Sustainable Strategies: A Comparative Report on Four Organizations

This report examines the sustainable development strategies of four prominent organizations: Walmart, Amazon, Microsoft, and Unilever. It identifies key drivers for each company, such as improving employee experience and economic opportunity for Walmart; controlling the value chain, optimizing efficiency, and diversifying business portfolios for Amazon; effective resource utilization and market leadership for Microsoft; and employee engagement and strong supply chain relationships for Unilever. The report focuses on Amazon, detailing how its control over the value chain, global warehousing and predictive analysis, and diversification into areas like Amazon Web Services (AWS) contribute to its triple bottom line performance, encompassing social, environmental, and financial aspects. Amazon's technology-driven efficiency, warehousing strategy, and commitment to renewable energy are highlighted as key factors in achieving sustainable development and competitive advantage.

Running Head: SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 0
Sustainable development

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 1
Four organizations with Sustainable Strategy
Appendix A
Organiza
tion
Drivers References for Research
Walmart 1. Improving work
experience of people
by developing new
initiatives and
programs.
 Wireman, T. (2010). Training Programs for Maintenance Organizations. (5th
ed.). New York: Industrial Press Inc.
2. Increase economic
opportunity in retail
and retail supply
chains.
 Gereffi, G., & Christian, M. (2009). The Impacts of Wal-Mart: The Rise and
Consequences of the World’s Dominant Retailer. Annual Review of
Sociology, 35(1), 573–591.
3. Building the
organization future
by recruitment and
talent development.
 McIlvaine, A. R. (2018). Walmart 2.0. Retrieved from:
http://hrexecutive.com/walmart-2-0/
Amazon 1. Competitive
advantage with the
full control over value
chain in within and
outside the
organization.
 Bidgoli, H. (2010). The Handbook of Technology Management, Supply Chain
Management, Marketing and Advertising, and Global Management. (2nd
ed.). New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
2. Optimizing the
efficiency in
delivering business
with the help of
warehouses dotted
around the globe,
robots and advanced
software with
predictive analysis.
 Will, K. (2015). Inside Amazon’s Warehouse, Human-Robot Symbiosis.
Retrieved from: https://www.technologyreview.com/s/538601/inside-
amazons-warehouse-human-robot-symbiosis/
3. Diversification and
development of the
fields like Amazon
Web Services (AWS)
and other portfolios
businesses.
 Trefis. (2016). How AWS Is Funding Amazon's E-Commerce Expansion In
International Markets. Retrieved from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2016/11/09/how-aws-is-
funding-amazons-e-commerce-expansion-in-international-markets/
#6738c1b91ced

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 2
Microsoft 1. Effective use
of the resources like
money, talent and IP
portfolio.
 Maizlish, B., & Handler, R. (2010). IT (Information Technology) Portfolio
Management Step-by-Step: Unlocking the Business Value of Technology.
New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons.
2. Maintaining
market
leadership in
IT
management.
 Lopez, M. (2016). 7 Reasons to Give Microsoft's Strategy Another Look.
Retrieved from:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/maribellopez/2016/04/19/7-reasons-to-
give-microsofts-strategy-another-look/#59942f5d7dd0
3. Focus on
innovation
strategy and
led to the
continuous
growth.
 Wonglimpiyarat, J. (2012). Technology strategies and standard competition
—Comparative innovation cases of Apple and Microsoft. The Journal of
High Technology Management Research, 23(2), 90-102.
Unilever 1. Retaining the
employee
engagement
key to the
sustainable
success.
 Lorraine, S. (2018). Employee Engagement 3.0: How Starbucks, Unilever Go
the Extra Mile. Retrieved from:
https://www.sustainablebrands.com/news_and_views/organizational_cha
nge/lorraine_schuchart/employee_engagement_how_starbucks_unilever
2. Promote
Consumer
insight as
society is
dynamic and
the ability to
predict will
give them a
competitive
advantage.
 Hoogervorst, J. (2009). Enterprise Governance and Enterprise Engineering.
Netherlands: Springer Science & Business Media.
3. Focus on
improving
tight
relationships
with the
partners in
the supply
chain and
create
innovation in
products and
packaging.
 Soosay, C. A., Hyland, P. W., & Ferrer, M. (2008). Supply chain
collaboration: capabilities for continuous innovation. Supply Chain
Management: An International Journal, 13(2), 160-169.
From the above chart, the selected organization is Amazon with its three drivers, discussed
below –

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT 3
 Full control over value chain – A value chain of the organization includes many factors
like inbound, outbound logistics and response time with all to the direction of customers
(Bidgoli, 2010).The value chain of Amazon focuses on embraced technology. With the help
of countless automation and AI algorithms, the company have full control over their
efficiency and delivery speeds. They also focus on freeing up funds in the inward and
outwards logistics. This efficiency in the value chain also helps Amazon in the improvement
of the triple bottom line performance. The three element of the triple bottom line
performance is – Social, Environmental and Financial aspects (People, planet and profits). In
terms of environment aspects, Amazon can be seen as a greener option as unlike traditional
retailers, they need not operate with many physical locations and there transportation
logistics efficiencies may reduce the lifecycle energy use of consumer products which is good
and well for both society and environment. Most of the activities done in Amazon logistics
and distributions centres are via advanced and innovative technologies with various AI
algorithms which help them in saving a huge amount of materialistic cost and thus improves
the overall financial performance of the company.
 Warehouses around the globe and predictive analysis – Although Amazon is an e-
commerce company, however, it also needs various fulfilments centres and warehouse to
process the products from the seller to the buyer. In addition, Amazon success also lies in its
expert warehousing strategy, which ensures that all of its products are easily accessible from
any part of the world and the predictive analysis technology of Amazon also help them in
fast processing of the orders (Will, 2015). In their warehouses, the company focuses on
health and safer working environments and they have also set various standards related to
the right to legal wages and benefits for their people. With the help of Inventory
Performance Index, the company is removing the products that are taking space as well as
not sellable to the customers. This will have a direct impact on improving the financial
performance of the company.
 Diversification and development of other business portfolios like AWS – Amazon
started as an online e-book seller but with the increased competition in the market, Amazon
gets to know that diversification needs to be included in their corporate strategy so that to
achieve competitive advantage (Trefis, 2016). One of their early experiment in cloud
computing (called Amazon Web Services) proved to be successful and also impact
significantly in the improvement of financial performance of the company. The data centers
locations are chosen wisely by the company which also saved the high cost data of the
clients with the help of three-layer protection. The company also made a long-term
commitment to use AWS cloud will 100% renewable energy which reduces carbon emission
by 88% and helps Amazon in achieving economy of scale.