxim especially in complex transnational organizations is most probably "very stupid." Successful sustainable solutions to complex economic, social and environmental challenges require complex thinkers with the ability to both formulate "elegant solutions" and "effectively lead others in the actualization of requisite outcomes."

A word about DANTOTSU: The English translation of the Japanese term "DANTOTSU" is "seeking sustainable competitive advantage through striving to be the Best of the Best, thereby having an effective lead over others and serving as the pace setter." Our use of "dantotsu" suggests that improvement is continuous and although one might lead the pack – the race never ends. Dantotsu®, Masterpreneurship®, and Sustainability Leadership® are all registered trademarks of Masterperneurship Corporation.