Sustainable Approach to Business Strategy and Management

This report explores the concept of sustainability and its impact on business. It discusses the sustainable approach to business strategy and management, as well as different approaches to CSR for micro, SME, and corporate businesses.

Foundation of business
communication
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CONTENTS
Contents...........................................................................................................................................2
PART 1............................................................................................................................................3
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................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9
PART 2..........................................................................................................................................11
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PART 1
INTRODUCTION
Sustainable business is an emerging concept and now become a most crucial part of the
business world as sustainable practices support a business to get survive in competitive world by
creating value among the stakeholder, environment as well as community in which it operates. A
sustainable business is one which mainly focuses toward performing set of actions that bring up
minimal negative impact and promote positive effect over the global as well as local
environment (França and et. al., 2017). The current report is based on the concept of
sustainability and its impact over business. This report mainly contain a detail investigation
about the sustainable approach to business strategy and management. Addition to this it also
includes a detailed explanation regarding different approaches to micro, small and corporate
business.
MAIN BODY
Sustainable approach to business strategy and management
A sustainable organisation is one which determine its activities, behaviour, product or
services by gaining a detailed understanding about the environment as well as society context in
which it execute its operations. As a result of which it ensures that its impact over the
environment as well as society in which it operates is either neutral or positive. Sustainable
approach within a business refers to the set of strategies that are used in order to integrate the
environmental, economic and social aim with the goals, activities and planning od an
organisation with an objective of creating a long term value for the firm, its stakeholder and
wider society.
Hence it can be said that a sustainable approach to a business strategy is one which
support an organisation to get transformation into a sustainable company that help in creative a
value within the society in which it operates by imposing the positive influence over the society
as well as environment in which it operates (Joyce and Paquin, 2016). An organisational strategy
plays a significant role in delivering eth sustainable objective effectively as it helps in setting up
certain criteria and defining the action plan over which an organisation has to work.
The sustainable approach to business strategy is mainly refer to the set of actions that are
taken in order to indulge the sustainable objectives within the core strategy of the business, so
that it can involve its sustainable practices within tits operations. On the other side the
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sustainable approach to business management is that initiative taken by an organisation to
manage the sustainable approach within as well as outside the organisation. Among them when
business management sustainability linked with eth internal system of organisation them it is
about providing fair and equality related environment to the employees working within the
organisation (Høgevold and et. al., 2014). On the other hand when it is about the outside the
organisation the it related with the management of business practices in such a manner that it
provide a fair and just benefit to all the stakeholders that are connected with the organisation and
along with the maintenance of transparency related with its operations and profitability is also a
part of sustainability approach to business management.
A great example of sustainability approach to business strategy is Marks & Spencer
which os a multinational organisation that operates at larger scale and perform actions toward
offering its products or services throughout the world in more sustainable manner by maintaining
its own stores. By adding sustainable objective to the business strategy it bring a significant
change toward the development of society and reducing wastage that may affect the
environment. For this M&S make use of such fabric in their clothes which can be wearied by
consumers for years without any kind of damage, as all the clothes undergoes a rigorous wear
and wash test.
Addition to this when consumers end up with their old favourites, then for it company has
organised a Shwopping scheme with Oxfam which is a NGO (Dyllick and Muff, 2016). Ion this
scheme customers mainly donate their clothes from any of the brand in any condition at
showping bins that are present in stores including tehri shoes, accessories etc. The items
collected with the shwopping bins are either resold in Oxfam shops, give to the needy people or
went for recycling. After this scheme the customers has donated around 34 million items since
2008 which support in raising around £22 million for the people that are living under extreme
poor condition. Here the Marks & Spencer work over an aim that none of the cloth get waste and
to make sure that if any surplus stock is their then it get sold through sales and outlet centres
(APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE FASHION. 2019). Anything that found to be unsold is sent to
the charity partners for the welfare of the society such as Newlife, Oxfam or SmartWorks so that
it can be reused or recycled for maintaining sustainability
Other then this large-scale company, as per the current scenario of business environment
as well as initiative of the government toward having an eye over the companies operating in
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country to be managed over ethical pillars and sustainable practices. This make the small
businesses also put their efforts toward setting up a business that work more over the suitable
practices in order survive in marketplace and creative value in from the society and environment
imn which it operates. The bigger change that is required through sustainable business practices
is to reduce its negative effect over the environment through cutting of the practices that affect
environment such as going paperless which can have a huge impact. A good example of
sustainability practices is a Law firm i.e. Barrister St John’s Building that become one of the first
chamber that has developed the paperless system. This supported this law from to save up to
£350000 per year while dramatically reducing the carbon footprint (How SMEs can manage their
social responsibility. 2018.). Similarly, it also work toward reducing the office space by allowing
the staff members to perform work from home which help in reducing the environmental impact
by saving eth money, reducing the energy consumption.
Different approaches to CSR of Micro, SME and corporate business
CSR or corporate social responsibilities refers to the self-regulating business model which
help a company to be socially accountable to itself, public as well as stakeholders. CSR is
emerging concept and now become an inevitable priority for the companies operating throughout
the world. The CSR approaches mainly cover five major areas such as environment, community,
financial performance, employee welfare and corporate governance (Sheehy, 2015). The
organisation operating at different level are responsible for different set of responsibilities that
belong to there are of operations as well as environment in which they perform work. The
approaches to CSR for organisations operating at different level are explained below:
Corporate business: - The advent of globalisation allow different organisation to mobile
from one country to another for expanding the business and operate art international level. So, its
operations may or may not affect the environment or society in which it operates but that can’t
be cover within the policies or strategies of the organisation, as CSR practices are to look after
differently to brining sustainable practices so that it can be then indulge with in the policies of
organisation. There are mainly two approaches to CSR policies that are formed for large
corporate businesses that come yup with their own set of opportunities and drawbacks, these are
mentioned below:
Cogent path: - This CSR policy consider the intent of creating synergistic intervention as
well as outcome with the help of CSR practices internationally. It is a .practice of globally
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standardisation where the practices, policies and structure of an organisation remains consistent
and unchanged throughout the cultures and geographical regions (Spence, 2016).
Dispersed path: This strategy of CSR is consider to be localised strategy and is responsible
for brining impact on national level. Here the CSR strategies are formulated by consider the local
culture, requirement and societal need. The main drawback of this CSR practices is that it bring
impact 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.
SME approaches to CSR: - Like Large scale organisations, SME also plays a major role
in growth and development of the society as well as environment in which it operates by taking
up the sustainable actions toward its close factor in order to reduce the negative impact and bring
positive influence with eth help of CSR practices (Maas and Reniers, 2014). The approaches to
SME’s in term of CSR is mentioned below:
Ethical actions: - This approach talk about doing right things, being fair despite of any
situation and avoiding such practices that may harm stakeholders in any manner. An organisation
must operates ethically which not only support it in presenting a positive image in front of its
stakeholder by being moral but people feel more trust or value toward it or likely to purchase its
product or services. Being environmentally friendly is greater example of it as done by the
Barrister St John’s Building by adopting a paper less practices to execute its operations which is
very much helpful and a great step toward the sustainable business approach. Other few practices
of that comes under ethical approach of CSR is to treat supplier and employees properly,
providing fair and adequate information to the customers regarding the products they are going
to purchase etc.
Legal responsibilities: - Other than this, the small business enterprises are also responsible
for complying with eth CSR practices that are being provided under the guidelines of the
government or the laws that are being formulated for the business that are operating within
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particular industry. This help in providing a suit to the stakeholder that the company to which
they are interacting are performing their operation legally and will not harm in an any manner.
Micro firm approaches to CSR: - In order to maintain with the CSR practices, the
operations of business is quite difficult for the Micro firms as it operates at relatively lower level
(Mosca and Civera, 2017). But there are certain factors that it considers in order to being at eth
level of CSR which support such firms in staying away from any kind of legal risk. The
approaches to CSR adopted by micro forms are mentioned below:
Economic responsibility:- This is the basic responsibility of a every business and aim too
while starting up the business i.e. profit as without profit the company wouldn’t be able to pay of
fair and required compensation to the employees hat are working for it. This is so because the
employees will lose their job before company start operating CSR, so first of all a firm must
work toward earning profit to survive in marketplace.
Legal responsibility: There are certain laws and regulation are being formulated for the
businesses so that work get executed in ethical manner. The micro firms also liable to obey these
laws and adopt guidelines formatted for this. Employment law, tax regulations, health and safety
of employees etc. ate certain CSR practices that Micro firm has to perform. These CSR is totally
related with the internal management and stakeholder of the firm.
These are the approaches to CSR practices for micro, small and corporate businesses
which business entities are required tro follow in order to get indulge into sustainability practices
as per the requirement of current business environment. From the above mentioned appro9aches
it can be said that legal and economic responsibilities of CSR are the one that each kind of
organisation despite if their size have to follow. But when it is about the similarity, then there is
not such similarity between the CSR practices among the micro, small and corporate business
(Mosca and Civera, 2017). This is so because the organisations operating at different level have
different set of role and responsibility toward the s9ociety as their impact over the environment
and society of its operations are distinct from one another.
CONCLUSION
From the above presented report it can be summarised that the sustainability practices is
consider to be most crucial factor within an organisational success and providing it a medium to
survive within marketplace. This is so because the sustainable approach to the business support
in aligning the goals of a business with ethics and fair practices which always direct it to perform
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the operations in right direction which in turn brining up mutually benefit. This means that when
an organisation conducts any kind of business practices that it outcome must be beneficial for all
the stakeholders and brining positive impact to the society, environment, management and
community in large.
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REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Dyllick, T. and Muff, K., 2016. Clarifying the meaning of sustainable business: Introducing a
typology from business-as-usual to true business sustainability. Organization &
Environment, 29(2), pp.156-174.
França, C.L., and et. al., 2017. An approach to business model innovation and design for
strategic sustainable development. Journal of Cleaner Production, 140, pp.155-166.
Høgevold, N.M., and et. al., 2014. Sustainable business models. Baltic Journal of Management.
Joyce, A. and Paquin, R.L., 2016. The triple layered business model canvas: A tool to design
more sustainable business models. Journal of cleaner production, 135, pp.1474-1486.
Maas, S. and Reniers, G., 2014. Development of a CSR model for practice: connecting five
inherent areas of sustainable business. Journal of Cleaner Production, 64, pp.104-114.
Mosca, F. and Civera, C., 2017. The evolution of CSR: An integrated approach. Symphonya.
Emerging Issues in Management, (1), pp.16-35.
Sheehy, B., 2015. Defining CSR: Problems and solutions. Journal of business ethics, 131(3),
pp.625-648.
Spence, L.J., 2016. Small business social responsibility: Expanding core CSR theory. Business &
Society, 55(1), pp.23-55.
Online
APPROACH TO SUSTAINABLE FASHION. 2019. [Online] Available through:
<https://corporate.marksandspencer.com/sustainability/quick-reads/our-approach-to-
sustainable-fashion>.
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/>.
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PART 2
My experience throughout this module was great as came to know about several new
things, important of sustainability ibn business, CSR practices and difference in such practices
among the businesses operates at different level. In addition to this the module also remain
helpful to me in enhancing my skills and capabilities that are linked to the employability skills
and remain very much beneficial for me while performing my future career job. Throughout this
module we are assigned with group of activities by our tutor in order to improve our learning and
understanding about this topic. So, I was also assigning with a task i.e. class room discussion
where I have to present a topic by thoroughly studding it and share the knowledge that I gathered
with my class mates. So, in the starting of this task I was very nervous as I haven’t done such
kind of task before i.e. presenting myself in front of people. But I decided to overcome my
fear .of speaking in public by researching the information more appropriately so that I can
answer each and every question. So, deliver the presentation about that topic over which I
perform investigation and it was great experience. This event not only helped me in overcoming
my fear of speaking in front of public but I also become able to develop a confidence in me
about my communication skills. This is so because this event supported me a lot in improving
my communication skills, as for this project I discussed with so many of my seniors, my class
mates and my teachers etc. in order to gathered as much information as I can to present it in best
possible manner. So by regularly communicating with people I become more and more
confident and get idea about how to represent myself. Addition to this I also supported me in
improving my researcher skills as I came to know about several methods or approaches to be
used for collecting the information about a topic.
Other then this, during tie module I was also assigned with a group presentation which
we have to prepare while working in a team. This was also a very much interesting task as a
group work is something which taught a lot as it provide knowledge about several different area
in which a particular individual have understanding. So, for this task we have to make use of
Microsoft office programs in order to write down the information or adjust it in slides. This task
was very much interesting as I got a chance to enhance my IT skills. At the end of this task I
become able to improve my command over ICT tools which are consider to be most crucial skills
under the employability skills and demanded by several organisation among the aspirant in order
to offer them a job. Ion this I learnt about several shortcuts methods through which a complex
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task can be performed easily. Other than this I also learnt about several things like how to make a
presentation more attractive, do’s and don’ts for a presentation, things to remembers for a
professional presentation etc. Theses all will support me in building my employability skills and
support me in future by making me able to prepare and deliver the presentation in more
professional manner. Despite of all this, for this presentation work was assigned with a group
task where we have to divide the whole tasks and distribute among the team mates. This task was
very much challenging as we don’t know much about each other but with regular discussion and
support from one another we become able to complete this work more efficiently.
This group presentation taught me a lot about the was a team work is performed and ways
to manage effectively with team mates. The team work is consider to be a best practice as it help
in reducing the burden of work by distributing it among the other member of group. While
working in group we regular have a detailed discussion about the work which support me in
improving my critical thinking skills as we discussed a lot and then focus toward brining new or
more better idea to perform work more effectively. Other than this I learnt about problem,
solving skills as while working in group when a issue arise we all present our ideas and this help
us identifying several different ways to evaluate a problem which in turn present the solution by
itself. Despite of this while working in group three are certain chances where there remain a
clash between the view point and though of group member hitch a very common nature of
human being and sometimes this results into conflicts, so while dealing with such conflicts I also
become able to learn about conflict resolution skills. Hence, the experience throughout these task
ands work was great as I came to develop my employability skills which will be helpful from the
future career perspective.
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