Can every business have a sustainable future, and does it matter?
Can everyone be successful? Yes. But has everyone become successful then? No. Business entities have similar philosophical baseline. Updated history of business shows many failures and success of business entities. The companies once successful later vanished in the womb of time, whereas businesses who have failed successive times have become successful in the later.
In all of such scenario of business turbulence, one thing is pretty clear that the business having strategic fit with the environment and sustainable salient features have actually survived over decades (some even over centuries) and with healthy returns. So, yes, it is possible that every business can have a sustainable future. Unilever, the living example of long sustained huge business industries has gone through numerous ups and downs since its late 19th centurion initiation. The thing is, it maintained strategic fit with the changing environment through business and technical innovation. Unilever’s official online site proudly mention their ability of setting out in difference making with big concerns that actually affects to their business and to the world that has resulted in the omnipresence of the brand. They mention that the amalgamation of their action with external advocacy on public policy along with the combined effort with strategic partners, they are always looking forward for what they call “transformational change” (Transformational change, 2016). By the term “transformational change” they are referring to the change in their whole system rather than incremental improvements.
The example set out by Unilever being motivational also proves that every business can have sustainable future. The few things that matters are
Do the owners of the business really want the sustainability of the business?
Are the owners wise enough to vision the change?
Are the owners capable of building strategy according to the change?
The more tough works then starts then under the framework erected.
Now the thing is do sustainability matter? Yes is the accepted and obvious answer. Business sustainability by definition means adoption of strategies and strategy-based activities so that the present interests of enterprise and the stakeholders are fulfilled as well as they defends, endures as well as enhances the required future resources (Business strategies for sustainable development 2016). And this is more than just a profit generation for the short term. The interest of stakeholders ranges vast; safety and security of life and living standards of employees and their families, economic support for the development of country and society, prestige of the owners, ecological responsibilities and many more. So, the business is not just only a business but a vital organ of whole world ecosystem with lots of complexities. The failure of apple industry in U.S.A could lead to empty belly of Chinese children. Thus, one of the prominent features of business should be its sustainability for the safety of ecosystem it creates. The joy of short-term high profits should not shallow the vision of long term sustainability of the business entity. Readiness in enduring the changes should be the mitochondria of business entity, or else, once the prominent world leader could turn into desolate property. What could be the best example than Nokia?
Since 1967, Nokia, an industrial conglomerate ranging from paper products to military equipment and chemicals when focused on telecommunications deciding to moving out of all other businesses and reinventing itself rose exponentially after steady 25 years of business operation in 90’s. On blink of nights, world's leading manufacturer was entitled on the head of Nokia. Even their Chinese copies blasted the global market. Then what led acquisition of Nokia by Microsoft only to be the last option in the early of the new millennium?
Did Nokia lacked creativeness or thoughtfulness or pool of talent or resource or any other requirements?? No. Was it that other organization had secret technology that Nokia lacked? No. Maybe it was unreal appearance of 90’s makeover of Nokia. They changed its entire core business and product portfolio that they could vision. But there was something that was not visible and that something that they could not visualize was the company culture. Many personnel in Nokia saw emerging market capture from Google and Apple and had emerging idea of sustaining their existing. But, again why the platform still was burning. The inability to overcome the traditional strategy of high piling and cheap selling mentality actually was pervading the organization which 20 years back actually catapulted Nokia to the sky high of the world. They trusted the old strategy and could not throw it off. And when they tried to change this, it was too late. The cultural inertia of the organization led to the downfall of the whole empire (A cautionary tale for sustainability-seeking CEOs, 2011). Thus, despite of awareness of the changing environment, late in visioning the component of strategic fit and late in the action led to the dissolution of the once number one company into Microsoft during the Smartphone Era.
Thus the want, the vision and the action in maintaining the strategy fit; the synchronization of which actually plays role in sustainability of business, when lacked in one major issue led the downfall of Nokia. The question of does the sustainability matters, if asked with the employee of Nokia could further give the in depth answer
References
Business strategies for sustainable development (2016). Retrieved 14 July 2016, from https://www.iisd.org/business/pdf/business_strategy.pdf
A cautionary tale for sustainability-seeking CEOs. (2011). the Guardian. Retrieved 14 July 2016, from https://www.theguardian.com/sustainable-business/blog/caution-ceos-sustainability-nokia-lessons
Transformational change. (2016). Unilever global company website. Retrieved 14 July 2016, from https://www.unilever.com/sustainable-living/transformational-change/
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