Xero is a New Zealand-based technology company, operating a global software platform for small businesses. Xero’s extensive ecosystem of connected apps and connections to banks and other financial institutions helps small businesses access a range of solutions from within its open platform to help them run their business and manage their finances.
In addition to delivering exceptional products and services, Xero has a strong commitment to social and environmental sustainability throughout its global operations - tied to the company’s purpose and values to make life better for its customers and the wider community.
Xero’s organizational-wide and Board endorsed sustainability strategy covers a broad range of objectives and initiatives relevant to its people, its customers, and other stakeholder groups. This includes climate change action, responsible supply chain management, employee support, customer and community engagement, corporate governance, and technology related concerns such as cyber security, customer privacy, and platform accessibility.
Navigating the complexity of technology is a challenge for any organization with a commitment to sustainability. Thoughtworks brings credibility and impartiality that helped us feel confident in our approach.
Navigating the complexity of technology is a challenge for any organization with a commitment to sustainability. Thoughtworks brings credibility and impartiality that helped us feel confident in our approach.
As the need for efficient, adaptive responses to complex sustainability challenges becomes increasingly important, Xero recognizes the critical role of its technology teams to inform, drive, and govern sustainability outcomes.
Enabling an achievable plan of action
To ensure the realization of these broad commercial objectives and commitments, Xero needed an execution plan to address the role of technology solutions and teams, and deliver a practical, achievable plan for action.
Xero partnered with Thoughtworks to enable the execution of its sustainability strategy through technology. This required an understanding of Xero’s sustainability and technology strategies to determine opportunities for alignment and the highest value priorities. This also covered current and proposed technology tools and key considerations relevant to technology decision making.
Of key importance was the engagement of technology leaders and teams, to support their critical role in the delivery of Xero’s sustainability strategy and enable greater alignment between Xero’s Technology and Sustainability functions. As the need for efficient, adaptive responses to complex sustainability challenges becomes increasingly important, Xero recognizes the critical role of its technology teams to inform, drive, and govern sustainability outcomes.
We’re seeing an exciting evolution in sustainability, in which the role of technology is central to helping organizations convert sustainability strategy to execution with significant, scalable impact.
We’re seeing an exciting evolution in sustainability, in which the role of technology is central to helping organizations convert sustainability strategy to execution with significant, scalable impact.
Through Thoughtworks’ adaptive approach to shared problem solving, the Thoughtworks and Xero teams navigated the complex intersection of technology and sustainability, and identified a path forward. The nature of cross-organizational sustainability priorities required collaboration across multiple teams across Xero. Thoughtworks helped connect teams in Sustainability, Technology, Finance, Risk, People and Legal to ensure a successful outcome.
The availability of critical data to help drive organizational change emerged as a focus for Xero. In keeping with its strategic approach to value generation through data, Xero appreciates the need for timely insights to visualize, measure, and make progress on sustainability performance.
Impact delivered
Xero now has a vision and prioritized recommendations to help unlock the next wave of sustainable opportunities at the company. This includes the role of technology teams, and many others across the business, as Xero accelerates the achievement of its sustainability strategy through a cross-organizational and tech-enabled approach.
Organizations like Xero are tackling the need to build strategic technological capability for high quality, defensible sustainability disclosure.
Organizations like Xero are tackling the need to build strategic technological capability for high quality, defensible sustainability disclosure.
