Report Sustainability Management Practices -Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Report Sustainability Management Practices? Answer: Introduction In the modern world, there are several industries that are functioning proficiently in order to make profits and to stay alive in the market. The organizations make use of extensive strategies and thereby improve their business operations. With the advent of time, organizations have looked towards different aspects and thereby improve their business functions and one such aspect has been concentrating on sustainability (Fonseca, McAllister and Fitzpatrick 2014). This paper would therefore look towards the sustainability aspect of IKEA and the products and services they offer. IKEA is a multinational privately held organization which was established in the year 1943 and has its headquarters in Netherlands. The company is mainly focused on designing, assembling and selling kitchen appliances, furniture and other home accessories. The organization has been one of the worlds largest retailer of furniture and the organization is known for their focus on cost management, operational details and sustainable development of their products (Ceulemans, Molderez and Van Liedekerke 2015). These have been the aspects with the help of which the company has been able to maintain the prices of their products lower than the market (Cho et al. 2015). Most of the retail outlets of IKEA is owned by INGKA, which is one of the healthiest foundations globally. This report is therefore constructed in order to have an idea about the various products and services that have been offered by the company and the strategies and the plans that have been undertaken in accordance to the sustainability aspect. The report would even focus on the source of the raw materials that are exploited by the organizations in order to gather quality raw materials at a cheaper price. The paper would even examine and assess the discrepancies that are existent in the annual report of the firm and thereby take steps to improve the same. IKEA Sustainability IKEA has their vision of establishing a better life for many individuals. The business idea of the organization has been to blend in the effective forms, quality and functions with a sustainability that is built in at such lower prices that many individuals would be able to afford them and thereby would be the foundation towards the contribution to enhanced homes for individuals having ordinary income. The organization wants to economise their resources as they do not want stay wasteful and always looks to gain more from the less. This strategy has been going on from the time when the organization was established when the main objective of the firm has been to exploit most of the scarce resources at their disposal (del Mar Alonso-Almeida et al. 2015). This has been influential in the development of the distribution and the range of the product and the solution for the sales. The idea of the business, vision and the value of the firm were the initial point for the development of the e nvironmental inventiveness for the company. IKEA is a business that is driven by value with a culture that is reliant on strong values that dares to be different and looking to meet the reality. The value and the culture shape the process in which the company goes through their business activities in order to establish a strong desire to the correct thing. The firm does their best in order to maintain the best ethical standards and to be an effective partner in the community. The sustainability in IKEA looks to ensure the economic, social and environmental wellbeing for the current and future time period. It explains the means to attain the demand and need of the community and the individual without sacrificing the capability of the future generations in order to attain the needs by acting in the long term interests of various individuals (Junior, Best and Cotter 2014). It talks about the residing within the limits of the globe and safeguarding the environment. It explains promoting and advertising a healthy and strong society where individuals can prosper and develop themselves in order to attain their potential. IKEA looks to function with the three transformational drivers that will change their business thereby making them even more sustainable, developing the potentiality of growth, finding out new opportunities for a business and aids in creating a better day to day life for various individuals. The drivers are: Enable and inspire customers to have a more sustainable life at home. Hence, the company takes the initiative of promoting and developing the products and the resolutions that aids the customers to generate and save energy, sort and minimise the level of waste at the most lowest price possible (Barkemeyer, Preuss and Lee, 2015). Endeavour for the energy and resource independence by safeguarding the long term entry to the sustainable raw materials by having a positive effect in the societies from the where the materials are sourced and making use of these resources within the limitation of the planet. The company wants to manufacture the optimum level of renewable energy as the energy that is consumed drives the energy effectiveness in the overall value chain (Ikea.com. 2018). Taking the initiative in constructing an improved life for the societies and the people that has been effected by IKEA. Additionally, the company tries to outspread the code of conduct within the value chain and try to be a good neighbour assist the human rights and perform for the most effective interest for the children. Products and Services IKEA has the vision of establishing an everyday life for a huge level of people. The company makes this possible by giving out a huge range of products of a well-constructed, operational homes furnishing products at very reasonable prices so that most of the individuals can afford them (Hahn and Llfs 2014). In order to attain this vision, a well-constructed, functional and practical furnishing products are delivered in the target market. IKEA has therefore incorporated a blend of various strategies in their business activities. IKEA provides a wide extent of product that is related to the financial products and has over 1200 items. This huge level of products have mainly been due to the fact that the company outsources their manufacturing process. The firm takes assistance of the cheap sources of manufacturing that are available globally in the market. IKEA has constructed a Strategic Centre Enterprise where it operates at the core of the alliance network (Ehnert et al. 2016). The database has the source of various cheap manufacturers who supply IKEA with the required manufacturing that is essential for all their home furnishing. However, if the manufacturing can be undertaken at a lower cost to the industry and this will be seen in the overall price of the finished goods. IKEA even provides various services to the customers as well like they have their own home delivery services (Ikea.com. 2018). The company provides home delivery service to the customers in association to the products that have been bought and thereby satisfying the customers. The products are flat packed and constructed in such a manner that they can be easily transported at a lower price from the retail outlet. The products that have been purchased are even assembled by the company at the location of the customer so that they can make use of the product effectively without taking the worry of assembling the product at home themselves. IKEA even has products that are related to the kitchen and the bathroom and therefore installation of these products are even provided by the firm. The payment method of the firm is very simple and easy and thereby payments can be made through various methods. The return policy of the firm is even very simple and if the customer wants to replace their purchased product they are given a time period of 15 days within which the return policy will be undertaken and no extra charges would be applicable. IKEA Raw Material Source The company looks to obtain their raw materials from several sources and have a team that assesses the global market with the help of which they can discover the reasonable and cheap raw materials so that the prices of their products can be maintained (Prez?Lpez, Moreno?Romero and Barkemeyer 2015). The company has a unique manufacturing strategy and therefore outsources the manufacturing process. They have various small manufacturing companies from whom they outsources their products and thereby maintains a lower price. The company in some cases provides the raw materials to the manufacturers and in certain cases the raw material is used by the manufacturer themselves. IKEA has the objective of preserving their quality and therefore takes the effort of assessing the products that have been manufactured and only accepting the product that is according to their standard (Calabrese et al. 2016). Annual Report Discrepancies IKEA has the aim of maintaining effective operational activities and therefore undertakes actions in order to mitigate any issues that are available. The company constructs their annual report in order to provide a declaration about their financial and operational activities to the stakeholders (Kozlowski, Searcy and Bardecki 2015). The company tries to communicate the revenues that have been used in order to make the stakeholders aware of the operational activities. The annual report has not properly disclosed the dividend per yield to the stakeholders properly and therefore discrepancies were present. The costs related to outsourcing have not been represented individually and therefore this creates a fault in the annual report. The stakeholders therefore do not have knowledge about these expenses and this may create issues in the future. Conclusion The assessment of the operational and the financial accounting activities of IKEA indicates that the company has been functioning effectively and has been taking various measures with the help of which they can enhance their business and maintain competitive edge. The sustainability of the firm plays a key role with the help of which they are able to attract the individuals and the society and thereby making them loyal to the customers. The product and services that are offered are unique and raw materials are purchased from the best sources thereby making the firm one of the leaders in the furniture business. Reference List Barkemeyer, R., Preuss, L. and Lee, L., 2015. On the effectiveness of private transnational governance regimesEvaluating corporate sustainability reporting according to the Global Reporting Initiative.Journal of World Business,50(2), pp.312-325. Calabrese, A., Costa, R., Levialdi, N. and Menichini, T., 2016. 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