Can you find and name at least 3 Australian companies (including multinationals) emulating the Figure 3 Business model. Please provide some reference to your claim.
One of the multinationals that has greatly embraced the TBL model is the Coca-Cola Company. This came up as a group of CEOs came together to seek for a way to ensure environmental pollution is controlled and at the same time avoid wastage. In the case of Coca-Cola, recycling and reuse of its packaging products has been the major area of interest in the model. This can also be seen from the concept of good public relations that has seen the company rise greatly and attract more profits. Hence, Coca-Cola has embraced the social and environmental concepts of the TBL model. However, the use of plastic bottles in packaging its Dasani water products leaves one with so many questions of how far the company takes care of the environment (Hagist, W. (n.d.)).
Caltex, a leading oil and energy producing company in Australia has also embraced the TBL model of ensuring sustainability. This is evident from its news updates where the CEO categorically states that environmental sustainability while keeping their profits high has been their major focus in the 21st century. This is true of their use of renewable energy and biomass in producing energy. Having embraced this new business model Caltex aims at beating its competitors in many other aspects such as conversion of natural gas to oil. Loss of relevance of the traditional models is one of the key forces behind Caltex embracing the TBL model (oil., & recently, c. B. (n.d.)).
Unilever is also another multinational company that has greatly embraced the TBL business model. Most often it’s quoted as among the very first companies to have benefited from this business model. This is clear from the company’s vision statement takes accords much importance to environmental issues and the overall sustainability of the company (Unilever global company website | Unilever Global). Once it embraced the TBL business model, Unilever began producing natural products to take care of the needs of the people. Just like Coca-Cola, the company also recycles its packaging products. These moves have attracted so many customers, hence achieving productivity and profitability at the same time not compromising on the environmental and social needs of the planet as a whole (FISH, S. (n.d.)).
Would developing and under developed nations be bothered with Anderson's 21st century model? Should they?
There is so much need for both the developed and under developed countries to be concerned about the TBL business model. However, this does not imply that the model is practical to both cases and that its implementation can be immediate. One major reason to back up this argument is the fact that the TBL business model is more stakeholder based as opposed to shareholder based models. This, therefore, puts the business at an automatic position to accord priority to the interests of the people that are either directly or indirectly affected by the activities of the business. This helps avoid cases where profit generation among the shareholders is given dominance, compromising so much on the needs of the stakeholders.
On the other hand, TBL is somehow all about corporate social responsibility, a concept that is widely accepted and dearly embraced by the developed countries. This gives them more reasons to adopt the concept, adding up to the fact that most of them accord dominance to the safety and maintenance of the environment and wildlife at large. This explains why an individual from the developed world would rather go hungry and photograph a nice plant fit for food. Corporate social responsibility is possible with the developed countries since most of their population is already self sufficient and thus able to chip in into other peoples’ needs, it’s also possible for them to avoid many environment harming practices like overfishing.Do you think that Figure 3 can be achieved without technology?
Whether or not the TBL model can be implemented without technology lies on the question of what the model seeks to achieve in an organization. Grippingly enough, in his original vision of what a TBL model was to look like; Anderson clearly states the role of information technology and accords so much dominance (Cagnin et al., 2005). From the experience of companies that have already embraced the TBL model, IT is stated as the key towards ensuring sustainability of any company, regardless of size and nature. This, however, is a fact that had been either ignored or overlooked until recent times that this reality dawned on most of these companies.
One key objective of the TBL business model is transformation. This dictates that technology must be incorporated if any company is to achieve transformation effectively and without much ado. On the same note, businesses have gone global. The only way towards achieving globalization is by embracing information technology especially as concerns sales and marketing and the distribution and supply chain services (Waage, S., Shah, S & Girschik, S. 2003).
Technology is also key to companies becoming signatories to international standards that aid their acceptability in the market. To be more precise, the internet plays a key role in submission of the financial, social and environmental reporting frameworks.
Reference List
Anderson , R. 2004, ‘ Climbing Mount Sustainability ', Quality Progress, Feb 2004; 37, 2
Cagnin, C.H., Loveridge, D. & Butler, J. 2005, ‘ An Information Architecture to Enable Business Sustainability', Proceedings of 2 nd International Congress Sustainable Management in Action, University of Geneva . September 2005.
Climate Positive 2012, Business Case for Action, in Business Solutions, [Online] Accessed January 2012 from
Elkington, J. 1998, ‘ Cannibals with Forks: The Triple Bottom Line of 21st Century Business', New Society Publishers
FISH, S. (n.d.). A Scorecard for Companies With a Conscience - NYTimes.com. Opinion - Opinionator - NYTimes.com. Retrieved January 27, 2013, from http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/04/11/a-scorecard-for-companies-with-a-conscience/
Hagist, W. (n.d.). Sustainable Development and the Triple Bottom Line. Northeastern University: a leader in global experiential learning in Boston, MA. Retrieved January 27, 2013, from http://www.northeastern.edu/sei/2012/03/sustainable-development-and-the-triple-bottom-line/
Kolk, A & van der Veen, M. 2002, ‘ KPMG International Survey of Corporate Sustainability Reporting' [Online] Accessed 10 Dec 2006 (http://www.wimm.nl/publicaties/KPMG2002.pdf)
Moir, L. 2001, ‘ What do we mean by corporate social responsibility?', Corporate Governance 1, 2 pp 16-22.
oil., & recently, c. B. (n.d.). Caltex Latest News. Home. Retrieved January 27, 2013, from http://www.caltex.com.au/LatestNews/Pages/NewsItem.aspx?ID=13154
Our business model for sustainable growth | Annual Report & Accounts 2011 | Unilever Global. (n.d.). Unilever global company website | Unilever Global. Retrieved January 27, 2013, from http://www.unilever.com/investorrelations/annual_reports/AnnualReportandAccounts2011/Ourbusinessmodelforsustainablegrowth.aspx
Papmehl, A. 2002, ‘Beyond the Gaap'. CMA Management , Vol 76, Issue 5, pp 20-25.
Storer, C.E. & Frost, F.M. 2002, ‘Triple bottom line reporting; it's relevance and application to agricultural production and marketing',. In: Batt, P.J. (Ed). From Farm to Fork: Linking Producers to Consumers Through Value Chains . Proceedings, Muresk 75 th Anniversary Conference, 3-4 October, Hyatt Hotel, Perth WA , (CD) ISBN 1 74067 184
Waage, S., Shah, S & Girschik, S. 2003, ‘Information Technology and Sustainability: Enabling the future', International Journal of Corporate Sustainability . Vol 10, Issue 4 (April 2003).
