BUSINESS SUSTAINABILITY

Business Sustainability

The statement, 'Obtaining an annual profit is no guarantee to business sustainability. Business survival depends on the ability of managers to carefully monitor their operations throughout the year in addition to securing appropriate sources of finance to fund such operations'; means that the sustainability of the organization does not only depends on the profits but it is the responsibility of the managers, who are continuously involved in all the operations of the business. They know how to allocate the funds or resources and which of the projects should be choose to work on. If the managers of the company are inefficient, they wouldn't make the proper use of the profits of the company, and hence the sustainability would not be achieved.

Executives recognize the importance of corporate sustainability but they seldom implement it successfully. The challenge lies in how to actually integrate sustainability into operational and capital investment decision making and implement it successfully in large, complex, for-profit organizations. The managers play a vital role in sustainability of the businesses. (Ron 2007, 8-15)

Top management typically cascades these management decisions down because sustainability impacts are often local, so usually only a small number of these decisions are made at corporate headquarters. As individual managers at the business units, geographical units, and facilities make these decisions, they also must make the appropriate tradeoffs regarding social and environmental impacts in contrary to financial ones.

How to manage the paradox of improving environmental, social, and monetary goals at the same time is one of a company's biggest challenges. Integrating corporate social, environmental, and financial impacts into operational and capital investment decisions comes with a lot of tension. While social and financial initiatives may benefit one another in the long term, they're often conflicting in their need for resources and agendas in the short ...