CORPORATE STRATEGY FOR SUSTAINABILITY

 Executive summary

Business strategy is one of the most critical factors to improve the growth of the business organization. This report section has been described all effective strategy and issues, which plays a fundamental role to enhance the growth of a business organization. This report section has been discussed about the financial crisis and many other difficulties of “Northern & Shell”, is a reputed business organization. This repute business organization was bound to accept the TBL theory to avoid all problems. External environmental and internal resources took an essential part in this report. PESTLE and SWOT are also discussed in this report. All strategic advantage and threats also earned an essential role in this report section.

Component A: Report

1.0 Introduction: According to this case study “Northern & Shell” is a reputed British publishing house. This company is taking a crucial stage in the British economic system. Day by day, business is becoming one of the most popular sources of income. From the very early, this reputed publishing company is quite successful in this modern age. Business strategies are the most important part of the development of any business organization. This report section would be discussed about all effective strategies, which plays an important role for more productiveness. The management authority of “Northern & Shell” needs to adopt some effective strategies, which would play an essential role in the development of “Northern & Shell”. This section would be discussed about different types of issues, which have some adverse effect on “Northern & Shell”. More than 1500 employees play a vital role in this organization (Epstein, 2018).

Before the adoption of any types of strategies management authority of   “Northern & Shell” needs to understand those strategies conspicuously for getting the desired success (Grant, 2016). However, it has been reported that “Northern & Shell” was facing some financial crisis in the corporate world. Board of Directors decided to implement some effective strategies, which would help to improve the company’s growth. This section would be discussed all the effectiveness of those strategies. According to this case study, the employees of “Northern & Shell” had to go through different practices, which would have helped the management authority for getting improvement in the business industry.

2. Influence of company strategy on TBL

According to the previous report, the management authority was responsible for facing an economic crisis in “Northern & Shell”. The management authority was bound to implement some new strategies for the betterment of “Northern & Shell”. Based on the previous report, the management authority was determined to achieve the “Triple Bottom Line” theory, which generally recommends the commitment of management authority and employees on “Environment and social concern” (Aithal, 2016). The management authority needs to be concerned about environmental and social factors, which has a significant impact on the growth of “Northern & Shell”, British publishing house. Based on the TBL theory, the management authority of this publishing house needs to work on social and environmental factors both. The management authority of “Northern & Shell” needed to measure three initial factors for avoiding a financial crisis on this selected British house. “Profit, People and The Planet” are the most important factors, which need to measure conspicuously to maintain the bottom line of the business organization. According to this case study “Triple Bottom Line” is one of the most influential theories, which was applied in “Northern & Shell”, in a British publishing house for measurement of environmental, social and financial factors. Though, the “Northern & Shell” company was facing some financial crisis; the management authority was bound to implement this measurement theory to recover all economic and environmental disaster in the corporate world (Almeida & Melo 2017). According to this case study, it was a qualitative research which is responsible for justifying all effective strategies in any business organization. According to this case study “Environmental reporting” is essential to any business organization. However, the management authority of “Northern & Shell” was facing some financial crisis. Moreover, it was necessary to know about environmental factors, which would play an essential role in the improvement of the business organization (Annan-Diab & Molinari,2017). According to the previous report, the management authority of “Northern & Shell” used this TBL theory to make transparency in economic strategies, which can give a competitive environment to other reputed British publishing house. The main factors of TBL theory are

• People, this factor generally refers to how people of “Northern & Shell” are responsible for maintaining the business organization socially.
• The Planet, This factor helps to measure how the environment is responsible for implementing all effective strategies in “Northern & Shell” the British publishing house.
• Profit, this factor helps to measure all “Profit and loss” factors in “Northern & Shell”

The Planet-The management authority of the British publishing house needs to pay attention to the raw materials, which would play an essential part in the production house. This strategy is concern about

• Understand about the efficiency of energy.
• Emission of the greenhouse.
• Contamination of oil.
• Operates ecology system

People- This factor helps to know about the economic status of “Northern & Shell”, the British publication house. It generally these following factors like

• Labour
• Workplace community
• Utilization of human capital (Bansal & Song, 2017).

Profit- Profit is another crucial factor, which can influence TBL theory in “Northern & Shell”, a British publishing house. This factor helps to know about the transparency of financial status.

The management authority of this British publishing house needs to adopt some effective business strategies, which are capable of influencing TBL theory in “Northern & Shell” (Barkemeyer et al. 2015).

3. Opportunities and threats

The management authority of “Northern & Shell” need to understand all important factors of implemented strategies, which would play an important role in the external environment of effective business strategies. According to the previous report, “Northern & Shell”. The British publishing house was suffering some financial crisis, which made a great impact on the production of this selected British publishing house. This process helps to formulate all threats and opportunities in business strategies (Egels-Zandén, 2016). This strategy generally helps to know about the potentiality of management authority, weakness and all opportunities which would help to implement all effective factors in a business organization. According to this case study, this section would be discussed two crucial factors which need to perform in “Northern & Shell”, forgetting opportunities and avoiding all threats of business organization, which hurts the business organization (Ferrero‐Ferrero et al. 2015)

• “Political, legislative factors” This factor helps the management authority of “Northern & Shell” to make effective policy and legal framework. There are numerous business laws and procedures, which plays a fundamental role to make a relation between a business organization and political powers. The management authority would be able to get many opportunities by adopting “Political, legislative factors”. This factor is included many business law like “Commercial law regime of taxes”,“Labour law”, “environmental; law”, which all are necessary to implement in business strategies. This factor referred to as “PESTLE Factors” (Glass et al.2016).
• Political
• Economic
• Social
• Technological
• Legal
• Environmental

Fig 1: PESTLE Analysis

(Source: Created by author)

Ensuring about all “Legal and political” stability, it can avoid differently and also plays a vital role in encouraging and discouraging the “Northern & Shell”, business organization. It helps in various essential factors of the business environment like

• Deciding “socio-culture environment”.
• I am deciding the “economic environment”.
• Helps to accept new technologies.

• “Economic factors” it is also an essential factor, which can affect “Northern & Shell”. This factor helps to denote about inflation, fiscal policy, exchange rate, price fluctuation and many other policies. It has many advantages in “Northern & Shell” (Hahn et al.2015).
• Growth of economy system.
• Economic growth.
• Trade cycle.

4. Internal resources of business strategy

Internal analysis is one of the most important strategies for improvement of “Northern & Shell”, British publishing house. This section would be discussed about different advantage and disadvantage of chosen factors. Different types of frameworks and tools are included in the internal analysis portion (Pedersen et al. 2018).

• SWOT Analysis, is one of the essential tools, which are used in different business strategy for improvement of “Northern & Shell”. This tool is quite popular in business management authority. There are different factors in business strategy; this tool is derived from various factors like
• Strength
• Weakness
• Opportunities
• Threats

These internal factors help to increase all occasions, which would be beneficial for the improvement of “Northern & Shell”, The British publishing house (Quarshie et al.2016). The SWOT analysis also helps to decrease all threats, which are capable of making an adverse impact on “Northern & Shell”, British publishing house. Analyzing is the most important factors for improvement of business organization. Adopting all these effective strategies would be helpful to avoid the financial crisis of “Northern & Shell”, the British Publishing house. [Referred to Appendix 1]

• OCAT- This is also the most important internal factors, which need to implement in “Northern & Shell”. The management authority of this publishing house is responsible for performing all these practical strategies, which would help to improve the growth of the business organization. This internal factor has some useful strategies, which would help to avoid all crisis from “Northern & Shell”. It has different tools like-
• “Adaptation and Innovation
• Advocacy
• Funding
• Organizational structure”
• These effective strategies are used in different organization for avoiding all types of crisis (Rajnoha & Lesníková, 2016).

Component 2: Essay

Business strategy is a bunch of policies, which helps to improve the performance of the Business organization. The management authority needs to implement all effective strategies, which would help the business organization to be more successful. According to component 1, this project has been discussed about “Northern & Shell”, which is a reputed British publishing house. Based on the given case study, this publishing house was suffering from the financial crisis. Every business management authority needs to implement all effective strategies which would help to avoid all difficulties, which were acting like boundaries of a company’s growth. This section would be discussed about the differentiation of different strategies, which would play an essential role in a business organization (Rego et al.2017).

Management authority of “Northern & Shell” needs to analyze all implemented strategies. The management authority needs to understand which plan would be helpful to avoid a financial crisis and all difficulties (Tsai et al.2017).

Based on the previous report, the management authority includes TBL theory. This theory is used in a different reputed business organization. This useful theory generally used to measure various factors, which would help to improve the growth of a business organization. However, this theory helps typically to regulate the planet, profit and labour of business organization. Moreover, the “Northern & Shell”, British reputed publishing organization, which was suffering from a financial crisis. The management authority was bound to implement this theory to improve the growth of the organization. Profit section would be helpful to this business organization. This section helps to measure “profit and loss” of business organization. Another essential factor of this TBL theory is People. The management authority of “Northern & Shell”, the British publishing house needs to implement this theory. However, this British publishing house is a reputed business organization; different types of people are engaged in this reputed company (Xie, 2016). These people come from a diverse community. The management authority needs to implement this theory for all efficient customers. The planet factor denotes the environmental and social tools, which are dependent on the growth of “Northern & Shell”. The management authority needs to implement all these effective strategies with the help of TBL theory, which would help to achieve all effective strategies hbswk.hbs.edu ,(2019).

According to this previous report, the management authority decided to implement external environmental factors in “Northern & Shell” to improve the growth of the business organization. External factors generally referred to as the external factor of business organization. There are two types of environmental factors like macro environment factors and microenvironment factors. Based on the previous report the management authority of “Northern & Shell”, has implemented “Political, the legislative factor” and “Economic factor”, both of these factors are quite popular in a business organization. According to the previous report, this management authority was quite desperate to implement “Political, the legislative factor”. Implementing this factor would be helpful to improve the growth of British publishing house. The management authority adopted PESTLE analysis, which is used in different business organization for the betterment of the business organization. This factor would be useful to implement all effective strategies like political factors, Economic factors, Social factors, Technological factors and hereditary factors. This model would be more valuable than “Economic factor”. This PESTLE analysis would help the business management authority to rectify all difficulties, which were suffering the management authority. This Pestle analysis would be more preferable to the management authority of this reputed publishing house. “Economic factor” is only capable of rectifying financial crisis. However, the “Northern & Shell” was suffering from a financial crisis, though the management authority needs to implement these practical strategies to improve the growth of the business organization (pgsadvisors.com, 2019).

The management authority needs to prioritize the internal resources to improve the growth of the organization. The management authority of this British publishing house needs to identify all critical factors, which would be helpful for the betterment of “Northern & Shell”. People, the budget of the business organization and all contracts are included in the internal factor to increase the productivity of the business organization. This factor generally provides a solution for the betterment of the business organization. This practical business strategy would help to compete with other competitors, which would play an essential part in a business organization. This internal resources factor would be helpful for a business organization to make a productive relationship between other reputed companies, which would help to improve the growth of this British publishing house. The management authority needs to implement all effective strategies by discussing with other employees. A SWOT analysis would help the management authority of the British publishing house to avoid all difficulties like the financial crisis. This analysis factor would help the management authority to identify the global strength of the business organization. This internal factor would also help to identify all weakness; identifying weakness is one of the most critical elements to rectify all financial crisis. This factor would also be helpful to provide all updated technologies. Growth of a business organization is dependent on the updated technologies. This factor would also help the management authority to implement all opportunities for this British publishing house. Chance is also one of the most important factors, which need to perform in the “Northern & Shell”.

“SWOT analysis” would be more preferable to the management authority of “Northern & Shell”.”OCAT analysis” is also helpful for the management authority of this publishing house. “SWOT analysis” would be able to avoid all financial crisis in the British publishing house. OCAT analysis generally helps to adopt all new strategies for improvement of business organization. This strategy would also help the management authority of a business organization is to modify all implemented strategies. Though, this SWOT analysis would be more useful to the business organization to get all facilities from all effective strategy. OCAT analysis is more applicable to the management authority of a business organization.

According to this previous report, all adopted strategies would be useful for the improvement of the British publishing house. The management authority needs to implement PESTLE analysis and SWOT analysis properly to improve the growth of the business organization. The management authority needs to adopt all effective strategies by modifying all factors, which are necessary to enhance the growth of “Northern & Shell”, the reputed British publishing house. The management authority needs to implement all these factors to improve the growth of this British publishing house. This section has been discussed about the differentiation of all effective strategies, which need to implement to increase the productivity of this British publishing organization. This part has been talked about the distinction of all effective strategies. PESTLE analysis, SWOT analysis, TBL theory all are the essential factors, which need to implement in the improvement of the British publishing house pwc.com,(2019).

Reference list

Books

Epstein, M. J. (2018). Making sustainability work: Best practices in managing and measuring corporate social, environmental and economic impacts. UK Routledge. Retrieve on:http://wedocs.unep.org/bitstream/handle/20.500.11822/20081/Making_sustainability_work_Best_practices_in.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y [Retrieved on: 30:06:2019]

Grant, R. M. (2016). Contemporary strategy analysis: Text and cases edition. John Wiley & Sons. Re   Retrieve from:http://www.blackwellpublishing.co.uk/content/GrantContemporaryStrategyAnalysis/FIFTH_IM.pdf [Retrieved on:28 :06:19]

Journals

Aithal, P. S. (2016). The concept of Ideal Strategy and its realization using White Ocean Mixed Strategy. International Journal of Management Sciences and Business Research, 5(4), 171-179. Retrieve from: https://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/71770/1/MPRA_paper_71770.pdf[Retrieve on :30:06:2019

Almeida, M. F. L. D., & Melo, M. A. C. D. (2017). Sociotechnical regimes, technological innovation and corporate sustainability: from principles to action. Technology Analysis & Strategic Management, 29(4), 395-413. Retrieve from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Fatima_Ludovico/publication/306294834_Sociotechnical_regimes_technological_innovation_and_corporate_sustainability_from_principles_to_action/links/59f3e2150f7e9b553eba80b1/Sociotechnical-regimes-technological-innovation-and-corporate-sustainability-from-principles-to-action.pdf[Retrieve on :30:06:2019

Annan-Diab, F., & Molinari, C. (2017). Interdisciplinarity: Practical approach to advancing education for sustainability and for the Sustainable Development Goals. The International Journal of Management Education, 15(2), 73-83. Retrieve from :https://eprints.kingston.ac.uk/37857/6/Annan-Diab-F-37857-AAM.pdf[Retrieved on:28 :06:19]

Bansal, P., & Song, H. C. (2017). Similar but not the same: Differentiating corporate sustainability from corporate responsibility. Academy of Management Annals, 11(1), 105-149. Retrieve from:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Hee_Chan_Song2/publication/315345356_Similar_But_Not_the_Same_Differentiating_Corporate_Sustainability_from_Corporate_Responsibility/links/5b4ce4efa6fdcc8dae245d65/Similar-But-Not-the-Same-Differentiating-Corporate-Sustainability-from-Corporate-Responsibility.pdf[Retrieved on:28 :06:19]

Barkemeyer, R., Preuss, L., & Lee, L. (2015). On the effectiveness of private transnational governance regimes—Evaluating corporate sustainability reporting according to the Global Reporting Initiative. Journal of World Business, 50(2), 312-325. Retrieve from: http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/63479/1/JWB%202015%20Effectiveness%20of%20Governance%20Regimes%20Final.pdf[Retrieved on:28 :06:19]

Egels-Zandén, N. (2016). Not made in China: Integration of social sustainability into strategy at Nudie Jeans Co. Scandinavian Journal of Management, 32(1), 45-51. Retrieve from https://isidl.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/07/E4486-ISIDL.pdf[Retrieved on28:06:19]

Ferrero‐Ferrero, I., Fernández‐Izquierdo, M. Á., & Muñoz‐Torres, M. J. (2015). Integrating sustainability into corporate governance: an empirical study on board diversity. Corporate Social Responsibility and Environmental Management, 22(4), 193-207. Retrieve from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Maria_Munoz-Torres/publication/259537173_Integrating_Sustainability_into_Corporate_Governance_An_Empirical_Study_on_Board_Diversity/links/5a004bedaca2725286d7216c/Integrating-Sustainability-into-Corporate-Governance-An-Empirical-Study-on-Board-Diversity.pdf[Retrieved on:28 :06:19]

Glass, C., Cook, A., & Ingersoll, A. R. (2016). Do women leaders promote sustainability? Analyzing the effect of corporate governance composition on environmental performance. Business Strategy and the Environment, 25(7), 495-511. Retrieve from: http://vnxindex.com/assets/upload/images/pdf/Glass2015.pdf

Hahn, T., Pinkse, J., Preuss, L., & Figge, F. (2015). Tensions in corporate sustainability: Towards an integrative framework. Journal of Business Ethics, 127(2), 297-316. Retrieve from:http://sro.sussex.ac.uk/id/eprint/63538/1/JBE%202015%20Framework%20Tensions%20Final.pdf[Retrieve on :30:06:2019

Pedersen, E. R. G., Gwozdz, W., & Hvass, K. K. (2018). Exploring the relationship between business model innovation, corporate sustainability, and organisational values within the fashion industry. Journal of Business Ethics, 149(2), 267-284. Retrieve from: https://research-api.cbs.dk/files/45255727/wencke_gwozdz_exploring_the_relationship_between_business_model_innovation_postprint.pdf[Retrieve on :30:06:2019

Quarshie, A. M., Salmi, A., & Leuschner, R. (2016). Sustainability and corporate social responsibility in supply chains: The state of research in supply chain management and business ethics journals. Journal of Purchasing and Supply Management, 22(2), 82-97. Retrieve from : https://paperdownload.me/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/5415-sustainability-corporate-social-responsibility-supply-chains-state-research-supply-chain-management-business-ethics-journals.pdf[Retrieve on :30:06:2019]

Rajnoha, R., & Lesníková, P. (2016). Strategic performance management system and corporate sustainability concept-specific parametres in Slovak Enterprises. Journal of Competitiveness. Retrieve from:http://publikace.k.utb.cz/bitstream/handle/10563/1007084/Fulltext_1007084.pdf?sequence=1[Retrieve on :30:06:2019

Rego, A., e Cunha, M. P., & Polónia, D. (2017). Corporate sustainability: A view from the top. Journal of Business Ethics, 143(1), 133-157. Retrieve from:http://www.pmir.it/fileCaricati/1/Rego%20et%20al.%20(2015).pdf[Retrieved on:28 :06:19]

Tsai, K. H., & Liao, Y. C. (2017). Sustainability strategy and eco‐innovation: A moderation model. Business Strategy and the Environment, 26(4), 426-437. Retrieve from:https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Yi_Chuan_Liao/publication/307551354_Sustainability_Strategy_and_Eco-Innovation_A_Moderation_Model/links/5a4fb1efaca272940bf83572/Sustainability-Strategy-and-Eco-Innovation-A-Moderation-Model.pdf[Retrieve on :30:06:2019]

Xie, G. (2016). Cooperative strategies for sustainability in a decentralized supply chain with competing suppliers. Journal of Cleaner Production, 113, 807-821. Retrieve from: https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Gang_Xie10/publication/312368682_Cooperative_strategies_for_sustainability_in_a_decentralized_supply_chain_with_competing_suppliers/links/593e64baaca272c4d9e227e1/Cooperative-strategies-for-sustainability-in-a-decentralized-supply-chain-with-competing-suppliers.pdf[Retrieve on :30:06:2019]

Websites

hbswk.hbs.edu ,(2019), corporate-sustainability-a-strategy Retrieved from:https://hbswk.hbs.edu/item/corporate-sustainability-a-strategy[Retrieve on: 28:06:2019]

pgsadvisors.com , (2019), sustainable-corporate-strategy Retrieved from:http://www.pgsadvisors.com/2013/08/5-key-steps-to-a-sustainable-corporate-strategy/ [Retrieve on :30:06:2019]

pwc.com,(2019), services Retrieved from: https://www.pwc.com/gx/en/services/sustainability/responsible-corporate-strategy.html/ [Retrieve on: 29:06:2019]

Appendices

Appendix: 1

(Source: https://smallbusiness.patriotsoftware.com/swot-analysis/)