Business Finance - Operations Management Can someone do my Week 1 Assignment in BUS 633 Project & Operations Management?

(cheerful music) - [Narrator] The traditional way to assess a business' success is looking at their income statement, company value, or profit. However, in the early 1990s, John Elkington coined the phrase "triple bottom line" to broaden what we understand to be a business' overall success. Instead of one bottom line, Elkington argued there should be three: people, planet and profit. This encouraged businesses to think beyond their profit motive, and consider their commitment to CSR. - [Dr Matthew Davis] So if you think about people, planet and profit, we can think about how that might influence firms in the way they operate. So if you're starting to account for not just the financial costs and benefits of the operations, but also the impact that what you do has on the planet and the environment, and also people, social cost, well, suddenly things which are very profitable might suddenly seem less viable if there's a high environmental cost. And the triple bottom line is all about trying to get firms to think about how they balance and take account of those different costs. - [Narrator] Founded in the UK in 1884, Marks & Spencer is a retailer which now operates in 56 territories. It has over 1035 stores in the UK, and 428 worldwide, as well as the international online business M&S.com. It employs around 80,000 staff worldwide, and turns over 10.7 billion pounds annually. Years before Elkington conceived of his triple bottom line theory, Marks & Spencer recognised the three key areas of sustainable business. - [Carmel McQuaid] Marks & Spencer has been trading for a long time, over a hundred years, and we have the luxury of having an archive and a lot of learning from through the generations. What's really interesting is there's a thread, a common thread throughout, which existed before and after CSR was a thing that people talked about, and it is that M&S is at its very best when it serves customers, colleagues, shareholders and communities in which we trade. And that sums up, really, "people, profit, and planet" because we recognise that, if for us to be at our absolute best, if we can maximise that across all the stakeholders, then that's when we really start to win things. - [Narrator] Profit, or economic performance, comes from offering products customers want at the right price. It also takes into account taxes paid, jobs created, and the general growth of the business. Planet, or environmental performance, is assessed by the company's emissions, air, water, energy and waste. People, or social performance, includes labour practices, community impact and human rights. A triple bottom line encourages companies to create their own corporate social responsibility strategy. To be a success, they need to create a sustainable business model that balances each of these three areas. - [Carmel McQuaid] In terms of our business model, we think very much about customer first and making sure that we deliver exceptional products that don't cost the Earth for those customers, whether that's clothing or food. Within that then, for food it becomes very clear-- food that doesn't cost the Earth also means it doesn't exploit people and it doesn't exploit animals. And wherever possible, we have a much more positive impact. And similarly in clothing, it has to be great quality, stylish clothing, but not at the expense of workers, and certainly not at the expense of the environment. - [Narrator] A sustainable approach to people and the planet can also have a positive impact on a company's profits. - [Dr Matthew Davis] Corporate social responsibility, I think, can help firms to be more profitable, to innovate, to maybe improve their brand and win more customers. But only when it's done with a real clear strategy. - [Narrator] Marks & Spencer have created a measurable strategy with Plan A. They have targets across three pillars: transforming health, communities and the planet. (bright percussive music) - [Narrator] Evaluating a business using triple bottom line methodologies can be difficult. Some areas are hard to measure reliably, and there is no legal requirement to report on it. So, how do you evaluate financial, social, and environmental performance? Evaluating profit is the easiest part. A company's financial statements will disclose their profit levels and overall worth. To evaluate their impact on the planet, a business must assess their emissions and create targets. M&S extended their targets to include empowering their suppliers to reduce emissions. - [Carmel McQuaid] We came along with our sustainability program, and we had ran awareness sessions and education for our suppliers. And we're like, "We really want to save emissions. This is the impact we're having on the planet. We really want to get after reducing energy, reducing waste, reducing water consumption..." We got them to share best practice with each other. We turned one of the supplier sites into a green factory. And he came back a year later and he said, "Wow, that unlocked the extra 20% discretionary effort from my workforce." Because it might be five o'clock at night and they're thinking about "Do I bother to turn all this equipment off? It'll just make the company a little bit more profitable." But actually once they were thinking about, "I'm doing this for my kids, my community, for the planet," that was when it kicked in. (enchanting whimsical music) - [Narrator] The area most difficult to evaluate is people. However, M&S have been able to track their impact on people through their supply lines. - [Carmel McQuaid] Sourcing our products ethically is the foundation of what we do, especially for a brand that has so much trust from our customer base. One of the things we found over the years is that there's been a move away from-- there's a traditional focus on auditing and checking and compliance against policies and standards on ethical standards-- I think the industry has recognised that we need to go beyond that now and think about how can we positively impact lives of workers in the supply chains. And that is a much more interesting area which has driven a lot of benefits because as soon as you start talking to the supply base about how can we improve productivity of the workforce, as well as improving their livelihoods, as well as improving their working conditions, that's when its starts to really add value to the worker, to the factory and to ourselves. (calm music)