Analyzing Sustainability for Long-Term Competitive Advantages

This report discusses the concept of sustainability and its impact on the long-term competitive advantages for organizations like Tesco and Vodafone. It highlights that sustainability is crucial for businesses to meet present needs without compromising future resources. The report emphasizes how adopting sustainable practices leads to reduced business costs, improved brand reputation, and increased customer loyalty. It also examines the attributes and capabilities necessary for business success in a complex and changing environment, such as strategic planning, adaptability, and customer-centric approaches. Ultimately, the report concludes that sustainability is vital for long-term business success and societal benefit.

Building
A
Sustainable
Organisation

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................3
References:.......................................................................................................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Sustainability in business refers to fulfilling the needs of an organisation without wasting the
resources present in the environment. The main aim of developing sustainability in business is to
prevent resources for the future generation. Many organisations are adopting sustainability in
their business with different strategies. The goal of the businesses with sustainability is to make a
positive impact in the society (Al Hawaj and Buallay, 2022). While making decisions related to
business, all factors like environmental, economic, social are considered in a sustainable
business. Some of the examples of sustainability in business are using renewable energy sources
for power supply, donation in NGO's and education, using sustainable materials for production
etc. Sustainable businesses have a lower cost of debt and equity and improved financial gains.
Investors uses ESG matrix to find out the company's ethical impact and sustainability practices.
In this report different impacts of sustainability on the long term competitive advantages in
organisations like Tesco, Vodafone etc. are discussed in brief (Holmberg and Sandbrook, 2019).
MAIN BODY
TASK – 1 : Discuss the concept of sustainability and its impact on the long-term
competitive advantages for organisations.
Sustainability has become a major factor in an organisation and impacts the long term
competitive advantages of an organisation in many ways. Nowadays, it has become a priority for
the organisation as it has different effects on the business. Sustainability gives benefits to an
organisation as well as society. Tesco has adopted various steps for implementing sustainability
in their company to remain in the market for long term (Østergaard and et. al., 2020).
One of the main positive impact of the sustainability is reduced business costs which helps an
organisation in financial gain. Tesco has adopted the sustainability which helps the organisation
to save a lot of money. Tesco is using solar energy for the power supply which saves a lot of
money on electricity over the time. Using solar energy leads to sustainable development of the
company and also without harming the environment. Government is also giving many benefits
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like financing, decreased tax rates, rebates etc. to promote sustainable development in an
organisation. Company can also avail these benefits for the reduced .
Environmental friendly business operations is very important for an organisation in order to
achieve sustainable development. Tesco is using eco-friendly packaging which are fully
recyclable and reusable to their customers. It prevents from harming the environment and gives
customers a feeling of satisfaction. This process also leads to make customer loyalty and
customer's trust which directly increases the sales of the company (Preghenella and Battistella,
2021).
Adopting sustainability in an organisation results in improving reputation of business and brand
building. People gets attracted when they hear or see about the initiatives taken in order for the
benefit of the society by a company (Rossignoli and Lionzo, 2018). Tesco is doing a lot of good
work such as it runs UK's largest food redistribution programme with some partners to charities
which helps the company in increasing the brand's reputation. Also the company is donating to
promote healthy living and education and providing good working conditions. This helps the
company in marketing and improving brand identity.
Task – 2 : Discuss attributes and capabilities that are necessary for business success in a
complex and changing environment.
Business environment is so dynamic and complex and changes continuously which also have an
adverse effect on the business or organisation (Silva and Figueiredo, 2020). Some of the
attributes and capabilities which are required for making a business successful in complex and
changing environment are :
 Strategies : This is an important aspect for a business to grow and cop up with the
problems. It helps a company to achieve its goals and objectives. An organisation should
be capable to make plans and strategies in order to compete in the relevant industry.
Vodafone is making strategies according to the customers needs and their goals which
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helps the company to grow and improve their performance. Company is able to make
strategies quickly in order to compete from changing environment.
 Adapting to the change – Nowadays trends are changing rapidly which are making a
impact on the operations of an organisation. Company should adapt the changes or trends
in order to compete in the market. Vodafone is changing its technology according to the
changing trends in the market such as Vodafone selected Oracle communications for the
network improvement and spreading their 5G network. Also Marks and Spencer has
adopted self checkouts with the changing trends which is more comfortable fot the
customers (Singh and Padhi, 2020).
 Customer needs – Fulfilment of customers needs are important for an organisation in
order to gain customer retention and customer loyalty. It is important for an organisation
to provide products and services according to the customer's preferences. Tesco is
providing high quality goods for their customers and implementing schemes like club
card which helps the company in retention of the customers. The best example of this is
City Kitchen for ready meals and prepared vegetables which gives their customer a great
comfort specially for people who are busy and away from home. GetGo also prevents
customers from standing in long queues and wait too long.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that sustainability plays an important role in the success of
the business. It is important for an organisation to adopt sustainability in order to prevent
resources for the future generation. The main aim is to provide benefits to the society as
organisation is using the resources which are present in the society. There are different impacts
of the sustainability on the long term competitive advantages on an organisation. It is beneficial
for the both organisation and society. After that different attributes and capabilities are discussed
which are necessary for an organisation to compete in a changing and complex environment. It is
important for the business as these factors are helpful in gaining competitive advantage and also
helps in the growth of the organisation.
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References:
Books and Journals
Al Hawaj, A.Y. and Buallay, A.M., 2022. A worldwide sectorial analysis of sustainability
reporting and its impact on firm performance. Journal of Sustainable Finance &
Investment, 12(1), pp.62-86.
Holmberg, J. and Sandbrook, R., 2019. Sustainable development: what is to be done?.
In Policies for a small planet (pp. 19-38). Routledge.
Østergaard, P.A. and et. al., 2020. Sustainable development using renewable energy
technology. Renewable Energy, 146, pp.2430-2437.
Preghenella, N. and Battistella, C., 2021. Exploring business models for sustainability: A
bibliographic investigation of the literature and future research directions. Business
Strategy and the Environment, 30(5), pp.2505-2522.
Rossignoli, F. and Lionzo, A., 2018. Network impact on business models for sustainability:
Case study in the energy sector. Journal of cleaner production, 182, pp.694-704.
Silva, M.E. and Figueiredo, M.D., 2020. Practicing sustainability for responsible business in
supply chains. Journal of Cleaner Production, 251, p.119621.
Singh, L.P. and Padhi, A., 2020. Green HRM: A Strategy for Sustainability of Business.
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