Sustainable Business Strategy: Analysis, Choice and Implementation

This book embraces the idea that, in the 21st Century, there is no  single prescription for business strategy development, choice and  implementation. The challenges facing firms, not-for-profit  organizations and the public sector are significant and call for  creativity, inclusivity, diversity and responsibility. The worldview  that all products and services should be organized predominantly around  external and internal markets has recently been shown to have  significant limitations. For example, in the age of Covid-19, global  supply chains cannot be maintained as borders close and demand patterns  change. There is also a realization that whilst markets may be efficient  in the allocation of resources in a world of infinite economic growth,  the looming and deepening crisis of climate change, UN Sustainable  Development Goals, pandemics and diversity have exposed the risks  associated with this market worldview and the indicators that drive it  such as GDP, stock market values, return on investment, executive  remuneration, etc. This book augments and challenges existing texts to  offer a progressive, challenging, decolonized and plural business  strategy curriculum.

The book is premised on the following:
what we know about strategic analysis, choice and implementation needs updating and revision;
there is a role for the market in a healthy and future-oriented economy, global or otherwise;

the  exchange relationships between stakeholders are changing. These changes  are being prompted by major global institutions such as the United  Nations, the European Union and new entities such as The Network for  Greening the Financial System (NGFS) of 60+ central banks;

there  are conscious and unconscious forces working against a change agenda  such as lobbies; free-market thinking and short-term bottom-line  reporting; willful ignorance, etc.;
firms can mitigate climate change (such as procurement of clean energy, shortening supply chains);
firms need to adapt (building resilience for the near future);
governments may legislate for circular and/or environmentally-sustainable economies;
good strategy is built on a plurality of analytical epistemologies and ontologies;
non-market factors are increasingly important;
new and appropriate financial indicators for decision-making are needed.

Each  chapter of the book takes what is known – theory, tools, techniques –  introduces contemporary critiques, relates those critiques to the  context of climate change and UN SDGs and offers fresh thinking about  the application of the models and outcomes. For example, a key element  of strategic analysis is the stakeholder. Stakeholder management retains  the premise that profit is the primary purpose of firms. It can be  shown empirically that treating stakeholders better – whether they be  customers, suppliers, employees – improves firm performance and hence  the bottom line. In this framework, some indicators of performance and  timeframes may need to change or be augmented, but ultimately the core  stakeholders such as shareholders will be rewarded by endorsing such an  approach. There remains a neo-liberal critique of the stakeholder  approach; but a progressive view might extend the scope of stakeholder  analysis by incorporating hitherto excluded entities (not just  individuals and groups). What if the natural environment itself becomes a  stakeholder? How would that affect stakeholder analysis and what new  indicators should practitioners be using to balance the demands of  different stakeholders? What might this mean in practice?

Unlike  other books, there are no stylized substantive case studies. Instead  the author uses contemporary examples by way of illustration but seeks  to guide readers to investigate the case in greater detail for  themselves using references and hyperlinks. This builds self-confidence  when it comes to approaching assessments and seminar exchanges.  Prescriptive approaches do not serve learning well in business strategy.  There is also an emphasis on biography – the utility of tools and  techniques can be judged on the background of authors. Progressively,  the strategy field of study is being entered by women who have  introduced more holistic and plural thinking to the discipline.

Each  chapter is concluded by up to 10 questions and exercises requiring  long-form answers that can be utilized in seminar classes and/or  assessments. Users are also presented with 5 multiple choice questions  that can easily be incorporated into readily-available quiz tools such  as Kahoot! and Nearpod.