Businesses Should Prevent Problems, Not Solve Them

Creating Value Rather than Just Solutions is the Requirement for Sustainability

For as long as we can remember, we have celebrated the hero who steps in at the last moment to save the day.The doctor who rescues a patient from the brink.The CEO who “turns a company around” after a crisis.The government that announces an emergency relief package.

We admire these problem-solvers – and rightly so – but we rarely ask a more difficult question: why was there a crisis in the first place?

The Problem With Valuing Problem-Solving

Our economies, our governments, and even our communities have been built to reward crisis response rather than crisis prevention.

• Businesses earn money when something breaks – when we need a repair, a treatment, or a cure.

• Governments gain political approval when they are seen to act decisively in an emergency.

• Society applauds those who rush in at the last moment but often ignores those who quietly prevented a problem from arising.

This creates a dangerous dependency:when our value comes from solving problems, we become dependent on problems to sustain us.

And so, we repeat them – over and over again.

The Only Sustainable Approach: Prevention First

True sustainability means breaking this cycle. We cannot continue to profit from harm and call it progress.

Businesses that thrive in the future will be those that:

• Earn by keeping people healthy, rather than only treating them when they fall ill.

• Design products and services that prevent harm, not just clean up the damage afterwards.

• Measure success by the problems they avoid, not the crises they fix.

Governments, too, must shift:

• Away from measuring success by emergency budgets or rescue programmes.

• Towards rewarding policies that prevent harm and allow businesses to profit from prevention.

Communities must also evolve:

• Celebrate those whose quiet work keeps us well.

• Teach children that prevention is a form of leadership.

• Make prevention a marker of status, not just dramatic rescue efforts.

Building a Culture of Heroism Around Prevention

We need a new kind of heroism – one that does not wait for a crisis to act.

• The urban planner who designs streets that make accidents rare.

• The teacher who keeps a child engaged and supported before they ever consider dropping out.

• The policymaker who redirects funding to make health creation more profitable than harm.

These are the heroes who create value every day, quietly and consistently. Their contribution should be visible, celebrated, and rewarded.

The Cultural Shift We Need

If we want thriving economies and fair societies, we must:

• Redefine value – from problem-solving to problem-preventing.

• Align incentives – so prevention pays more than reaction.

• Normalise prevention culture – so we celebrate it as the highest form of leadership.

This is not just a business issue. It is a systemic one – for governments, markets, and communities alike. If we keep rewarding only those who solve problems, we will keep generating them.

A Call to Action

Businesses, governments, and communities must make prevention their business model, their political platform, and their cultural norm.

We must stop asking, “Who will solve this?” and start asking, “How do we ensure this never happens again?”

Because true value – and true sustainability – comes not from solving problems, but from making them disappear before they ever begin.