Biffa's Innovation Audit: Managing Waste & Future Strategies in UK

This report presents an innovation audit of Biffa, a leading waste management company in the UK, examining its historical and current innovation strategies. The study provides an overview of the UK waste management industry and Biffa's role within it, tracing the company's innovation history and analyzing the impact of Porter's Five Forces and PESTEL factors on its operations. Through SWOT and Value Chain analyses, the report assesses Biffa's existing innovation performance and capabilities. Ultimately, the report concludes by outlining the future paradigm of the waste management industry in the UK and offering strategic recommendations for Biffa to enhance its effectiveness and efficiency.

FRONT COVER PAGE MIB
STUDENT NAME: ALPHONSUS IYKE OKORO
STUDENT ID:
MODULE NAME: MANAGING INNOVATION IN BUSINESS
DATE OF SUBMISSION: March 2019
Aiphonsus Iyke Okoro MRC.22995 December 02, 2018 1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The principal purpose of this report is to analyse the innovation strategies of the waste
management industry. The particular industry chosen in this paper is the Biffa, waste
management industry in the United Kingdom. The study focuses on understanding the
innovation audit of the given company. Further, the research concentrates critically on analysing
the overview of the industry of waste management as well as the organisation of Biffa. The study
also maps the chronicle order of innovation strategies implemented by the industry that helped in
waste management strategies. Moreover, the study analyses the impact of Porters and PESTEL
factors in the organisation. The study analyses the innovation history and the strategy they
implemented since the day of their existence to improve the condition of waste management in
the United Kingdom. The existing innovation strategies of the industry with the help of SWOT
analysis and Value Chain analysis is also examined by the support of the study done in the
context of this report. Finally, the research tends to conclude with determining the future
paradigm of the waste management industry in terms of the United Kingdom and providing
necessary strategic recommendations that would help the waste management industry to make
themselves more effective and efficient and would prove beneficial for the future considerations.
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
1. Front Cover Page……………………………………………………………
2. Executive Summary …………………………………………………………….
3. Table of Contents ………………
4. Introduction/Report Structure
5. The Future of Biffa beyond 2020
6. Biffa innovation requirements 2020 and past
Future innovation requirements. ……………………………………………….
6. Conclusions …………………………………..
7. References
…………………………………………………………………..
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INTRODUCTION
Purpose of the Report and Structure
The Report will conduct an innovation audit of Biffa, examine the organisation's past,
present and future innovation activities and capabilities. The report will target an actionable road
map to establish future innovative abilities and executing them. Biffa is into the domestic and
industrial waste collection and management (Jones and Comfort 2018). Biffa is one of the
leading waste management organisations in the United Kingdom. Biffa covers all waste
management needs; from general and food waste collections, recycling services, skip hire and
hazardous waste treatment.
‘Innovation is the successful exploration of new ideas’ [Innovation Unit, UKDTI [2004].
The brief overview of the UK Waste Management Industry
The waste management industry of United Kingdom is expanded with across 3000
companies employing across 70,000 people. It is claimed to earn a turnover of around 9 billion
annually (Dovey et al. 2016). As opined by Tietenberg and Lewis (2016), waste management is
essential in terms of securing the materials and protecting the environment. Waste management
in the UK is done in several ways, including:
 Recycling of household waste up to a margin of 40%,
 Reuse of industrial and commercial wastages up to a level of 52% and
 Recycling of 55% local waste by transmitting it into landfill sites.
In this connection, Biffa is one such waste management company in the UK which
contributes to the same (Wheeler and Glucksmann 2015). The contributions of Biffa to waste
management in the UK can be specified as below.
The brief overview of Biffa
Biffa was established in 1912 and is now a leading integrated waste management
company (Patten and Saunders 2018). Biffa is in front of development and innovation within the
waste management recycling business.
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Biffa today is into recycling, treatment and energy generation services providing vital
services to all UK business as well as household waste management.
Biffa's Vision is to become the UK's leading solution provider of creative and sustainable
waste management service provider. And her mission is to build on her strong heritage and
experience to deliver innovative solutions to waste management for the benefit of customers,
shareholders and employees (Virani et al. 2016).
 Be Safe
We strive to keep our people, customers and the environment safe and always take action when
we see the danger.

Be innovative
We will continuously improve our processes to ensure we are efficient, deliver value, and are
easy to do business with.

Be customer focused
We will provide value for money, leading market propositions and deliver the best customer
service and experience.

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Be a team player
We will actively engage our people, and our stakeholders to build pride in Biffa and our Brand.

Be accountable
We will take responsibility for everything we do, and deliver what we say we will.
CSR. As a company with a leading position in the waste and recycling industry, we have
a responsibility to all interested parties, including our employees, our customers, the public, and
the communities in which we work, to serve, protect and engage. We, aim to be the best at what
we do, acting responsibly at all times to ensure the protection of the environment and to support
social wellbeing.
Government legislation
The EU Directive applies many restrictions that member states must use to the
management of waste (Pomberger, Sarc and Lorber 2017). These have been transposed in the
UK through the Landfill Regulations and include the targets for the diversion of municipal bio-
degradable waste from landfill The banning of certain wastes – such as tyres – from discharge A
ban on the mixing of hazardous and non-hazardous wastes at landfill And the treatment of all
debris before the dump.
Innovation History of Biffa
Biffa has been providing service to the needs of waste management in the UK since 1912.
Being introduced for more than 100 years ago, the prime focus of Biffa has remained to develop
and innovate the industry of waste management (Gregson et al. 2015). Since its history, it has
progressed into its business by making an innovation to its service as their previous strategy.
Biffa is engaged in improving the extensive infrastructure of the United Kingdom in the context
of enhancing flexibility and technology utilisation in the country.
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Figure 1: Showing chronicle order of waste management strategy in Biffa
(Source: Based on Turner 2016)
The Strategic marketing plan has to get a framework and approach in which to operate.
The method has to consider new technological developments, keep an eye on what other
competitors are doing and critical events (Noe et al. 2017). The strategic options and priorities
have to be considered, mission and vision statements and select the demography.
‘Companies achieve competitive advantage through acts of innovation. They approach
innovation in its broader sense, including new technologies and new ways of doing things’
Michael Porter (1990).
Michael Porters’ five forces analysis has at the centre of the investigation the rivalry
among existing competitors, the threat of new entrants, threat of substitute products or services,
and the bargaining power of suppliers and the bargaining power of buyers (Narhi 2015).
The analysis of these five forces of factors helps the company to understand the future
possibilities of opportunities and threats they have. In contrast, that these five forces help the
company to realise their competition and potential competitors in the market, this lets the
company analyse the threats and make necessary improvements in their strategic management
and procedure of working. Further, it also gives an opportunity to the company to examine which
new companies are to enter in the market with same working scenario helps the company to take
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up necessary innovation changes required to compete with the latest technologies of the new
firms. These five forces of the PORTER’S Model also helps the company to understand the
bargaining power of their potential suppliers and customers making them realising the fact to
increase both the base of their customers and suppliers. This increase in the base of customer and
suppliers will turn the card of power in the hands of the company as they will have an option of
shifting to different customers and suppliers rather than giving a chance to the suppliers and
customers to charge high rates or change to other company respectively.
Along with Porter's five forces impacting the work structure of the Biffa to analyse the
opportunities and threats that is explained above, the other factors which affect the same can be
determined as the PESTEL factors. In this contrast, the PESTEL factors affecting the work
process at Biffa, the waste management industry can be specified as below.
PESTEL factors affecting Biffa
The PESTEL factors impact the organisation's competitive advantage structure and are
explored on the main scenario of current challenges and strengths the organisation incurs and
also the prospects and risks of future a company can have (Gregson et al. 2015). In this contrast,
the PESTEL factors that impact the working of Biffa can be determined as below.
Political factors impacting the work structure of Biffa
 The critical role of implementing regulations and policy-making of the local
government in the United Kingdom.
 The transition in the government elections brings transformation in the policies of
maintaining the rules and norms too.
 The practices of regulations in the market structure of the United Kingdom.
 The taxation rules and policies implemented by the Government of the United
Kingdom.
Economic factors impacting the work structure of Biffa
 The intervention and interruption of the Government in the sector of
transportation, especially the truck industries that affect the working structure of Biffa in
the means of collecting and managing wastages.
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 The inflation rate that affects the market structure.
 The performance of the economy of the United Kingdom as a whole.
 The loosening in the laws and policies of trade policy in the United Kingdom
helps Biffa in future investment.
Social factors impacting the work structure of Biffa
 The preferences of customers.
 The cultural attributes of the society of the United Kingdom.
 The attitude of the market towards the products and services offered by the
industry.
 The changing lifestyle towards more health and safety needs.
 The demographics, rules and norms of the society.
Technological factors impacting the work structure of Biffa
 The innovation strategies implemented by potential competitors in the waste
management industry becomes a threat to Biffa.
 The change and development in the technological structure in the market demand
frequent changes in Biffa also.
 The investment need for the criteria for fulfilling the research and development
scenario.
Environmental factors impacting the work structure of Biffa
 The technology of renewing the leverage trends.
 The awareness and activism of the customers and society as a whole.
 The uncertain changes in the weather conditions.
 The changing climate seasons.
 Expectations in changing of the transportation sector to meet the need for fast
recycling procedure.
Legal factors impacting the work structure of Biffa
 The guides, rules and laws of the environmental policies of the United Kingdom.
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 The law of Employment indulged in the United Kingdom.
 The copyrights and patents regarding the protection of the legal considerations.
 The laws to protect the health and provide safety to society.
 The procedure and procurements of strict business laws.
The Organizations Existing Innovation Performance and Capabilities
Biffa at present is leading the waste management industry, operating over 195 sites in the
United Kingdom (Takaya et al. 2019). It engages in providing services to around 2.3 million
number of households and collecting over 4.3 million bins wastage just in the local municipality.
It has employed over 7900 people and works with almost 2860 frontline vehicles to collect the
garbage. In this connection, to understand the concept of the strategic organisation management
the paper analyses the SWOT factors that impact the working process of Biffa. The current
structure of the way Biffa works and procedures in disposing of their waste can be explained in
brief with the help of the following diagram.
Figure 2: Showing waste processing structure of Biffa Waste Management industry
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(Source: Based on Owen and Liddell 2016)
SWOT Analysis of Biffa Waste Management
The SWOT analysis is the strength, weakness, opportunities and threats to an
organisation (Phadermrod, Crowder and Wills 2019). The strength and weakness are internal
within the organisation while opportunities and threats are external to the organisation.
Strengths:
 Biffa has experienced leadership and teamwork and excellent branding and advertisement
outfits for both print and electronic and social media.
 Biffa is adapting to an ever-changing market place with a massive advantage of
deploying state of the art technology in the management of waste and recycling.
Weaknesses:
 Biffa lacks engagement in international markets operations at the moment.
 Inefficient Financial Planning.
 Less investment in new technologies.
Opportunities:
 The lower rate of inflation.
 New technologies provide enhancement to innovation strategies.
 The green drive strategy implemented by the government.
 The decreasing cost of transportation.
Threats:
 Intense and potential competitors.
 The absence in the supply of new and innovated products.
Value Chain Analysis of Biffa
Value chain analyses the complete set of activities that understand a firm's internal
operations and procedures (Monczka et al. 2015). It is the range of strategies a firm goes through
to make itself competitive and gain the competitive advantages of the market structure. The
value chain analysis followed by the Biffa, waste management industry can be specified as
below.
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Figure 3: Porter’s Value Chain Analysis for Biffa
(Source: Based on Jones and Comfort 2018)
As mentioned in the above picture, there are two kinds of necessary activities- Primary
and Supporting. However, the complete analysis of the value chain by Porter into nine activities
which interrelates each other (Stott, Stone and Fae 2016). The primary events are the ones which
satisfy the external environment, and the supporting activities are the ones who fulfil the internal
structure of the working firm. The effectiveness and efficiency of these activities help in the gain
of the competitive advantage as it describes the working the structure of the firm.
Operations
Biffa employ 2,772 people and have a fleet of 1,200 waste collection vehicles, operating from
78 sites across the UK
Biffa offer nationwide coverage, covering over 95% of UK postcodes with the Biffa fleet and the
small remainder covered by a carefully managed supply chain function
The division operates under a regional business model, allowing our focus to be placed on the
customers and businesses in each region
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Services & Customers
Biffa has over 72,000 customers nationwide, ranging from small local businesses with a single
bin requirement, to large regional and national companies requiring a complex waste solution
Biffa’s wide range of waste and recycling services cover all commercial waste streams. In 2018,
Biffa collected over 2.1 million tonnes of waste from an enormous 13 million bin collections.
The future of the Industry (Waste Management Industry) beyond 2020
As stated by Rhyner et al. (2017), the waste industry management is focusing on turning
the garbage and wastage into useful forms of energy. They are focusing on reducing the amount
of wastage by implementing the rule of incurring charges to the consumers who throw food
material in the dustbin. This, in turn, will not only help in the reduction of garbage but also will
encourage less wastage of food. This implies that it's not the waste management industry that
needs to change its processing and procedure of recycling wastages but also the society that
needs to bring a change in their habit of wasting food and materials unnecessarily. In this
context, it is claimed that the food wastage will be committed to reducing by 30% at the end of
2025 (Fidersek 2015). The above pieces of illustrations mentioned in the report show that the
waste management industry is focused on conceiving the waste materials to a large and massive
extent. As claimed by Goudie 2018, the waste in the future will be termed as a valuable
commodity and will not be buried and burned as it is done now, instead will be re-thought, re-
processed. Eventually, with a perfect viewpoint of innovation, the industry strives to reuse the
waste of today as raw materials of tomorrow. The waste management industry is committed to
putting forward their working procedure into internet marketing and social media which will
help people be aware of the existence and need for waste management. Internet marketing will in
this connection help both the industry and society to understand the importance of waste
management and reducing wastages in the future.
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Figure 4: Prospects of Internet Marketing in the waste management industry
(Source: Based on Sertyesilisik 2019)
Recommendations on areas to innovate for the future
Although the Biffa, is working and heading towards managing the waste and leading the
waste industries since the day of its existence, it lacks behind in some sectors that may affect
their working in the future and also their name and fame. The improvement in those sectors can
add to the glory of its leading platform. Hence, with the help of the above illustrations in the
paper, the study tens to provide some recommendations to the waste management industry that
would help them nurture in their future building and innovation (Ravetz 2016). The proposals go
as follows:
 Innovate their usage of machines to collect the wastages.
 Innovation in their product structure as compared to competitors.
 Implementing effective and efficient financial planning.
 Focus on operating in the international market structure and not just the local municipal
corporation.
 Nurturing into new technologies and innovative strategies to gain competitive advantage
and keep their paradigm in the leading phase.
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Conclusions
The study helps in the analyses of the procedures and procurement of the waste
management industry, Biffa. The above pieces of illustrations presented in the above report show
the ways Biffa had initiated around 100 years ago and at present leads the waste management
industry with its strategy of innovation and implementation of rules and norms that help in the
reduction of wastages caused both by the industrial and commercial basis. However, the study
after analysing the working structure and innovation audit of the given waste management
industry tends to conclude that the sector lacks behind in some industry that would hamper their
goodwill in future. In this connection, the report is terminated with providing the necessary
change in strategies which can be implemented by the waste management industry and can prove
helpful for their prospect of gaining a competitive advantage with new technologies and
innovation.
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References
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Appendices
Appendix 1
Figure 1: Showing chronicle order of waste management strategy in Biffa
(Source: Based on Turner 2016)
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Appendix 2
Figure 2: Showing waste processing structure of Biffa Waste Management industry
(Source: Based on Owen and Liddell 2016)
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Appendix 3
Figure 3: Porter’s Value Chain Analysis for Biffa
(Source: Based on Jones and Comfort 2018)
Appendix 4
Figure 4: Prospects of Internet Marketing in the waste management industry
(Source: Based on Sertyesilisik 2019)
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