Business Model Red Flags 
Leadership, Governance, & Culture 
Tool for Indicator Design 
Quality of Relationships 
RED FLAG # 11
Speed in developing products or services, or delivering projects, such that excessive pressures are placed on workers or consumer safety is compromised.
For Example
- Setting extremely abridged timelines for product development in order to meet launch dates or to be first to market, for example, when undertaking rapid product development in the tech sector, leading to workers working excessive hours
- Requiring excessive speeds for the manufacture or processing of goods such as meat & poultry or other fast moving consumer goods, impacting the safety or other working conditions of workers
- Requiring speed from workers to meet commitments
made to clients, such as providing round-the-clock
responsiveness to client requests in legal advice,
management consultancy or other client services, affecting the family life of workers - Providing or changing orders to suppliers with insufficient lead time for capacity planning, impacting the health, safety and wages of supply chain workers
- Placing excessive pressure on suppliers for speed in production in the lead up to events, or to meet seasonal demand, such as in the harvesting of seasonal agricultural commodities, exacerbated by changing climate conditions, such as extreme heat
- Expediting R&D for new or updated products/services (including AI-related technologies) to market, leaving insufficient time to test for potential impacts on users/ customers
- Delivering construction projects with unattainable
schedules or particularly inflexible deadlines (e.g.
associated with large sporting events, data centers, or
rapid expansion of renewable energy capacity) - Rushing minerals to market to meet decarbonization – or digital transformation – related demand without regard to the conditions faced by supply chain workers.
Higher-Risk Sectors
- Apparel
- Companies with labor-intensive production lines, such as beef, pork and poultry processing plants
- Mining of high-demand or “critical” minerals, such as cobalt, lithium or copper
- AI and Tech, including start-ups pursuing rapid growth
- Fast-moving consumer goods, including those reliant on agricultural inputs
- Toy Companies
- Food and beverage companies, including those reliant on agricultural inputs
- Law firms
- Management consultants, PR firms, advertising agencies, accounting firms and other client services industries
- Construction, including in the context of: (i) particularly time bound projects such as mega sporting events, and; (ii) rapid expansion plans, such as renewable energy
