Sustainable Approach to Business Strategy and Management

This report discusses the sustainable approach to business strategy and management, focusing on the importance of considering the environment and society. It also explores different approaches to corporate social responsibility (CSR) for micro, SME, and corporate businesses, highlighting the similarities and differences. Examples of sustainable practices and CSR initiatives are provided.

Business Report
1

CONTENTS
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
Sustainable approach to business strategy and management.......................................................3
Different approaches to CSR of Micro, SME and corporate business........................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
2

INTRODUCTION
Sustainable approach to a business is mainly consist of group of activities adopted by a
business in order to act responsible with its operations in term of society, environment and legal
structure ibn which it operates its business operations. A sustainable business consist to be an
entity which put emphases toward improving its business practices in such a manner that it have
a positive influence of global as well as local environment and try to minimise the negative
influence over it (Young and Makhija, 2014). the presented report is based on understanding and
application of sustainable approach to business management by deeply analysing the sustainable
approach to business strategy and management. Along with this it also explains about different
approaches to CSR of Micro, SME and corporate business and similarity or difference they hold.
MAIN BODY
Sustainable approach to business strategy and management
A sustainable organisation considers to be an entity which form up its behaviour, activity,
product or services by developing an understanding more about the environment as well as
society in which it operates its business so that minimal harm to be exert through operation. In
this regard the main focus of sustainable businesses is to exert either neutral or positive influence
over the society as well as environment in which it is managing business practices and offering
its product or services so that it can survive within that environment which dealing with all the
challenges and competition effectively (Crane, Matten and Spence, 2019). Other than this the
sustainable approach within a business is consist of set of tactics or policies that are formulated
by the management of a business by integrating the economic, social and environmental aim
along with the activities, goals and action play of an organisation in order to develop a long term
value for the firm, society and its associated stakeholders. Therefore, sustainable approach to a
business management can said to be a transformational practices that is adopted by a business in
order to become a sustainable company which help in creating value within the society where it
actually operates by bringing positive influence over the environment as well as society where it
operates.
Hence, an organisational policy plays a significant role within delivering the sustainable
objective effectively as it support in setting up the certain criteria and formulating an action plan
over which an organisation can work in order to achieve its sustainable goals. The sustainable
approach to business strategy is all about formulating certain actions which are to be taken by an
3

organisation by indulging the sustainable objective within the core strategy of business so that
they would be able to involve its sustainable practices with their business operations to get
maximum result (Ramasastry, 2015). Despite of this the sustainable approach to business ca said
to be an initiative taken by the businesses in order to manage the sustainable approach within or
outside the organisation by effectively managing the operations. From these when the business
management sustainability get connected with eth internal system of organisation then it involve
set of practices to be adopted toward the welfare pf the employees like providing fair
remuneration, wages, equality at work place, safety at workplace etc. So that caring about the life
and welfare of the people working for the organisation. On the other side, when performing
sustainability practices outside the organisation then it is about performing fair and just action
within the organisation that benefit all the stakeholder of the organisation such as by offering
high quality goods, contribute toward the development of society, maintaining transparency in
financial reporting system etc.
Better example of sustainability approach to business strategy is John Levi’s which is a
large multinational high end department stores that maintain chain of its state s to offer high
quality clothing products and engaged in producing and offering the range of its clothes in more
sustainable manner. In order to minimise its negative impact over environment there are range of
initiative that Lewis taken into consider by making people more and more educated ion order to
save energy and reduce wastages that directly harm the environment (Rahim and Alam, 2014).
For this the John Lewis brand make use of such material in clothing that lasts for long period of
time by minimising the impact of environment over clothing and maintain their life for long.
Through its study the John Levi’s presented that the consumers use and disposal account
for 23 percent of total water which get used and up to 40 percent of climate impact during the
life span of their pair of jeans. Disposal is a major issue within industry where almost half of the
garment made annually are buried or burned within one year. In order to resolve this issue the
first action taken by John Lewis is to educate the consumers over how they can extend the life
span of their clothing such as washing jeans less often or repairing them or donate them for
recycling. For this the company create its first product tag i.e. care tag for our planet which
provide guidance over preserving clothes. Other than this its another program i.e. Blue Jean Go
Green where the main focus of the organisation remain over the concept that it uses a 100 per
cent recycling material to prepare its clothing so that it can reside within its better condition for
4

longer period of time and when the customers get fed off with their pair of clothing then they can
donate it within the stores of Levi’s which further proceed for recycling so that minimum
wastage is their and avoid the major issues of environment i.e. disposing material which affected
the quality of soil and also create several kind of environmental issue (Lee, 2017).
Despite of the corporate or large scale businesses, in today’s world where competition is at
peak and consumers are also very much active toward the practices adopted by the brands they
are connected with, form a pressure over the businesses to adopt sustainable business practices.
This is the reason why the small-scale organisations are also being involving their business
practices within the sustainable practices o that they can stand up in market by strengthening
their pillar with ethical practices. With this the small businesses also trying to put efforts toward
setting up business that perform more sustainable practices in order to achieve sustainability in
marketplace and also put emphases toward creating value within the society and environment in
which it actually operates. The bigger change which is required through sustainable business
practices is to minimise the negative effect over the environment through reducing the practices
and its negative effect over the environment. An example of this is Barrister St John’s Building
which become the first chamber which has developed a paperless system by cutting off all the
work that perform manual and stated adapting the operations that do not involve any kind of
paper work. This in turn supported the law firm to save huge amount £350000 per year which in
turn also help in reducing the carbon footprint.
Different approaches to CSR of Micro, SME and corporate business
Corporate social responsibilities is emerging concept within the business world and also become
the most crucial factor for achieving sustainability in this competitive world. The CSR is defined
as the self regulating mechanism of a business which support an organisation to become socially
responsible for the actions that it take in order to execute business operations with an aim to act
toward the welfare of community as well as stakeholder that are indulge within business affaires
(Coles, Fenclova and Dinan, 2015). Hence, it can be said that CSR has now become a priority of
people in term of improving brand image, creating value, avoiding competition or complying
with the ethical or legal standards formulated by the government. The approaches to CSR mainly
cover up five major areas such as community, environment, employee welfare, financial
performance and corporate governance. The organisation of different size have different set of
responsibility toward the environment as well as society to which they have to comply in order to
5

indulge CSR practices within their organisational objectives. The several approaches adopted by
the organisation for CSR at different level are mentioned below:
Micro firm approaches to CSR: - The Micro Firms are the business which operates at very low
level and having very few members working within the firm. Therefore the maintain ace of CSR
practices for Micro firms are quite difficult. But there are several factors that can be consider by
the micro forms in order to manage with the CSR practices that help these business to stay away
from any kind of legal risk (Setó-Pamies and Papaoikonomou, 2016). The approaches that are
required to be adopted by Micro business are3 mentioned below:
Economic responsibilities: For each organisation the basic responsibility from its inception
is to generate economic benefit for the business through performing set of activities so that it can
cover up all the expenses as well as provide fair and desirable compensation to its employees.
Hence, the main responsibility of Micro form at this level to operate business in a manner that it
can earn desirable profit to pay off fair compensation to the employees which is the main factor
that provide it sustainability to survive in marketplace.
Legal responsibility: - For ensuring the fair and ethical functioning of an organisation,
government has formulated several laws and regulation to manage the fair business practices.
The micro firms must operate its business by ensuring that each action must get undertaken by
the firm while consider all the legal laws ands regulation that are crucial to be followed. These
mainly includes paying off tax fairly, health and safety at workplace, fair remuneration, working
hours, avoiding child labour etc. These are certain regulatory guidelines that micro firms are
required to follow in order to execute fair and legal actions within the society.
SME approaches to CSR: - SMES constitute a major part within the economic as well as social
development of a country which make it crucial for the SME business to maintain ethical and
responsible practices within their operations so that most positive impact can be bring over its
surrounded environment (Kim, Brodhag and Mebratu, 2014). The certain approaches that are
required to be adopted by SME are explained below:
Ethical actions: - Ethics are consider to be most crucial part of every business as it allow a
firm to performing set of actions that are morally right. The ethical approach is about being fair
and morally right by performing such practices that is in the welfare of the stakeholders. A SME
firm must put emphases toward adopting CSR practices by performing business while
maintaining ethics which not only help in achieving sustainability at marketplace but also
6

support in creating value in front of the stakeholders. A good example of this is Barrister St
Johns Building that adopted a system of digital operations and avoiding the paper work in order
to getting true self toward the environment by taking up such actions that help in reducing the
negative effect of operations over the environment due to wastage that occur due to paper. Other
than this some more practices that consider under CSR are providing true information to
customers, timely payment to suppliers etc.
Legal responsibilities: - Like Micro firms, SME’s also have certain responsibility that they
area required to be fulfilled as per the laws. The SME businesses are required to comply with
certain CSR practices that are provided under the government guidelines related with particular
sector. The will support in providing a surety to stakeholder that company is involve in fair and
ethical practices..
Corporate business: - With the anticipation of internationalisation of businesses, majority of
organisations take initiative to enter in global market and expand their business from one country
to another (El Ghoul, Guedhami and Kim, 2017). But getting involve in international business
the operations of the organisation bring its influence over a larger scale and if these influence are
negative then it directly affect the brand image and make it difficult to operates. So, this
operation may affect the environment or society and for this an organisation is required to
involve the CSR approaches to their business practices and policies. There are mainly two typ0e
of approaches that a corporate business sis required to follow in order to get indulge within the
CSR practices. These are explained below:
Cogent path: - Under this CSR approach, the main focus of policies is to develop a synergetic
intervention as well as outcome using the CSR practices at international level. Under this
approach there remain a standardisation among the several units of business that are available at
different geographical location where the structure, policies and practices of an organisation
remain unchanged throughout the geographical location. An example of this is John Levi’s
which is operating at same CSR practices here it is generating more and more awareness among
its customers in order to educate them about the ways they can enhance the life of their clothes
(Benavides-Velasco, Quintana-García and Marchante-Lara, 2014). Other than this it is also
promoting a ethical practice where company is trying to influence people to not dispose, burn or
waste there used clothes rather they provide it back to the levy’s store for recycling.
7

Dispersed path: This strategy of CSR is remaining focused toward localisation of
operations where the impact at national level is considered. In this adaptation is the major
concept where organisations operating at different geographical locations tend to get adaptive to
the local environment and culture and formulate the CSR practices as per its requirement and
need of particular environment in which it is operating. But this practice bring influence over
small geographical location.
An example of Cogent Path CSR strategy is Marks and spencer which make use of such
material or fabric which do not harm to the environment, and are easy to be recycled so that
wastage and land fill practices can be reduced. The main aim over which Marks & Spencer
operates business is to provide high quality clothing’s and to sustain with this goal it focuses
toward offering high quality clothing’s throughout the world in order to bring up positive impact
over throughout the world.
The above given information are the approaches to CSR for micro, small and corporate
business that they are required to follow in order to get indulge within CSR practices. The
appro9aches to CSR are not similar for business operating at different level, as a CSR approach
to a business is depend over their size, operation scale, profitability, influence over environment
etc. which varies as per the level and kind of operation an organisation perform.
CONCLUSION
From the above given information it can be conclude that sustainability approaches for a
business is very crucial to them in order to ensure that operations performed by a firm remain
ethically and morally right which bring positive influence over the society and environment in
which it operates. It is so because the sustainable approach to business help in aligning the
organisational goals with operations that are ethically right so that it brings mutual benefit to the
society. Other than this it has been identified through’ this study that CSR approaches for each
business are different which is depend over the type of operations they actually perform and kind
of influence it have over the environment and society.
8

REFERENCES
Young, S.L. and Makhija, M.V., 2014. Firms’ corporate social responsibility behavior: An
integration of institutional and profit maximization approaches. Journal of International
Business Studies, 45(6), pp.670-698.
Crane, A., Matten, D. and Spence, L. eds., 2019. Corporate social responsibility: Readings and
cases in a global context. Routledge.
Ramasastry, A., 2015. Corporate social responsibility versus business and human rights:
Bridging the gap between responsibility and accountability. Journal of Human
Rights, 14(2), pp.237-259.
Rahim, M.M. and Alam, S., 2014. Convergence of corporate social responsibility and corporate
governance in weak economies: The case of Bangladesh. Journal of Business
Ethics, 121(4), pp.607-620.
Lee, T.H., 2017. The status of corporate social responsibility research in public relations: A
content analysis of published articles in eleven scholarly journals from 1980 to
2015. Public Relations Review, 43(1), pp.211-218.
Coles, T., Fenclova, E. and Dinan, C., 2015. Tourism and corporate social responsibility. The
Routledge handbook of tourism and sustainability, pp.271-279.
Setó-Pamies, D. and Papaoikonomou, E., 2016. A multi-level perspective for the integration of
ethics, corporate social responsibility and sustainability (ECSRS) in management
education. Journal of Business Ethics, 136(3), pp.523-538.
Kim, Y., Brodhag, C. and Mebratu, D., 2014. Corporate social responsibility driven
innovation. Innovation: The European Journal of Social Science Research, 27(2),
pp.175-196.
El Ghoul, S., Guedhami, O. and Kim, Y., 2017. Country-level institutions, firm value, and the
role of corporate social responsibility in
Benavides-Velasco, C.A., Quintana-García, C. and Marchante-Lara, M., 2014. Total quality
management, corporate social responsibility and performance in the hotel
industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 41, pp.77-87.
Online
Use and reuse. 2020. [Online] Available through: < https://www.levistrauss.com/how-we-do-
business/use-and-reuse/>.
How SMEs can manage their social responsibility. 2018. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.telegraph.co.uk/business/sme-library/managing-your-business/managing-
social-responsibility/>.
9