BUSINESS: DETERMINING SUSTAINABLE OPTIONS
In business, sustainability has a very specific meaning. For most businesses, including federal lenders and mortgage companies, sustainability is an adherence to the triple bottom line: the consideration of people, profits, and the planet simultaneously, rather than the sole consideration of profit (Gibbs, 2009). Businesses must foster sustainable practices in the modern world in many ways, but the mortgage industry must be concerned about the long-term viability and legitimacy of their organization, especially after the collapse of the real estate market in the United States between 2008 and 2010. Sustainable practices are practices that allow the business to sustain growth over a long period of time, rather than encouraging practices that allow for a short-term boom and then an immediate crash (Gibbs, 2009).
Limits to Growth
One of the most important and significant limitations on growth in the mortgage industry is the real estate market. A booming real estate market means there are many individuals looking for mortgages; however, in the United States in recent years, the real estate market has been in a definite slump. There are also environmental limitations to the real estate market that affect the mortgage and lending market: when companies are limited by environmental concerns, they cannot build or expand in the ways that are sometimes expected or desired by the market as a whole. There has also been distrust in the mortgage market since the collapse.
Tragedy of Commons
The tragedy of commons is an economic phenomenon in which every individual or organization within a market is trying to maximize their profit within the marketplace. In terms of sustainability, the tragedy of commons can lead to environmental strain because the primary concern for many of the players in the market is profitability. Some might argue that the distrust in the mortgage and lending fields is also due to a tragedy of commons: the banks were too interested in maximizing profit and not interested enough in the sustainability of the system.
Scale-Free Networks and Business Systems
Scale-free networks are networks where certain nodes of the system are very connected, while other parts of the system are not connected as well at all; this reflects the general structure of the business system (Denning, 2004). These systems are supposed to be able to prevent system-wide failure, but in reality, when the mortgage market collapsed in the United States, many other important systems collapsed as well (Denning, 2004). The failures of scale-free networks, according to the research, tends to be catastrophic: the collapse of the mortgage and lending markets is a perfect example of a scale-free network hub collapse with drastic effects system-wide (Denning, 2004).
Social Responsibility and Stakeholders
When presenting to stakeholders, it is likely that these individuals would be concerned about the likelihood for failure. The presentation would begin with the structures that are in place to prevent a catastrophic failure of the system as a whole. Next, the presentation would discuss social programs and financing option programs that will be made available to individuals struggling as a result of the prior crash. The purpose of the presentation would be to convince these individuals that the company has learned from past mistakes and is able to move on and readjust corporate social responsibility programs for a new era (Burke & Cooper, 2004). Stakeholders should be allowed to air their concerns in the meeting and anonymously; this would greatly increase the likelihood of effective and honest feedback.
References
Burke, R. J., & Cooper, C. L. (Eds.). (2004).Leading in turbulent times: Managing in the new world of work. Blackwell Publishing.
Denning, P. (2004). Network laws. Communications of the ACM, 47(11), 15–20.
Gibbs, D. (2009). Sustainability entrepreneurs, ecopreneurs and the development of a sustainable economy. Greener Management International, 55.
