KKR: Leveraging Sustainability - Essay Example

KKR: Leveraging Sustainability; Recommendations KKR serves as a perfect example of large companies that go beyond the daily comfort to stretch hands into sustainability of business portfolios. Much of what has been done so far by KKR is highly appreciable. The premiering of KKR Green Portfolio Program was largely as a result of buying company portfolios without looking critically into their past performance records in terms of sustainability abilities. Whereas, the KKR Green Portfolio Program is working perfectly now, it is highly recommended that KKR develop an evaluation matrix for evaluating company portfolios that they intend to acquire (Xu, 2010).

This way, KKR would avoid the long and financially impacting sustainability program for every portfolio. It is interesting to note the aggressive nature in which KKR are approaching supply chain management strategies in order to guarantee sustainability of their portfolios. It would be highly recommended if KKR relooked into how some of the supply chain can be outsourced to manufacturing friendly countries such as China. KKR should actually take the advantage of different portfolios and see how some of them can be interlinked for easier and more efficient supply chain.

So far, KKR has made significant progress in improving sustainability for the portfolios. Indeed, rolling the KKR Green Portfolio Program Implementation from the pilot project into the entire KKR portfolios is highly commendable. However, KKR has so far done this independently in each of its portfolios. The big question then becomes, has KKR tried to merge one or more portfolios as a way of improving sustainability? It would be recommended if KKR looked into internal mergers and acquisitions of the portfolios in their list as one of the ways to improve sustainability.

For instance, a transport portfolio would greatly benefit from linking it to an energy portfolio. It is also worth noting that sustainability programs come at a cost especially in implementation. The sustainability of ‘sustainability program’ need to be looked into futuristically. It is therefore recommended that KKR think about the future in their sustainability programs. For instance, cutting greenhouse gas by 50% may look interesting at the moment but the public will expect better results decades to come (“KKR,” 2010).

So far, KKR has only demonstrated what it can do in improving sustainability in their portfolios. However, it is yet to be understood how their sustainability results match with other companies or portfolio management entities. Benchmarking therefore becomes an important tool not only for KKR but for other businesses as well. It will be recommended that KKR adopt a continuous benchmarking strategy that will span across all their portfolios. By benchmarking, the company will be able to measure its sustainability program success against equal rivals.

This is recommended because the success values may make a lot of meaning for KKR but they may mean totally different things when put on the same table with sustainability values from other companies. On a different note, KKR has primarily focused on leveraging sustainability for their portfolios. However, little has been mention on value addition to service delivery. It is recommended that KKR also put equal force in improving quality of services and products. This way, the returns would actually be a double portion for KKR (McNulty, 2012).

ReferencesKKR; KKR expands "green" program and builds internal resources for responsible investment. (2010). Biotech Business Week, , 4198.McNulty, L. (2012). KKRs guide to responsible investment. International Financial Law Review,Xu, B. (2010). KKR goes green(er) in europe and australia. LBO Wire,