Corporate sustainability is one of the buzzwords among firms in the contemporary world of business. Organizations the world over have identified the concept of corporate sustainability as the primary priority in their operations. Now, some firms are under pressure to indicate the manner in which they plan the delivery of their services and products in a sustainable approach through committing themselves to the strategies and programs of sustainability. This essay reports the effects of the three pillars of sustainability on corporate strategies of company X, which deals in the manufacture of electronic devices for its market in the US. The writing first assess the overlapping area of the three pillars and its effect in the strategies of company X. The report then covers the approach of the firm to the implementation of the process.
The Overlapping Area of the Three Pillars and the Effect on Corporate Strategy
The overlapping area of the three pillars is the concept of sustainability. For this reason, the management of Company X needs to consider which approaches would best be used to ensure that the business is sustainable. The concept of sustainability implies that the organization should be able to meet its primary goals and objects presently while ensuring that it does not interfere with its ability to meet the same goals in the future (Dyllick and Hockerts, 2012). The management of the company, therefore, should work to establish the best approaches to dealing with the three elements of the three pillars, environmental, social, and economic. While the chief objective of any business is be profitable, they should work to balance among the social, environmental and economic obligations of their operations are balanced. Therefore, the strategy that the company should pick should indicate its commitment to each of the three pillars.
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How the Firm Should Implement and Develop Its Strategy
The Effect of the Three Pillars on the Strategy
An implementation of the three pillars in strategizing drives organizations into considering a co-existence with the society and environment in which they operate. For example, the strategy should consider solving some of the most pertinent issues that affect the environment and the society in which Company X operates. In this line of thought, the leadership of the organization should research the requirements from the legal environment on the nature of sustainability in each of its operating environments. While the strategy should focus on ensuring its operations are profitable, it should do so through caring for its market and employees. Specifically, the activities of the organization should not exploit the employees through unfair workplace conditions and low payment or exposure to hazards. Instead, such strategies should place the employees at the frontline in ensuring that their wellbeing is the first priority. This way, the employees will be motivated to work better and deliver the highest quality and quantity that might be useful for the profitability of the organization (Van Marrewijk, 2013). Considering the target market, the operations of the company should not exploit the consumers through unfair pricing strategies or low-quality products since they would have adverse effects on their wellbeing.
The strategy adopted should also guarantee environmental sustainability through reducing the effect of their operations on the degradation of the environment. Through this sense of the three pillars, the organization should seek only sustainable production methods such as green energy, recyclable packaging, and others that will reduce the volume of emissions to the environment (Van Marrewijk, 2013). The current century has seen organizations unite with governments globally to combat the effects of global warming, especially through the reduction of greenhouse gases emission. Therefore, the strategy should commit Company X to this goal.
Lastly, the company should not ignore the fact that it needs to make profit, which is why it must explore its profitability strategy. Since the factors of irresponsible business operations have been factored out, the company should explore opportunities of increased profitability through other approaches such as sustainable technologies and aggressive responsible marketing alongside others that do not necessarily interfere with its commitment to the other two pillars of corporate sustainability.
How Management Should Ensure an Equilibrium State of the Three Pillars
The management at Company X can ensure a balance among the three pillars of sustainability through committing to a strong Corporate Social Responsibility policy alongside the corporate strategy policies (Van Marrewijk, 2013). The reason given for this recommendation is the fact that Corporate Social Responsibility strategies commit businesses worldwide to caring for the environment and society in which they operate. This move, therefore, would allow the institution to focus on two of the three pillars, social and environmental, simultaneously in one strategy while focusing on the economic one on through the corporate strategy. The corporate strategy should also encompass the commitment of the company to respecting the legal requirements of employment within the operating environment.
The Influence of the Geographical Regions on the Strategy
Put in a broader time, the three pillars of corporate sustainability encompass an adherence to the legal requirements of modern business, which demand that companies stay responsive to the communities they serve and the environments in which they operate. This factor implies that the company will have different criteria for the determination of the strategies in each of the regions it operates since each of such environments might be having a different legal perspective of the same (Salzmann, Ionescu-Somers, and Steger, 2015). For example, the laws in each state might be having different elements from each other, which mean that the strategies that might work in one might be illegal in another.
How the Strategies Would Change in Future
The three pillars of corporate sustainability place companies in a firm grip of both their current and future operations. The element of the future communicates that such strategies should not be rigid, rather; they should be flexible enough to accommodate the changes that would make them relevant repeatedly. For instance, owing to the changes in the demographic and other variables within populations, the government might change its approaches to environmental sustainability, which might direct organizations to alter their strategies of environmental sustainability. Such a scenario is the same for the rest of the factors even while they could be occasioned by different circumstances.
References
Dyllick, T., & Hockerts, K. (2012). Beyond the business case for corporate sustainability. Business strategy and the environment , 11 (2), 130-141.
Salzmann, O., Ionescu-Somers, A., & Steger, U. (2015). The business case for corporate sustainability:: literature review and research options. European Management Journal , 23 (1), 27-36.
Van Marrewijk, M. (2013). Concepts and definitions of CSR and corporate sustainability: Between agency and communion. Journal of business ethics , 44 (2), 95-105.
