Decades later, as founder of TDI Sustainability and The Impact Facility, Assheton still sees leadership through a pragmatic lens.

“You can’t save the angels,” he says.

Real change comes not from working only with ethical darlings like Patagonia, but from engaging with the difficult, the controversial, and the imperfect — coal miners, commodity traders, multinationals operating in fragile states.

Why dialogue isn’t always the answer

The corporate sustainability playbook often extols “engaging with critics” as the gold standard. But Assheton cautions against seeing it as a universal law. In some crises, silence can be the most strategic move. He cites cases where companies facing serious allegations saw the scandal evaporate without public engagement — while others, who entered prolonged dialogue, simply kept the controversy alive.

Instead, his approach is forensic:

• Assess the power of the claimant (Who’s making the accusation?)

• Evaluate legitimacy (Is it true?)

• Gauge urgency (Is the problem imminent or distant?)

Only when the stakes are clear should companies decide whether to engage, go silent, or radically change course.

Alignment, not altruism

At the heart of Assheton’s philosophy is a blunt truth: businesses are designed to make profit, not to act as “development agencies.” Expecting them to operate against their core interest is naïve — the task is to align corporate survival with societal needs.

That alignment, he argues, is achieved through regulation, access to capital, and market signals. Without clear governance, even the most willing companies will struggle to act.

“We need leaders bold enough to set the rules — and companies will respond,” he insists.

Why governance is the real battleground

Asked for his magic-wand wish for the business world, Assheton’s answer is swift: stronger governance. In an era where AI, climate change, and resource scarcity pose existential threats, leaving action to corporate goodwill is a risk too great.

His second wish? Greater employee ownership and participation. Companies that are closer to their communities, he believes, will naturally be more attuned to what society needs.

It’s a worldview rooted in systems thinking: change the underlying governance and participation structures, and the rest will follow. Standards and metrics — the default tools of corporate responsibility — are, in his words, “the weakest levers” for change.

Leading responsibly in an imperfect world

The Responsible Edge asks: Is it really possible to lead responsibly?

Assheton’s answer is cautious but hopeful. Yes — but only if we accept the world as it is, not as we wish it to be. That means working with the imperfect, recognising limits, and relentlessly seeking alignment between profit and progress.

Because in his experience, lasting change comes not from purity, but from the hard, often messy work of building bridges — and knowing exactly when to hold the line.