Sustainability as the Agenda of Leading Companies - Essay Example

?Sustainability Business sustainability helps business to be resilient and adapt to change therefore sustainable firms are prepared for the future since they create long-term financial value and understand how actions influence natural environment thus the need to minimize the impacts. A sustainable firm goes beyond short-term financial goals and evaluates environmental and social implications in daily activities and long-term investments (Albino, Azzurra and Rosa 2009, p.83-86). In Cloudreach Company, sustainability and the company’s legacy are part of the organization’s daily activities that have financial, social and environmental benefits, which reinforce one another. Sustainability is the agenda of leading companies and it has gained recognition as a driver for strategic product as well as business innovation (Deloitte n.d, p.1). A business that considers the change as an opportunity and come up with innovative products as well as business models to thrive in a sustainable way have high likelihood of reaping advantage, be relevant to consumers, capture market share and operate efficiently in a quick transforming world. Firms face increased expectations from investors and consumers regarding their way of operations; therefore, companies are keen to be considered as accountable corporate citizens. It is expected in the future that consumers will place strong emphasis on convenience, price and quality in making decisions regarding their shopping. In the increasingly transparent world with high number of consumers digitally empowered since information on brands and products is regularly found on and discussed in blogs, forums and in social media sites. Companies that never respond to the development increase their likelihood of being in the spotlight for the wrong reasons since brands and businesses have little control over the internet (Berns et al 2009, pp.20-26). Business proactivity, involvement and the changing consumer attitudes to sustainability increase demand for products and services responsibly produced. Therefore, the organization has to respond to the changing patterns this can be achieved through integrating sustainability within the company’s supply chain and development products that enable consumers to buy ethically. Companies neglecting to embrace the changes face the risk of their products being less relevant to the sentiment of consumers and expensive. Social media platforms like twitter and facebook ensure corporate transparency; therefore, companies have increased pressure to meet the sophisticated corporate transparency and accountability standards. In the current’s information society, corporate offences can no longer be ignored and bad behaviour has permanent reputational as well as financial repercussions for corporations. Young people are increasingly aware of the impact they have through their buying choices thus, they buy from companies that stand for more than profit (Deloitte n.d, pp.3&4). Sustainability has been one of the business’s urgent mandates thus stakeholder management perspective is essential since it requires managers to establish various groups or individuals with stakes in the firm as well as incorporating stakeholders concerns into the firm’s day-to-day operations and strategic plans. Sustainability mandate has attracted the attention of leaders in business since it is the goal of business ethics. With the challenge of globalization, considerable interest is directed toward development of ways for addressing the different impacts of companies in society (Crane, Dirk and Andrew 2007, p.254-263). Most of the impacts are far-reaching such as the environmental pollution resulting from transportation, production and use of products like refrigerators and cars. Whenever in society a corporation has to engage in the debate concerning its social role in order to ensure that it becomes a major contributor of sustainability instead of being a social and environmental predator that undermines the world. Therefore, the company has a huge opportunity of ensuring that the corporation is an instrument of broad social purpose instead of being a generator of short-term wealth for the company’s shareholders. Of course, shareholders have the right to a return on their investment and it is enhanced by sustainable practices. It is essential that companies make profit however not at the cost of obliterating the future of humanity and the planet (Deloitte n.d, p.8). Therefore, there is need for the company to work intelligently to protect the society and unique ecology of the planet. Debate on sustainability takes on three fronts the initial one being the amount of unsustainable practices, second being the level of corporate action on daily basis that influence social environment issues of sustainability and thirdly, the level of consumption in creation of powerful patterns of rewards that shape the economy. Strategic proactivity will propel the firm further in the sustainability path by ensuring that sustainability is an essential part of the company strategies. The company elite will have to consider sustainability as a way of offering a potential competitive advantage; thus, the leaders should consequently position the business as a leader in business practices and having advanced human resource strategies that make the organization to be an employer of choice. 2 Once the company elite have strongly internalised the ideology of working in and for a sustainable world, the company can pursue the traditional objective of offering an excellent return to investors but voluntarily surpasses this by promoting ecological sustainability practices in the industry and the society. The company aims at facilitating the emergence of societies that support ecological viability in the planet and its species; moreover, the company contributes to equitable and just social practices and fulfilment of humans. Employees and subcontractors are resources for exploiting; nevertheless, many organizations ignore pay lip service to healthy and safety features of human sustainability. Moreover, other organizations do not take responsibility for future prospects of their employees nor the community in which they are part of; therefore, some companies reject community concerns outright. In Cloudreach, financial and technological factors dominate the business strategies; which makes the company sometimes exclude many aspects of human resource management. In the company, employee strategies aim at developing compliant work force that responds to managerial control, with most of the training agenda aimed at technical and supervisory training thus, ignoring broad human resource strategies. Senior management of the company consider it to be a decent employer that emphasises legal requirements, safety and work place standards among others. Therefore, the company undertakes compliance as a way of reducing risks (Dunphy, Suzanne and Andrew 2003, pp.24 &25). The company appears to seek the policy of benign paternalism, which supposes employee devotion in response. Thus, the company has to attempt systematically integration of human resource functions into HR system in order to reduce costs and increase efficiency. People are significant resources to be used as productively as possible therefore, technical and supervisory training are essential and to complement human relations. The company can institute programmes that support teamwork around essential business functions and pursue value adding instead of cost reduction strategies. The company initiates community projects when funds are available and where there is a demonstrated correlation of cost benefit for the company. Cloudreach’s workforce skills mixes together with its diversity are integral and vital aspects of the corporate and business strategy. Intellectual and social capitals are essential for the company to develop strategy through innovation in services. Therefore, the company has to institute programmes for recruiting best talent for the organization and developing the high competence in groups and individuals for human sustainability. In addition, the company has to systemise skills to form basis for corporate competencies to ensure the organization is less vulnerable to losing its key individuals. Moreover, the organization can emphasise on service innovation and quick response to budding market demands. The company offers a flexible workplace practices a strong feature that contributes to work force resulting in balanced lives. Moreover, the corporation has to consider itself a member of the community considerably; thus, contributing to community betterment through offering employees time to participate in projects that promote community cohesion and interests. Thus, the organization has to accept responsibility of contributing to the renewal of upgrading of human knowledge and creation of skills within the community. Moreover, the organization has to be a promoter of equal opportunity, work-life balance and workplace diversity as workplace principles. The company has to adopt strong and clear corporate ethical position that relies on multiple perspectives of stakeholders and seek to exert influence to the essential participants within the industry. Thus, the company has to generally pursue human welfare, just and social practices and fulfilment of human potential (Crane, Dirk and Andrew 2007, p.27; Carroll and Ann 2010, pp.512-520). The company does not consider ecological environment to be a relevant factor in its strategic operations since financial and technological factors dominate Cloudreach’s strategies thus excluding environmental concerns. The company’s traditional approaches for efficiency dominate its processes, resulting in the exclusion of environmental issues. The senior management of the company will have to comply with environmental laws in order to minimize the company’s potential liabilities that may result from actions that have adverse effects on the environment. The company ignores environmental issues since it is not considered to increase the company’s efficiency. The company can use proactive environmental strategies that support ecological sustainability as a source of strategic business opportunity to gain competitive advantage. Therefore, company can seek competitive leadership through encouraging environmentally friendly processes and services. The organization can become an advocate of ecological sustainability; moreover, the company can seek influence of participants within the industry and the society. Thus, the organization has to prepare and use its influence in promoting positive sustainability policies and the development of community values in order to come up with a sustainable society (Dunphy, Suzanne and Andrew 2003, pp.24-27). 3 Organizations have initiated the adoption of corporate responsibility strategies in order to establish sustainable development goals. Faced with external challenges like market competition and the continually changing needs on sustainability, organizations in the industry have internal driving forces toward sustainable development. Internal forces include the corporate willingness and leadership attitude of being socially accountable by critically considering sustainability. Since leaders define strategy through processes that affect their individual views, then corporate sustainability strategies rely on features that influence leaders’ way of viewing the world. Personal values have implications on leadership behaviours with the implications regarding issues like management and decision making styles, relations between organizational and managerial values (Nidumolu, Coimbatore and Rangaswami 2009, p.56-64) Business exist for various reasons however, regardless of the intended purposes, businesses survive on making profit and building the capital base. Nevertheless, leadership in a firm determine the goals of the firm and the way they are to be achieved in the long-term (Dyllick and Steven 2011, p.9). Thus, Cloudreach has to integrate sustainability-related factors into the company’s corporate strategy; moreover, the company’s management has to make profit in a way that balances economic, environmental and social benefits. Modern management models promote companies whether their motive is profit or not to establish a vision that clearly identifies long-term aspirations of the company. Therefore, strategy for leaders in Cloudreach should direct them toward the realization of its sustainability goals and the strategy has to be understood as a way in which the organization plans operate in its competitive environment in order to maintain long-term competitive position. Strategic consensus shows the importance of having a general understanding based on values as well as the implication of transparency and inclusion in strategic processes (Dyllick and Steven 2011, p.51). By considering the strengths and weaknesses of the company in comparison with its external environment, leaders in the company can determine strategy in various ways (Dyllick, and Steven 2011, p.53). The company strategies can come from the firm’s strengths like cost management, differentiation and focus. By understanding the industry structure, managers of Cloudreach can move toward fruitful possibilities that can result in strategic action. By strategically focusing on the environment, the company can neglect internal capabilities and resources thus, giving the company significant competitive difference. In order to adopt sustainability strategies, the company requires a supportive environment like the relevant supportive policies, internal infrastructure and established performance evaluation system in the company (Law 2010, pp.619-620). Therefore, the leaders in Cloudreach Company have a significant effect in the adoption and implementation of sustainability development strategies for the organization to favour its implementation. Therefore, the drivers of sustainability development comprise the context within which the company finds itself as well as the company’s general direction. Since the corresponding policy has to offer a clear direction and depth of commitment besides the equally important and supportive internal environment. Cloudreach Company needs a dedicated and entrepreneurial leadership with the passion and tireless attention for setting and achieving sustainability goals. Organizations that have great impact are those whose leaders understand and respect the value resources contribute to those who utilise it (Maron, Kirby and Matthew 2009, p.2). If the organization is to succeed in advancing sustainable excellence, the leaders or leadership team has to be dedicated to supporting the sustainability values (Dyllick, and Steven 2011, p.1). In conclusion, sustainable development arouses attention of business leaders since it necessitates meeting present needs without compromising future generations’ ability to meet their needs. Therefore, leaders at Cloudreach have to balance sustainability of the business, the planet as well as society. The company has the obligation of offering short-term and long-term value to its shareholders while maintaining the obligations of sustainability in both the present and the future. Thus, Cloudreach needs to develop an unambiguous perceptive of the multidimensional elements of sustainability for the company to fight for the balance between profitability and sustainability development. Bibliography Albino, V., Azzurra B. and Rosa, M.D. 2009. "Environmental strategies and green product development: an overview on sustainability?driven companies." Business Strategy and the Environment 18.2: 83-96. Berns, M., et al. 2009. "The business of sustainability: what it means to managers now." MIT Sloan Management Review 51.1: 20-26. Carroll, A.B, and Ann K.B. 2010. Business & Society: Ethics and Stakeholder Management. Mason, OH: CL-South-Western Cengage Learning. Crane, A., Dirk M., and Andrew, C. 2007. 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Sustaining digital resources: An on-the-ground view of projects today: Ithaka case studies in sustainability. Ithaka S+ R. Nidumolu, R., Coimbatore K.P., and M. R. Rangaswami. 2009. "Why sustainability is now the key driver of innovation." Harvard business review 87.9: 56-64. Read More