International Sustainable Business Analysis - Case Study Example

IBM ANALYSIS International Business Machines (IBM) is the world’s leading technology company. It is a multinational company, with its headquarters inNew York, United States. It manufactures computer hardware and software, provides consulting services, infrastructure services, and hosting services. It is the second most valuable brand in the world, providing excellent services to its customers. With this great technology and high value in market, IBM plays its part in keeping the environment safe and healthy. In 1971, it introduced a corporate policy on environmental protection. Over the years IBM is trying to make its products and services environmentally friendly. According to a report published by the Ceres investor Coalition in December 2008, IBM was ranked the top company for climate change strategy and practices among all major technology companies. IBM’s super computers were also ranked the most high speed and energy efficient in November 2008. Apart from these rankings, there are many other recognitions and awards given to IBM for being a true Green company. In 2009, IBM launched its “Ready for Energy and Environment” validation program for business partners. In this program, they had set criteria for business partners to make eco-friendly products. Only those partners who qualified the criteria partnered with them. IBM provides a Global Asset Recovery Service (GARS). It helps the consumers to easily dispose off unwanted technology. By this service, the waste does not pollute the environment. IBM has been reusing, remarketing and recycling computers for quite a long time now. IBM helps organizations to create a ‘green’ IT infrastructure by offering different products and services. IBM virtualization, Active Energy manager, IBM System z mainframe servers, IBM system x servers, and IBM Power systems are some of the products and services that it provides in order to improve power efficiency. COMPETITOR ANALYSIS IBM is no doubt the leading manufacturers of computing industry. But there are many other famous brands offering technology and computing services. Among the close competitors that IBM has, Hewlett Packard (HP) is one of the giants of technology. In the scenario of Green computing, HP is more advanced than IBM. According to CNNMoney.com, HP is ranked among the top 10 green giants- the only computer’s company in the list. HP has massive e-waste recycling plants, and it is trying to cut energy consumption more and more. HP’s own machines are 100 percent recyclable. They have various products that are environmental friendly, and HP tries to provide different recycling services. Another technology giant, Sony has also initiated an environmental plan “Road to Zero”. It has a goal of achieving a zero environmental footprint by the year 2050. This plan aims to reduce the emission of carbon dioxide emission as well as use of waste products in an environmentally friendly way. It has also launched different environmentally friendly products like a new Sony VAIO Mini PC. PRODUCT IBM has a set of various products that are green. IBM should also introduce environmentally friendly batteries. Batteries are integral parts of the technologies that we use. Be it laptops, mobile phones, iPod, or other devices; all of them use batteries. IBM will be making batteries for its notebooks. These batteries will have a greener aspect of the technology. Usually batteries have lead and other heavy metals which are very toxic and harmful for the environment. Most of the batteries are non-rechargeable. Therefore people use the batteries and then dispose them off, which make the environment harmful. In notebooks, we usually use rechargeable batteries. The battery that IBM is going to make will be rechargeable. It will have a longer life than other batteries, so that fewer batteries are disposed off in the land fill. This battery will be charged faster, used for longer time period, and will cost not much higher than other batteries. The battery life will be 5 hours on a single charge. It will have a life of 4 years. These batteries will be thin filmed, and will be free of hazardous materials like lead, nickel etc. The batteries will be made of material that will not pollute the environment, and even if filled in landfill, does not cause toxic compounds. RECYCLING OF BATTERIES IBM has a recycling service of computer technologies. These batteries will not be dumped in land fills to pollute the environment. They will be recycled to keep the environment from being polluted. Free batteries recycling will be offered by IBM to both the consumers and business in different regions. SUSTAINABILITY OF THE PRODUCT The sustainability of a product is defined as providing environmental, social and economical benefits, while protecting public health, welfare of human beings, and environment over the full commercial cycle of a product. This cycle starts from collecting raw materials to finally disposing off the waste. This product is quite sustainable. It is because it is environmentally friendly and providing benefits to the environment. Even with its being environmentally friendly, it does not have low economical benefits. The cost of this battery is not much higher than other batteries; it uses environmentally friendly compounds, which are not of high cost. A survey by Ipsos-MORI on behalf of Greenpeace found out that more than half consumers in 9 countries are willing to pay more for environmentally friendly products. Therefore even if the costs are a bit high, consumers are still willing to buy it. The product has high quality. It is offering more life of battery; therefore consumers would always like to buy a product that has a larger life span. The production will be done by using a procedure that is safe for the environment, thus creating less pollution in the production as well. The whole lifecycle will be safe for environment, not just the end product. From collecting raw materials to delivering the batteries, and to recycling them, this procedure will be environmentally friendly and sustainable. MARKETING STRATEGY The product for IBM is green; therefore its marketing will be focusing on this specialty. Green marketing is a new term for selling products that are environmentally friendly. IBM is going to use a green marketing strategy for this product. This strategy will be used globally. As mentioned in the product’s sustainability, that consumers are demanding green products. Trends are changing. People are becoming more aware of their responsibilities towards the environment. Due to the global warming effect, people are really careful now about using products that are environmentally friendly, and recycling them properly instead of dumping them in landfills. The strategy that IBM is going to use will be focused on promoting the concept of green products. The promotion mix tools used will be advertisements, personal selling and direct marketing. These tools will focus on the message that this product is very environmentally friendly. The advertisements will focus on the need for such products, and will promote the idea in an emotional way to touch the emotions of consumers. In this way awareness of green products will be spread more and more. And consumers will get to know that IBM cares about the environment, and is socially responsible, thus producing green computing technologies. IBM will also focus on its social media marketing. The web page for IBM new batteries will have a look of an environmentally friendly product. In other promotion mix tools like direct marketing or personal selling to businesses, the personal representatives of IBM will tell the consumers and businesses that by purchasing environmentally friendly batteries, they will not only get high quality, but will also become good citizens. DISTRIBUTION AND DELIVERY The distribution of the batteries will be to the businesses that make notebooks. The batteries will be used in the notebooks that IBM sells. Therefore the distribution and delivery of the batteries will be along with the notebooks, and will be shipped to various countries and regions. The packaging of the batteries will be done in environmentally friendly packaging material. The material used will be itself not made of hazardous material. A green packaging solution will be used. This material will be recyclable so that there is not a need to dispose off the material. IBM will again provide the service of recycling the packaging material. CONCLUSION With the increase in global warming effect, people from all over the world are concerned about the environment. Businesses also need to have a corporate social responsibility towards the environment. In today’s competitive environment, more and more organizations are going green. IBM is also one of them. With IBM’s green data centers, Lenovo Personal computers, system z and system z servers, and many other services, IBM is one of the green giants in the technology industry. Consumers are nowadays demanding green products. Even in technology and computing industries, they believe that the technology producing companies need to make green products, use environmentally friendly procedures, and thus help to create a sustainable environment for everyone. In this scenario, IBM’s environmentally friendly batteries will be highly effective in enhancing the overall effect of IBM in the environment. The collection of raw materials, its production, its delivery, and its recycling will be done on the criteria that it is safe for the environment. This product is going to be a green product from its inception till the end of its life. Therefore it is going to be a very sustainable product in all over the world. BIBLIOGRAPHY Paul Lily. “IBM Announces Eco-Friendly Validation Program for Business Partners”. Maximum PC 2 October, 2009. 15 May, 2010 Stefania Viscusi. “Green Technology-New Green, Environmentally Friendly Thin-Film Batteries”. Green.TMCnet 29 January, 2008. 16 May, 2010 Oliver Ryan. “Going Green-10 green giants”. CNN Money April 26 2010. 16 May, 2010 “Eco-Friendly”. IBM United States 2010. 15 May, 2010 < http://www-03.ibm.com/products/retail/news/why/ecofriendly/awards.html> “Consumers want environment friendly computers.” Mongabay 26 June, 2006.17 May 2010 < http://news.mongabay.com/2006/0626-tech.html> “What are sustainable products?” Sustainable Products Corporation. 18 May 2010 http://www.sustainableproducts.com/susproddef.html Inspiration. “The Go green marketing campaign to become Eco-friendly”. Carrie & Danielle 10 January 2010. 18 May 2010 http://carrieanddanielle.com/the-go-green-marketing-campaign-to-become-eco-friendly/ Destination Green it. 16 May 2010 “IBM”. Wikipedia 18 May 2010. 18 May 2010 Jasmin Malik Chua. “How to Buy a Green PC”. Computer shopper. 17 May 2010 IBM United States. 17 May 2010 Read More