Asses the sustainability strategy of a company of your choice (Except Apple) - Essay Example

Nike’s Sustainability Strategy A strategy is often described as any action taken toward meeting certain goals of either an individual or a company. Therefore, sustainability strategies apply to corporate organizations, and it can be identifies as the actions taken, by this particular organization, to maintain the already existing resources and develop ways to gain profit and advance. Sustainability strategies are in most cases concerned with the environmental issues such as the resources that affect the corporate’s performance directly.

This research paper primarily expounds on Nike’s sustainability strategy, how it has managed to remain relevant in the business arena for such a long time and see what Nike is definitely doing the right. What constitutes a good sustainability plan is that after it is affected the business continues to achieve its goals and make profits. A good sustainability plan takes much consideration in what gets into the business and what gets out of the business and always finds alternative ways of making sure the production loss is reduced so that the profits can be easily achieved (Martin & Verbeek, 2005).

A good sustainability strategy must also consider the impact of the businesses’ activities on the natural resources. A plan that does not aim at protecting the natural resources is a move in the wrong direction. For a sustainability plan to be successful discussions must be held within the business and better way of production that does not affect the environment must be quickly adopted. It is this kind of move that has enabled Nike to develop a great sustainability strategy that has enabled it to dominate the market.

Nike Inc. is exploring new business models to help operate in the rapidly changing business landscape. Nike sees the evolution of a fundamentally different business environment and has put in place a sustainability strategy that will help it cope with whatever that is coming. Nike sees a future where competition for the scarce resources will increase, which will in turn affect the cost and availability of inputs to make the company’s products and this will have a counter effect on the availability and cost of the finished products.

Nike also sees a future where the rising energy costs will have a very huge effect on the cost production and transport of products, new regulations related to material use and labor will affect and continue to shape the business environment (Martin & Verbeek, 2005). Nike also believes in the creation of a new market as urbanization takes place and people rise from the lower class to the middle class, the urge to meet this new demand of the new market gives Nike the motivation to have a sustainability strategy that will see the demand met.

Nike also views tenacious global inconsistency in access to financial and other opportunities, which will in turn influence workers throughout our supply chain as imminent and unavoidable. This drives Nike to think outside the box and have a good plan to deal with this problem. It is this futurist approach to the market by Nike that has handed an advantage in dealing with the changing business environment by fashioning the best sustainability strategy. Nike has a vision, which is aimed at building a sustainable business and creating value not only for the company but also for the stakeholders.

This is to be done by decoupling profitable growth form the available limited resources. Nike learnt from it past operations and this sustainability plan guides on how the company should move forward, it just lays a foundation on how to move ahead and make Nike’s vision a reality (Martin & Verbeek, 2005). An asses of Nike’s sustainability strategy also sees the company also see it asses the trends and materially for the company and the changes that are influencing the business, the value chain, its consumers and the worldwide market tendencies at large.

Nike in its creation of a sustainability strategy identified a whole range of meter-trends, which it identified as transcendent, global in scope and will continue to emerge over several decades. It is only a good sustainability plan that will have identified these meta-trends and formulated tactics to counter them. These meta-trends range from governmental issues, which include democracy expansion and multinationalism, environmental factors, which include climate change, energy crisis, and water inadequacy and total ecosystem breakdown.

Another meta-trend that Nike looks at is health (Martin & Verbeek, 2005). Here, they lay emphasis on the spread of obesity, diseases and outbreaks and hunger and nourishment. Security is always an important consideration when creating a sustainability strategy and Nike focuses on peace and terrorism. The plan also taken account of all the demographic factor and finally recognized the technological advancement that is always expected in the future, more people will be able to access information easy and all forms of connectivity will be easier.

It is this precise evaluation of the meta-trends that contribute to making Nike’s sustainability strategy a success (Martin & Verbeek, 2005). Through the assessment of these meta-trends, the company is able to share its priorities and approaches. The Nike Inc. sustainability strategy aims at sustainable innovation. This means the start of a new system of doing business, new business models, and new ways of thinking and a creation of new business relationships that assist one another to achieve the needed processes.

Recycling is one of these new ideas that Nike has adopted. For instance in the 2010 world cup, Nike made the jerseys purely from recycled material. This move has reduced both the cost of production and the cost of input. The Nike material sustainability index (MSI) has played a big role in the creation of materials with little or no environment effect (Martin & Verbeek, 2005). Nike has struggled to come up with sustainable innovations that have minimum social and environmental impact. Nike’s sustainability strategy is anchored on four pillars that are interconnected and always inspire future sustainable innovation.

The first pillar involves creating a portfolio of all sustainable material. This means ranking materials that have the minimum negative impact on both consumers and the environment but at the same time maintaining the highest required standards. The second pillar is all about prototyping, scaling sustainable sourcing, and manufacturing models. The third pillar focuses on igniting and driving market transformation. It creates good conditions for sustainable consumption to thrive.it also tries to find solutions to market problems.

Finally, the Nike sustainability strategy strives to create digital services revenue (Martin & Verbeek, 2005). This is aimed at building a stronger relationship with the athletes and helps them get better. Nike alone cannot be able to solve the sustainability challenges, therefore, need to bring onboard other like-minded organizations and work towards sustainability. A good sustainability strategy must also have good governance and management. Without this paramount parameter, nothing will prevail.

In conclusion, a sustainability strategy must always aim at increasing success of the company, manage risks and develop opportunities. They must extent through all aspects of business and finally provide open reports on sustainability strategies, goals and accomplishments. Reference Martin, P. V., &Verbeek, M. (2005).Sustainability strategies. Annandale, N.S.W: Federation Press.