Sustainability Matters in Business Operations

The assignment discusses the importance of a formal sustainability program in an organization, using Harvey Norman Holdings Limited as an example. The company has implemented a sustainability program that focuses on workforce productivity, market expansion, and risk management. Sustainability plays a key role in the company's overall strategic plan, facilitating growth, creating employee engagement, and assisting in acquiring market opportunities. However, it is essential for companies to explicitly connect their sustainability strategies with their culture, mission, and strategic direction.

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MONEY MATTERS
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Question 1
Background
My company has a formal sustainability program. Sustainability programs in any
organization are majorly consisted of the capability and performance and how it is managed
by the managers and how its measure. Sustainability will involve the initiatives that the
leaders or the managers in the organization tends to decide and implement so as the company
or the organization do not reduce its performance. A formal sustainability program ensures
that the company is in a position to progress in development and achieve the market
expectations (Scandelius and Cohen, 2016, p.166). The program also promotes in getting
profits and go beyond Cost–volume–profit (CVP) on the financial ground. Sustainable
development however, will also deal with the ethical issues in the organization and the
company. It is because of how the management policies are set. Do they humiliate the
workers, do they endanger the environment and the ecosystem? The products of environment
are to be left unharmed in the formal sustainable development.
Sustainability program for Harvey Norman Holdings Limited
Harvey Norman Holding Limited is a company that operates in many parts of the
world but has its headquarters in Sydney New South Wales, Australia. The company has a
formal sustainable development as its annual report for the year 2015 and 2016 shows. The
company has variety of products for office and home use like; electrical items, computers,
furniture, bedding and many others.
The company has a formal sustainability because of its policies on expansion. By the
year 2015, the company had extended its operational market to 169 franchised complexes.
These complexes are in different parts far away from Australia, some in New Zealand,
Singapore and, Malaysia. The introduction of these complexes aimed at achieving a greater

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market for the products. The company aimed at delivery of services outside New South
Wales, to the whole of Australia and finally to other continents like Asia.
The Harvey Norman Holdings Limited have been noted for formal sustainable
program because of the workforce productivity goals of improvement. According to the 2016
report, (p.20), every Franchisee owned by Harvey Norman has deployed enough workforce
on time and within the budget. The company also seeks to hold its employee so as there could
be sustainability ion performance and production (Weber, Diaz and Schwegler, 2014, p.321).
The workforce is well treated. According to the ethical considerations in the Human
Resource department. The workers are treated with equity and equality. Since the company is
well managed, it was able to open 7 new stores in the beginning of the year 2017. The new
stores deployed qualified personnel who could match with the rest in the competitive market
to ensure smooth running of the company.
Harvey Norman Holding has a formal sustainable program. Because it has considered
the key business risks which may pose threat to the future trade performance. Some like
deterioration of micro economics, competition in Australia and in the new channels and also
economic downturn in the world market. When a company is able to evaluate at the risks and
uncertainty and make recommendable adjustments, it is because of its sustainability programs
(Li, Choi and Chow, 2015, p.348). Harvey Norman has therefore achieved having a formal
sustainability programs.
Question 2
The roles that sustainability plays in the company’s overall strategic plan
Sustainability Facilitates grow of the company. Sustainability plans helps the
company in the endeavors to grow. The growth of a company is determined by the formality
of its sustainability plans. The company need to be dynamic. It is expected to expand and
make profits. a company should be above the CVP so that it doesn’t budget for all its profit

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because of minimal profits as per the input. For this to be achieved, sustainability plans are
important.
Harvey Norman Holdings Limited sustainability plan have been of help to achieve the
company’s strategic direction. According to the chairman and the CEO report, the company’s
strategy puts the company at the forefront of retailing, enables the customers to transact and
also helps the company in flexibility and its outlook. This is the contributions of
sustainability programs. Without the company program, there is no advancement for taking
the competitive advantage and coping the changing market (Pagell and Wu, 2017, p.339).
Creating employee engagement is another role of the sustainability plans. Harvey
Norman has been able to develop a close relationship between the workers of all levels. The
management team has also established a smooth flowing line of management that plays a
significant role of stabilizing communication across the human resource team. When the
sustainability plans are discussed, they prompt a lot of change in the company. The top
management engages with every stakeholder so that these plans and strategies can be
discussed. Afterwards, the plans are executed. Sustainability plans can therefore be said to
play a role of engaging the employee in the company’s strategic plans which leads to
extensive work plans and higher production in future.
Assisting the company in acquiring Market Opportunity and competitive advantage is
another role of sustainability towards achieving the Harvey Norman’s Holding Limited
culture of ethics and quality as well as high profile services to its customers. The company is
majorly set in Australia where there are many companies offering same services. However,
Harvey Norman Holdings Limited sustainability has been able to find its market opportunity
because of its sustainability strategies.

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My perception on the company which is not able to explain the connection the company
has with its culture, mission, and strategic direction
There are some cases where the company may not be in a position to explain the
connection that it has between the sustainability strategies and its culture, mission and
strategic direction or basically, what it does for its customers. It is tragic in this situation
because being unable to explain means that the strategies are not implemented but can be
perceived as “nice to have” or an after-thought because a plan should be visible in application
and the company should be in a position to explain how it carries them. The company’s
culture, mission and strategic direction should be explicit.

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References
Epstein, M.J. and Buhovac, A.R., 2014. Making sustainability work: Best practices in
managing and measuring corporate social, environmental, and economic impacts. Berrett-
Koehler Publishers.
Li, W.Y., Choi, T.M. and Chow, P.S., 2015. Risk and benefits brought by formal
sustainability programs on fashion enterprises under market disruption. Resources,
Conservation and Recycling, 104, pp.348-353.
Pagell, M. and Wu, Z., 2017. Business implications of sustainability practices in supply
chains. In Sustainable Supply Chains (pp. 339-353). Springer International Publishing.
Scandelius, C. and Cohen, G., 2016. Sustainability program brands: Platforms for
collaboration and co-creation. Industrial Marketing Management, 57, pp.166-176.
Weber, O., Diaz, M. and Schwegler, R., 2014. Corporate social responsibility of the financial
sector–Strengths, weaknesses and the impact on sustainable development. Sustainable
Development, 22(5), pp.321-335.