Building a Sustainable Organisation: Impact on Competitive Advantage and Attributes for Success

This report discusses the impact of sustainability on long-term competitive advantage and the necessary attributes and capabilities for business success in a changing environment. It includes examples from Tesco and covers the economic, environmental, and social pillars of sustainability.

Building a sustainable
organisation

Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK A ..........................................................................................................................................1
Discussing concept of sustainability and its impact on the long-tern competitive advantage for
organisation..................................................................................................................................1
TASK B...........................................................................................................................................1
Discussing attributes and capabilities which is necessary for business success in complex and
changing environment..................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................1
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
The sustainability is concept of fulfilling organisation needs without waste of present
resources in the environment, society as whole. Basically sustainability put emphasises on two
aspects the impact business has on its environment and other business in its community. To keep
resources for future generation is the prime aim of developing sustainability in the business that
helps in making the positive impact on the society (De Bernardi and Tirabeni, 2018). The
sustainable business helps in improving financial gain by lowering the cost of debt & equity.
The report discusses impact of sustainability on the long term competitive advantage by taking
example of several organisation. In addition, it covers capabilities & attributes which is
important for the organisational success in changing & complex environment.
TASK A
Discussing concept of sustainability and its impact on the long-tern competitive advantage for
organisation.
In then organisation the sustainability has become the major factor which impacts the
long term competitive advantage in several ways. It is about of meeting the needs of present
without compromising the ability of future generations yo meed the needs. The sustainable
practices is implemented by company by reducing its consumption of limited resources and
alternative solution is found with lower environmental consequences. In the sustainability there
are three main pillars such as economic, environmental & social which refers to people, planet &
profits (Dentoni, Pinkse and Lubberink, 2021). In context to Tesco, it adopted several stages to
implement sustainability as to remain competitive in market for long run. Tesco has made
commitments to their customers, communities and environment. It helps customers to eat more
sustainably by transforming products as to provide them sustainable food choices.
Tesco is focusing on reducing waste and plastic packaging by using eco-friendly
packaging which is fully recyclable and reusable to customers. This will help in preventing
environment from harm leading to customer loyalty & trust. To promote sustainable
development in the organisation government is is also providing several benefits such as
financing, rebates, decreased tax rates etc. The sustainability in the organisation puts positive
impact which helps in reducing costs as to have financial gain (Geissdoerfer, Vladimirova and
Evans, 2018). The environment friendly business operations leads to sustainable business
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development which benefits in increase of company sales. The business reputation of
organisation is improved by adopting sustainable practices in Tesco. Along with this it is also
running UK largest food redistribution programme with some partners, to promote healthy living
& education company is donating and offering good working conditions. In the business when
organisation builds sustainability it helps in increasing the strength to unique and differentiated
in the target market.
TASK B
Discussing attributes and capabilities which is necessary for business success in complex and
changing environment.
The business environment is dynamic and complex in the changing environment which
put adverse impact on the business organisation. The right combination of the organisational
capabilities and attributes helps in supporting business operations which leads to excellent
customer service & satisfaction (Mendoza, Gallego-Schmid and Azapagic, 2019). Organisation
capabilities enables organisation to maximize the performance and attain their goals. The
organisational capabilities are acquired and refined internally from multiple interactions to
organisation specific. In the business organisation there are several attributes needed to make the
successful organisation that also helps in enhancing business performance such as leadership is
required to effectively lead the employees by providing direction. Communication is required to
communicate overall strategy which is needed to perform business functioning. In context to
Tesco organisation capabilities are the driving forces which are as follows-
 Gaining competitive advantage- It is related with the ability to manage resources &
information effectively that helps in focusing on meeting the customer demands. In order
to gain customer retention it is important for the organisation to meet the customer needs
which helps in attaining competitive advantage. The Tesco offers the high quality goods
to its customers along with implemented the schemes such as club card. The economies
of scale is on the the competitive advantage which is exploited by Tesco due to its vast
scale of operations (Oderanti, 2018).
 Adapting to change- In this efforts are made by organisation to align with employees,
customers and emerging trends as to better foresee & plan for the new directions. In the
environment trends are changing which impacts the organisation operations. So it is
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required by Tesco to adapt changes or trends as Tesco has adopted self-checkouts with
provide comfort to customers.
 Strategies- It is consider as the important aspect for the business growth which helps in
attaining business objectives and goals. In the organisation must be capable to make
effective plans. Tesco is continuing its success depending on the formulating clear
business strategies which helps in improving customer loyalty (Pal and Gander, 2018). It
also helps in developing the shopping experience for its customers which aims to be
Zero-carbon business.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it is concluded that in success of business, substantiality plays
an important role which becomes important for the organisation to adopt sustainability as to keep
resources for the future generation. The organisation becoming sustainable creates several
competitive advantage which helps in gaining employees & customer satisfaction towards the
company. The benefit to society is provided through sustainability as sustainable competitive
advantage is set of assets, characteristics which allows organisation to meet its customer needs
better than competition. It is also considered that there are several factors which affects the firms
competitive advantage such as effective supply chain management, organisational
responsiveness, cost leadership etc.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals:
De Bernardi, P. and Tirabeni, L., 2018. Alternative food networks: Sustainable business models
for anti-consumption food cultures. British Food Journal.
Dentoni, D., Pinkse, J. and Lubberink, R., 2021. Linking sustainable business models to socio-
ecological resilience through cross-sector partnerships: A complex adaptive systems
view. Business & Society. 60(5). pp.1216-1252.
Geissdoerfer, M., Vladimirova, D. and Evans, S., 2018. Sustainable business model innovation:
A review. Journal of cleaner production. 198. pp.401-416.
Mendoza, J.M.F., Gallego-Schmid, A. and Azapagic, A., 2019. Building a business case for
implementation of a circular economy in higher education institutions. Journal of
Cleaner Production. 220. pp.553-567.
Oderanti, F.O. and Li, F., 2018. Commercialization of eHealth innovations in the market of the
UK healthcare sector: A framework for a sustainable business model. Psychology &
Marketing. 35(2). pp.120-137.
Pal, R. and Gander, J., 2018. Modelling environmental value: An examination of sustainable
business models within the fashion industry. Journal of cleaner production. 184.
pp.251-263.
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