University Report: Sustainability Management and Marketing Strategies

This report delves into the critical aspects of sustainability management and marketing within the context of modern business operations. It examines the challenges of resource utilization and the importance of reducing waste and inefficiency. The report analyzes six brands from three different business tiers (Nike, Gap Inc., Adidas, Primark, Aditya Birla, and ASOS) to assess their resource management strategies. It evaluates issues related to resource utilization, providing insights through financial statements and performance indicators. The report explores the application of three fundamental approaches to resource management and the brands' contributions to the circular economy. Furthermore, it assesses the value proposition, creation, and delivery of value, and value capture methods employed by the selected companies. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of effective resource utilization for organizational success in the competitive business environment. The report is available on Desklib, a platform offering AI-based study tools for students.

Running head: SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
Sustainability Management and Marketing
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Authors Note:

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SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
Contents
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................2
Issues of resources and utilization and & management of resources:.............................................2
Use of resources in business context:..............................................................................................2
Use of three fundamental approaches:.............................................................................................8
Value proposition:...........................................................................................................................9
Creation and delivery of value:......................................................................................................10
Value capture and way of capturing value:...................................................................................10
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................10
References:....................................................................................................................................12

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SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
Introduction:
In modern business organizations, one the biggest challenges for the management is to make
optimum use of resources by reducing the waste and inefficient use of resources in business and
organizational operations. In this document the six brands chosen from three different business
tiers are Nike and Gap Inc. from tier 1; Adidas and Primark from tier 2 and finally, Aditya Birla
and ASOS from tier 3. On the basis of available information about these companies available in
the public domain let us proceed to assess and evaluate the issues associated with management
and utilization of resources by these companies.
Issues of resources and utilization and & management of resources:
Resources are the assets, both tangible and intangible controlled by an organization to use these
to conduct the day to day affairs of the organization to earn revenue. There are number of issues
associated with resources specific to different organizations thus, management and utilization of
resources become even more crucial to the ability of organizations to make effective use of these
resources (Zhao and Guo, 2018).
Use of resources in business context:
Nike as per its annual reports and other information available publicly show that the company
has an effective management and utilization plan where it comes to resources controlled by the
company. The income statement available for the public shows that the company has been
successful in each of last four years to increase its revenue and resultant profits from business
operations. This is a clear indication of the successful utilization and management of resources of
the company. The income statement of the company for the last five years is provided below for
the purpose of reference.

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SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
INCOME STATEMENT OF NIKE INC
All amounts are given in USD
millions
2015-05 2016-05 2017-05 2018-05 2019-05
Amount of Revenue 30,601.
00
32,376.
00
34,350.
00
36,397.
00
39,117.
00
Less: Direct revenue cost 16,534.
00
17,405.
00
19,038.
00
20,441.
00
21,643.
00
(A): Gross profit 14,067.
00
14,971.
00
15,312.
00
15,956.
00
17,474.
00
Less: Operating expenses
Administrative and general expenses 9,892.
00
10,469.
00
10,563.
00
11,511.
00
12,702.
00
(B): Total operating expenses 9,892.
00
10,469.
00
10,563.
00
11,511.
00
12,702.
00
Operating income (A - B) 4,175.
00
4,502.
00
4,749.
00
4,445.
00
4,772.
00
Add: Income / (expense) 30
.00
121
.00
137
.00
(120.
00)
29
.00
Earnings before tax 4,205. 4,623. 4,886. 4,325. 4,801.

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SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
00 00 00 00 00
Less: Provision for tax 932
.00
863
.00
646
.00
2,392.
00
772
.00
Earnings after tax from continuous
operations
3,273.
00
3,760.
00
4,240.
00
1,933.
00
4,029.
00
Add/ (less): Income / (loss) from discontinuing operations
Earnings available to common
shareholders
3,273.
00
3,760.
00
4,240.
00
1,933.
00
4,029.
00
Earnings per share (EPS)
Basic EPS 1
.90
2
.21
2
.56
1
.19
2
.55
The above shows that the brand Nike has continuously improved its ability to generate greater
amount of revenue from the business operations. Ability to generate higher amount of revenue
with each passing year is a clear indication of improved brand value of a company. In this case
the ability to make better utilization and management of organizational resources by Nike is clear
from its income statement of last five years. However, despite the increase in gross revenue
earned by the company over the last five years, the company has not been able to increase its net
profit from business in each of the last five years as the net income for the year 2018 and 2019
have been lower than the amount of profits of 2017. Thus, there is scope of improvement in

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SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
utilization and management of resources by the company to improve its net profit in the future
(Watanabe, 2018).
Gap Inc. on the other hand has failed to improve its revenue generating ability as the publicly
available document of the company shows that it has struggled to improve its operating
performance like Nike Inc.
The income statement of last five years of Adidas Company will be helpful in analyzing the
ability of the company in utilizing and management of resources of the company. The income
statement of the company is provided below to assess the performance of the company to
evaluate how the company has used and managed its resources to conduct its business
operations.
INCOME STATEMENT OF ADIDAS
Fiscal year ends in December. EUR in
millions except per share data.
2014-
12
2015-
12
2016-
12
2017-
12
2018-
12
Gross revenue 14,53
4.00
16,91
5.00
19,29
1.00
21,21
8.00
21,91
5.00
Less: Direct cost of revenue 7,61
0.00
8,74
8.00
9,91
2.00
10,51
4.00
10,55
2.00
(A): Gross profit 6,92
4.00
8,16
7.00
9,37
9.00
10,70
4.00
11,36
3.00
Less: Operating expenses

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SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
Expenses on research and development 12
6.00
13
9.00
16
4.00
18
7.00
Administrative and general sales
expenses
6,07
8.00
7,15
1.00
8,09
9.00
8,69
6.00
9,02
7.00
Other operating expenses (235
.00)
(211
.00)
(327
.00)
(242
.00)
(6
2.00)
(B): Operating expenses in total 5,96
9.00
7,07
9.00
7,93
6.00
8,64
1.00
8,96
5.00
Operating income (A - B) 95
5.00
1,08
8.00
1,44
3.00
2,06
3.00
2,39
8.00
Interest Expense 6
2.00
6
5.00
7
0.00
6
2.00
4
2.00
Other income (expense) (5
8.00)
1
6.00
7
1.00
2
2.00
2
2.00
Earnings before tax 83
5.00
1,03
9.00
1,44
4.00
2,02
3.00
2,37
8.00
Less: Provision for taxation 27
1.00
35
3.00
42
6.00
66
8.00
66
9.00
Other income / (expenses) (

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SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
1.00 1.00)
Earnings from continuing operations 56
4.00
68
6.00
1,01
9.00
1,35
4.00
1,70
9.00
Income / (expense) from/ of
discontinuing ops
(6
8.00)
(4
6.00) 1.00
(254
.00)
(
5.00)
Other (
6.00)
(
6.00)
(
3.00)
(
3.00)
(
2.00)
Net income available to common
shareholders
49
0.00
63
4.00
1,01
7.00
1,09
7.00
1,70
2.00
Earnings per share
Basic
1.18 1.69 2.54 2.71 4.22
Adidas is a prime example of showing continuous improvement in utilization and management
of resources as is indicated from the continuous increase in the gross revenue and operating
profit of the company over the last five years (O'Cass, 2016).
As per the publicly available information including the annual reports of Primark, the company
has struggled to sustain its growth in revenue and operating profit. The inability to make
effective utilization of resources is clear from the struggle of the company to generate revenue

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SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
and resultant net income from business operations. Thus, improper and ineffective management
of resources is clear from its operating performances over the years.
Aditya Birla Group is a multi-national conglomerate with its operations spreading to 34 different
countries across the globe. The company over the years have managed to make effective use of
its resources to expand its operations in different parts of the globe. The ever growing business
of the company is a testament of its efficient and effective utilization of resources.
ASOS is one of the most well-known online fashion and cosmetic brands in the United
Kingdom. The brand value of the company has enhanced considerably in recent times due to the
quality of services and range of brands available in ASOS website.
Use of three fundamental approaches:
Three fundamental approaches to utilization and management of resources are narrow, slow and
close. Ensuring that the resources are managed and utilized extremely well to extract maximum
benefits from the market is of immense importance to the overall success of business
organizations in the modern day and age. All the three fundamental approaches are conservative
in nature to manage and utilize resources of business organizations. However, most of the
organizations do not follow the conservative and fundamental approach to resource management
and utilization.
In this case none of the six brands considered for discussion has followed the concept of narrow,
slow and close approach to management and utilization of resources (Melia, 2016).
Contribution to circular economy is significant by all the six brands mentioned here as they have
specific policies to make effective use of resources and minimize the generation of waste. Nike,
Adidas and Aditya Birla Group have formed separate committees to look into the matter of

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SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
resource utilization in these companies. Primark, ASOS and GAP Inc. on the other hand
continuously taking steps to improve the utilization of resources. However, it is important to note
that each of these organization must continue to evolve to make optimum use of its resources as
modern technology provides opportunities to the companies to enhance the effectiveness of
resources.
Value proposition:
As clear from the profit and loss statements of these companies, i.e. the statements which are
available in the public domain, that the organizations which have made effective utilization of
their resources are quite successful in creating value for their business.
The goodwill of Nike over the last five years have increased considerably as currently the
amount of goodwill of the company stands at $154 million at the end of accounting year May 31,
2019 as compared to $131 million of corresponding year ending in 2015. However, similar
trajectory when it comes to value proposition has not been experienced by Adidas, Primark and
Aditya Birla Group as none of these companies have experienced continuous growth in the value
of their goodwill over the last five years (Mazurek, 2017).
Creation and delivery of value:
The ability to create and deliver value to the customers is reflected in the satisfaction of the
customers. A company will experience considerable growth in its ability to generate revenue and
profit from business operations if it can create and deliver value to the customers. All the six
brands chosen and selected for the purpose of this document enjoy huge goodwill in the market.
In fact companies such as Nike and Adidas are two of the most recognizable brands in all across

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SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
the globe. It’s due to the ability of these companies to create and deliver value to the customers
that they have managed to make such huge impact in the market (Goswami, 2018).
Value capture and way of capturing value:
In case of Nike, Adidas and Primark delivering world class products to the customers have
helped these companies to capture value in the way they have captured in the past and continue
to do so in the present. On the other hand companies such as Aditya Birla Group and Gap Inc.
have diversified their business operations in manner suitable to expand their business to capture
value in the market (Carlucci, 2018).
Conclusion:
In the competitive business environment the importance of resource utilization to the optimum
level is extremely crucial to the overall success of an organization. Thus, taking appropriate
decisions to ensure effective utilization of resources will determine the market standing of the
companies in modern business world. As for the six brands discussed here, all of them are
continuously looking to improve the procedures and processes within the companies to improve
the efficiency and effectiveness in utilizing the resources of the companies to achieve their
organizational objectives.

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SUSTAINABILITY MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING
References:
Carlucci, D. (2018). Grasping knowledge-based value creation dynamics in 21st century
organizations. Measuring Business Excellence, 21(4), pp.18-23.
Goswami, A. (2018). Human Resource Management and Its Importance for Today’s
Organizations. Journal of Advances and Scholarly Researches in Allied Education, 15(3),
pp.128-135.
Mazurek, G. (2017). Network Value Creation through Marketing. Management and Business
Administration. Central Europe, 23(5), pp.70-77.
Melia, M. (2016). VALUE CO-CREATION DURING TIMES OF CRISIS: A FRAMEWORK
PROPOSAL. Archives of Business Research, 4(3), pp.17-24.
O'Cass, A. (2016). Anatomy of value and value-driven processes in business
organizations. European Business Review, 25(6), pp.18-22.
O'Cass, A. (2017). Anatomy of value and value-driven processes in business
organizations. European Business Review, 24(6), pp.12-25.
Watanabe, Y. (2018). Co-Creation Of Value In Business-To-Business Services. International
Business & Economics Research Journal (IBER), 17(9), p.1483.
Zhao, L. and Guo, S. (2018). The Value Creation of B2B2C E-Business Mode based on
SaaS. Journal of Electronic Commerce in Organizations, 13(6), pp.1-12.