In the present day business environment, organizations and individual entrepreneurs are adopting various strategies that aim at building a profitable business. In addition, the business environment has a great significance on operations carried out in the business. Adam Werbach’s book on ‘strategy for sustainability: A business manifesto’ comes up with different ideas on how business communities should adopt the best strategies through developing sustainable programs aimed at increasing the competitive advantage of the organization. In addition, the book describes different types of environment that businesses operate in, and the roles each environment plays in the business. According to the author, businesses that fail to set up excellent strategies regarding the business environment they operate in always experience poor performance. According to Werbach (2009s), business strategies are not only important for the profitability of an organization, but also to the environment in which the organization is in. In this case, the environment consists of the society, the competitors, the suppliers, the substitutes, and the country of operation (Werbach, 2009: 15).
Most organizations are affected by situations related to employees’ layoffs, companies failures, countries faced with collapsing economies, and lack of resources. These problems are experienced in the present day business environment, and the only way to avoid them is developing good marketing strategies. According to Werbach, unless leaders in various organizations change their ways of doing business these problems will continue revealing themselves day-in-day-out. Dealing with the above problems requires the leaders to develop long-term sustainability and avoid making short-term profitability strategies. According to Adam Werbach, business sustainability should go beyond solutions aimed at saving our planet through addressing not only the environment and economic issues, but also the social and cultural factors. The author gives a challenge to the big companies like Dell, Nuke, and Toyota who have gained fame globally for their excellent business strategies, but fail to make tangential strategies targeting the environment and society (2009: 15-17).
Werbach came up with the subtitle in his book about sustaining a business in turbulent times, which aims at giving business owners factors to consider while doing their businesses in the current environment. For a business to prosper, leaders should connect different ideas related their goals of serving the purpose of delivering long-term sustained profits. It is very interesting how the modern businesses are evolving at an alarming rate and expanding within a very short duration. How does long-term sustainability play a role in such circumstances? The author claims that for a business to prosper and achieve high profits, a considerable time is taken. This goes centrally to what the writer says, meaning that sustained long-term profitability is not an independent factor in developing a business, but how fast the strategies are implemented. Sustaining a business in the present era has proved very challenging as some big companies, like Kodak Film Company, finds themselves set aside, and others like Fuji Films overtaking them. This happens because the managers of such originations have failed to develop business strategies that adhere to the present day business turbulence (Werbach, 2009: 22-30.
On the other hand, Werbach claims that most businesses set strategies aimed at making profits first. Since it becomes difficult convincing an entrepreneur that a business strategy should go beyond making profits, it is important to give an idea of how to achieve these profits perfectly. Werbach therefore; came up with a new business strategy that gives a framework on how to improve businesses following the desires of the current environment. These strategies are well adapted to the rapidly changing business environment and focuses on long-term organizational changes. According to Werbach, a sustained strategy should always analyze changes occurring in the society. It should also consider the changes in technology, and available resources in order to determine the impact of the planned changes to the company. After achieving the above leaders should then create business goals that combine success and positive universal trends for development. Finally, an entrepreneur, or a business organization should always incorporate the three tools for sustainability; having transparent information, engaging individuals in an organization, and having good networks with suppliers, customers, and society (community) (Werbrch, 2009).
On the other hand, Werbach describes the four phases and signs of greater transparency. These faces should enable organization overcome risks that arise in the process of developing business strategies for sustainability. Analyzing the four phases leaves the reader with a doubt as to how someone should implement them in real life. The writer argues that each phase makes an organization move closure to being transparent. The fact is most organizations prosper through keeping secrets from their employees. The four phases are; blind spots, awareness, compliance, and transparency. On the first phase concerning the blind spots, an organization should first recognize its loop holes that area capable of bringing about risks in a business. In addressing this issue, the organization should focus on offering quality products and services at affordable prices in order to win customer value. Werbach stresses that people from outside a company are capable of assisting in identifying blind spots in an organization. Although this might be true, care should be taken since these people might be spies from other organizations with the aim of investigating the company’s new strategies (Werbach, 2009: 94).
The second phase concerns awareness, which is very crucial in a company’s operations. Many companies fail to prosper because they lack awareness on the present day business environment. Having good business awareness assists in sealing all the blind spots that might come along. Companies are encouraged to perform an audit on accessional basis in order to determine their level of operations. According to Werbach, once an organization is aware of the business environment, it becomes easier to mitigate risk failures associated with such issues. On the other hand, the third phase on compliance adds more weight to the discussion. In order for an organization to develop a sustainable business strategy it must go ahead and comply with the current business environment in all matters related to, customer satisfaction, technology, and society. Companies that comply with the set business rules and regulations always achieve their goals, and are not affected by the policies set by the home countries. Werbach gives an example of the mobile industry whereby some companies failed to comply with the recycling policy ordered by the US government. This resulted into Apple Company, one of the best manufactures of cell phones and personal computers lose millions of dollars because of their ignorant on recycling their material properly (2009: 98-99).
The book explains the benefits an organization gets on following the strategic approaches for sustainability. Most businesses have gone as far as developing marketing strategies that cater for more than 5 years ahead, and the writer encourages this issue. On the other hand it very risky, considering the virtual of environmental protection. Due to globalization, some companies might find it hard to operate since their operations accelerate global warming. On this context, many companies, especially those in the energy sector, have developed alternative sources of energy in order to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases. All this is done in order to prevent the environment and safe it for the future generation. Although the writer has a focus on marinating long-term profitability, environmental protection and risk avoidance should also be considered. Moreover, developing long-term sustainable strategies encourages leaders to focus more on making more profits for their companies, and fail to consider the future of their business in terms of the society.
Another critique of the book is how the suggested strategies should be implemented. Werbach was very aggressive in suggesting a lot of strategies, and explaining how they impact various business operations and their environments. The writer should at least come up with an analysis on how these strategies should be implemented. In addition, company managers should be encouraged not only to focus on making profits, but also making better places for future people who have the same ideas. The writer is very polite on issues concerning the government policies on operating various businesses. Not all set policies are perfect, and leaders should liaise with one another to determine which policies are of important, and look for ways of abolishing others. Many businesses have failed to operate according to their expectations because they fail to comply with one or two policies set by the government.
Reference
Werbach, A. (2009). Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto. United States of America Harvard Business Press.
