Sustainability and Long-Term Competitive Advantages in Organizations

This report critically examines the concept of sustainability and its impact on long-term competitive advantages for organizations, supported by examples. It highlights the environmental, social, and economic pillars of sustainability, emphasizing the importance of environmental stewardship, social responsibility towards stakeholders, and economic profitability. Furthermore, the report identifies key attributes and capabilities necessary for business success in a complex and changing environment, including effective management systems, strategic planning, leadership, motivation, and technology adoption. Concluding that businesses must adapt to market trends and leverage sustainability to achieve a competitive edge, the report underscores the significance of integrating sustainable practices for overall organizational success. Desklib provides access to this and other solved assignments to aid students in their studies.

Building A sustainable
organisation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Critically discuss the concept of sustainability and its impact on long term competitive
advantages for organisations. Use examples to illustrate your discussion.............................3
Attributes and capabilities which are necessary for business success in a complex and
changing environment-...........................................................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES:...............................................................................................................................6
Books and Journals.................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Sustainability is the concept of meeting the needs of present generation without
compromising the needs of future generation. The natural resources must be used in effective
manner so that so that social and economic needs are fulfilled (Figurska and Sokol, 2020). The
business organisation that uses the concept of sustainability are able to attain successful position
in market. This helps the company to attain better position and enhance their brand image. The
nature of business environment is dynamic and there is key role of taking proper care of the
social responsibility so that they are able to compete in the market. There is discussion related to
the concept of sustainability and its impact on gaining long term competitive strength by the
company. It is explained with the help of examples. Success of a business depends on some
factors and they are also mentioned in the report.
MAIN BODY
Critically discuss the concept of sustainability and its impact on long term competitive
advantages for organisations. Use examples to illustrate your discussion.
Sustainability is the ability of business to maintain a process over time. There is need of
following corporate social responsibility so that they are able to take proper care of the
environment in which they operate. The business set their sustainable goals that help them to
enhance their image in market. The company has to make optimum utilisation of resources so
that they are able to attain sustainable growth. There are some components under sustainability
and they are as follows:
The environmental pillar: It is one of the important pillar that is given highest attention.
The business takes care of the environment and assure that there is no harm caused to them. They
focus on reducing carbon footprints and pollutant. The use of plastic is also reduced by the
businesses so that they are able to provide best to the customers (Cheng and et.al., 2019). For
example, Tesco has the objective of reducing the carbon footprint to zero so that better efficiency
is attained. It is important to recycle and reuse their packaging for the overall benefit of the
business. It makes them successful and attain better position in market.
The social pillar: This pillar is associated with society and all its members. There are so
many stakeholders of business such as employees, customers, investors, government and society.
In regard to Unilever, they assure that all the laws and legislations related to employees are

followed by the company. This makes them loyal for the company and achieve better position.
The next responsibility is towards the customers that will help them to provide best suitable
products and maintain high quality. All the stakeholders must be satisfied and this helps the
company to satisfy the requirements of society and satisfy their requirements.
The economic pillar: One of main responsibility and objective of business is to earn profits.
There is need of serving the needs and wants of customers and attaining high profit. They must
take care about the company and manage all the risk that takes place. This helps them to attain
effective position in the market and achieve good position in market (Lange, Wodon and Carey,
eds., 2018). Sainsbury’s focus on the attaining effective economic position and for this reason
company works to enhance their profitability position in market by doing fair business. The use
of sustainability helps the business organisation to perform effectively and attain competitive
advantage.
Attributes and capabilities which are necessary for business success in a complex and changing
environment-
Effective Management system- It refers to the proper hierarchy of systems, authorities
and work should be followed in the organisations. Organisation should delegate the authorities
from higher to lower level of management and should maintain the relation within the boundaries
of organisation or outside the boundaries of the organisation. This helps in proper functioning of
the company and increase the chances of productivity of the business. There should be
coordination among different departments and mangers should listen to their subordinates for
maintaining good relation.
Planning- It refers to the function of management which includes setting of an objective
for evaluating course of actions. Organisations needs to prepare a proper planning regarding
marketing, financing planning, other operational related planning (Hibbert and et.al., 2021).
Planning provides a clear picture of activities which consists how to do work, what to do, when
to do the task and what will be require to complete the activities.
Leadership- Leadership refers to the ability of person to influence the behaviour of an
individual. Every firm should follow different leadership styles which depends on the situation of
the business. For big organisation companies should follow autocratic style of leadership and for
small scale business democratic style of leadership should follow. Leaders should guide and
motivate their employees for efficient working of the organisation.

Motivation- For maintaining good working environment leaders and managers should
motivate their subordinates so that they will able to perform well and it will directly increase the
productivity level (Romanelli and Ferrara, 2022). They should provide financial and non-
financial incentives this will help in building the confidence and motivational level in employees.
This will help in creating good image of the brand in the mind of employees as well as
customers.
Technology- Technology refers to the use of new and innovative methods and techniques
for development of the product. Firms should use new tool and techniques in building the
innovative products so that they can achieve the competitive advantage and also able to capture
good market share in the industry.
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that there is need of knowing the trends in the
market and working according to them. There are lot of complexities seen by the business and
sustainability helps them to achieve better position. In this report, the concept of sustainability
and its three pillars are examined with organisational examples. The attributes that are necessary
for the business to operate smoothly are also mentioned in the report. The business must take
care of their competitive position and follow right tools and techniques to attain success.

REFERENCES:
Books and Journals
Cheng and et.al., 2019. Service innovation: building a sustainable competitive advantage in
higher education. International Journal of Services, Economics and
Management, 10(4), pp.289-309.
Figurska, I. and Sokol, A., 2020. Potential of creative knowledge of workers and their
development in a sustainable organisation.
Hibbert and et.al., 2021. How to sustainably build capacity in quality improvement within a
healthcare organisation: a deep-dive, focused qualitative analysis. BMC health services
research, 21(1), pp.1-13.
Lange, G.M., Wodon, Q. and Carey, K. eds., 2018. The changing wealth of nations 2018:
Building a sustainable future. World Bank Publications.
Romanelli, M. and Ferrara, M., 2022. Museums Driving Innovation by Technology, People and
Organisation. In Do Machines Dream of Electric Workers? (pp. 119-135). Springer,
Cham.