Q. One of the central ideas of your book — that not only can private enterprises profitably promote global social equity and environmental stewardship, but that they must do so to ensure their own sustainability — requires a major paradigm shift. Aren’t old belief systems — such as the one you term the “Great Trade-Off Illusion . . . the belief that firms must sacrifice financial performance to meet societal obligations” — still widespread? How can they be overcome?

The Great Trade-Off Illusion is still alive and well but there’s been serious damage done to it. It’s no longer impregnable. . . . The quality revolution and the “greening” revolution have put a serious dent in that whole mindset so that there’s an openness now, at least, to the whole idea that it’s possible to make a societal contribution as a for-profit company and still be wildly successful — and maybe be wildly successful because you make a societal contribution.

Having said that, the next major leap is one not so much of overcoming that trade-off thinking, but rather one of reinvention. It’s really that move from the incremental, greening way of thinking, where you continuously improve what you’re doing . . . versus the idea of leapfrogging, disruptive innovation, inherently clean technology, and accessing entirely new markets that you’ve previously not served.