Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto, Essay Example

In Chapters One and Two, the author covers the basic principles of business sustainability and execution processes. The below summary will cover the five key issues discussed in the chapters.

1. Sustainability is necessary to maintain constant production and implement a business strategy that plans for more than one generation. It requires systematical planning and the business’ plan to foster longevity.
2. The Seven Tenets of a sustainability strategy are considering: the scarcity of natural resources, demographic change, people as renewable resources, the importance of cash flow over earnings, changing operating environments, the importance of flexibility and cohesion, and transparency for survival.
3. Changes impacting sustainability strategies will need to be considered before creating a plan. These are social changes, technological changes and resource changes. Goals need to be set to ensure that they can proactively tackle the changes, and they are achievable in 15 years. Further, it needs to be aligned with the organization’s goals, strengths and mission.
4. Mapping opportunities in technology, human resources and economic/industrial change lead to an actionable and executable sustainability strategy. In the case of Clorox, the organization turned the challenges of the changing human and natural resources market into opportunities. Regulatory environments, customer preferences, market trends and competition needs to be mapped before creating the plan. Emerging production technologies need to be embraced and implemented when planning for sustainability. However, the scarcity of natural resources, in the light of future predictions also has to be considered.
5. There is a need to prioritize opportunities to plan for greater sustainability. Changes in labor market, wages, regulations, technologies and scarcity of resources all impact future production and development. The most urgent and burning issues need to be tackled first, creating a sustainable solution that would create a competitive advantage for the company for decades.

Works Cited

Werbach, A. Strategy for Sustainability: A Business Manifesto. Ch, 1-2 Harvard Business Press. 2013. Print.