What does "class of our own" in the following mean in the context?
Corporate goals for sustainability and the strategies to accomplish them.
Goal: Social license to operate.
Strategy: Pollution control and compliance.
Goal: Best in class
Strategies: External stakeholder participation...
Goal: Class of our own
Strategies: Sustainability a key factor in future strategic planning,.....
Thank you.
***** NOT A TEACHER *****
Hello, Unpakwon:
(1) Soothing Dave and Emsr have already given you excellent explanations.
(2) May I add a few words?
(3) I think that "to be in a class of its own" is an elegant way to
say that you cannot compare it to anything else. It is
so special and unusual.
(4) When I saw your thread's title, I immediately thought of an excellent
example:
Today in London there are about 12 daily newspapers. Many years ago,
however, there were even more newspapers in London. But there was a
newspaper that was in a class of its own. It was super special and super
unusual. It could not be compared to (to liken) any other newspaper.
It was so famous that even our President Lincoln said that only the
Mississippi River was greater than this newspaper. The important people in
England would read every word. Its reporters were treated with respect
that other reporters did not receive. The government would often give it
information before giving it to other newspapers. It was so powerful even
as recently as the 1930's that sometimes the other newspapers would not
say anything about controversial matters until that newspaper in its own
class said something first. Sometimes the government itself had to read
that newspaper to get information that it needed. And it was so special
that leaders in other countries would carefully read that newspaper's
opinions because those leaders thought that the newspaper's opinions
were the opinions of the British leaders. Well, you get the point, don't
you. Yes, it was a "newspaper" -- but a newspaper that was totally
unlike any other newspaper. You probably know its name:
The Times.
James
P.S. Sadly, today
The Times is just another newspaper. No longer in a
class of its own. :-( Today it is just in the class of so-called "quality
newspapers." That is, those newspapers that are more or less serious.