Sustainability Marketing and Management Analysis: Case Study of General Motors

Sustainability Marketing and Management Analysis
Case Study of General Motors

Table of Contents
Introduction.....................................................................................................3
Background of the company and sustainable strategies used........................4
Identification of key sustainable marketing and management principles.......6
Sustainability theory and GM practices...........................................................7
Analysis of the situation based on evidence....................................................8
Conclusion.......................................................................................................9
References.....................................................................................................10

Introduction
Sustainability Management is one of the most important business terms in
the 21st century. Almost every multinational organisation has emphasised on
implementing sustainability strategy to connect with stakeholders and
survive in the market for a long period of time. It cannot be denied that in
the era of ethical consumerism and severe environmental, social and
economic issues sustainability practices by organisations has emerged as an
excellent tool for growth and success. The automobile industry has
undergone significant change with time passing by and taste, preference and
views of the consumers changing. The automobile industry has emphasised
the most on sustainability practices because it is one of the industries that
requires to constantly checking their business practices in terms of waste
creation, pollution and financial transparency (Epstein, 2018). General
Motors is one of the leading automobile manufacturing companies in the
world. It has been on the top of the list consistently for a long period of time
but had to experience rough patch due to ethical problems and improper
sustainability practices initially but recovered well in the last decade or so
which makes it appropriate for addressing the present paper.

Background of the company and sustainable strategies used
General Motors Company is one of the biggest automobile companies in the
world. As of 2018 the organisation is ranked 10th in fortune 500 rankings and
reached the milestone of 10 million products in the year 2016. GM has it’s
headquarter in Detroit and owns brands like Chevrolet and Cadillac. The
organisation works worldwide and has a total strength of 173,000 and total
revenue of USD 148 billion. In the last few years GM has had significant
competition from organisations like VW and Toyota as they target the same
market as this and hence, it becomes extremely important to understand the
strategies that differentiate GM from the other rivals (Flower, 2018). GM had
brought its sustainability strategy in practice long time back but it
emphasised on the effective execution of sustainable strategies after the
incident of Chevy cobalt which affected the organisation to a large extent in
terms of customer faith, sales and revenue.
The organisation has a clean sustainability plan which has helped the
organisation to recover from the cobalt issue and survive in the market. The
sustainability strategy of the organisation starts with solving the climate
change problem. The organisation emphasises largely to contribute to the
issue of climate change. The zero emission future programs, all electric car
concept and investment in multiple advanced technologies have helped the
organisation to reduce carbon footprint and direct impact on the climate