Evaluating the Strategic and Operational Impacts of Triple Bottom Line and B Corp Certification on NationaliTeas

Evaluating the Strategic and Operational Impacts of Triple Bottom Line and B Corp Certification on NationaliTeas

Part One: Justification of Benefits

Key Components of TBL

The Triple Bottom Line (TBL) is an accounting framework that considers more than just revenue, profits, and costs. TBL considers the social, financial, and environmental performance of an organization. The main difference with traditional methods of accounting is the inclusion of difficult-to-measure aspects such as the social and environmental performance of an entity such as nationalities. People, profits, and the planet are critical dimensions of TBL (B Lab, 2021). The unique aspect of TBL is its ability to assess an organization’s impact on the world, thus highlighting its sustainability. People refer to the workers, suppliers, clients, shareholders, stakeholders, and community. Profits are the financial gains obtained from the sale of products and services. Planet refers to the natural environment within which NationaliTeas exists.  Every decision that the company makes affects the people, profits, and planet negatively or positively.

Organizational Value

TBL advocates for careful consideration of each decision in the company to ensure it has a positive impact on all three aspects. For instance, if NationaliTeas chooses to buy tea leaves from farmers who use inorganic farming methods. This means that the company condones the negative effects on the environment. While the tea may be more affordable and lead to better margins, the extensive effects that the purchase has on the natural environment are negative and do not enable the company to attain sustainability. Thus, such decision-making processes provide the company an opportunity to evaluate its effects on the main elements of TBL and adjust accordingly.

NationaliTeas’ mission is to, “make the world more awake through rejuvenating and refreshing beverages and sustainable practices that uplift workers, communities, and souls”. The vision is ”to be the most respected tea manufacturer across at least three continents for our tea and our actions, which will be driven by a commitment to ethical sourcing, minimal waste, and empowerment of our employees.” Both the mission and the vision can be more intertwined through the inclusion of TBL and the pursuance of B Corp Certification because of the ethics-oriented perspective. NationaliTeas seeks to attain sustainability in its activities and extend a positive impact on the internal and external stakeholders. These intentions are well captured in the TBL accounting framework and can be easily achieved by becoming a B Corp-certified entity.

Benefits of B Corp Certification

Certified B corporations are new forms of businesses that seek to balance profit against purpose. These organizations seek to assess the impact that their actions and decisions have on employees, clients, the community, the natural environment, and suppliers. Today, businesses are approaching B Corp Certification as a strategy to increase their credibility, business value, and trust. Once an organization receives the B Corp certification, it is assumed to satisfy the highest standards of performance that have been verified. Transparency, as well as accountability, drives a positive influence on the business. Prior to verification, NationaliTeas must undertake a free online assessment and meet the legal requirements (B Lab, 2021).

NationaliTeas will gain varied benefits from acquiring B-Corp certification and implementing TBL into its system. The main benefits include attracting new clients, luring new investors, networking with new peers, attracting better suppliers, attracting top talent, benchmarking with other players and improving, protecting its mission, and getting more discounts from suppliers (Shuman, 2016). In addition to these benefits, NationaliTeas will also gain more rewards from achieving a high standard. The economic performance of the organization will improve through the attraction among socially responsible entities. The reduced footprint on the natural environment should allow the business to reduce its prices because the demand for energy and other natural resources such as water is lessened. If NationaliTeas is able to reduce its effects on the environment, it should attract more clients who believe in the conservation of the natural environment and improve productivity.

Employees working for B Corp-certified entities benefit directly through higher wages due to savings as well as a better balance between work and family. In addition, the organization will create a greater multiplier effect, which is a result of increased local consumption. The increase in local spending occurs because B Corporations are encouraged to seek local suppliers. In addition, the newly attained transparency will make NationaliTeas more trustworthy, which translates into a positive image and attraction of investors and clients alike. Thus, NationaliTeas stands to gain immense social and economic benefits, which result from environmental sensitivity and observation of high standards that govern socially responsible businesses.

Part Two: Operational Recommendations

Organizational Impacts:

NationaliTeas needs to offer competitive remuneration to its employees to avoid the high attrition rates that may affect the company’s productivity and make it less attractive as a brand to new talent. To motivate employees, it is necessary to offer development opportunities that lead to skill improvement and adopt Corporate Social Responsibility as an inherent business activity (Bauman & Skitka, 2012). The approach offers the manufacturer the chance to create a competitive workforce, which can be used to compete in the market. In addition, productivity is bound to improve as employees become more capable of fulfilling their work procedures. Creating a capable workforce increases the likelihood of customer satisfaction as products and services meet or exceed their expectations. To increase revenue, the company must ensure that its products offer high and consistent quality.

Societal Impacts

To promote environmental conservation, NationaliTeas should use environmental practices as an assessment tool before engaging local farmers. Constant reviews of these practices should occur to retain these engagements. It is important for the company to train suppliers on the desired farming practices. Such a collaboration should increase their reliability, the quality of raw materials, the quality of final products, the consistency, and the company’s ability to attract more clients as well as investors. The company will also gain positive credit among consumers and the community for lauding and spearheading environmentally friendly practices that conserve the environment.

Customer Impacts

Feedback from clients is necessary for product or service improvement and can be obtained through relationship marketing. In other cases, it may lead to new product development to meet other needs that are addressed by current products. As a result, client satisfaction increases significantly, and the company gains a better position in the market as well as a greater share of the market (Hennig-Thurau, 2000).

Business Risks

The manufacturer must prioritize the most critical processes of improvement. Each of the processes requires financial, human resources, and time. The company’s role is to highlight those that can run concurrently and consume fewer resources. Some may need a reorganization of the internal systems, while others demand a completed overhaul. To assess the risks that the company takes when working on the three elements, the company should monitor the implementation process and adjust the results where necessary.

Operational Management Techniques

Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI) is important in ensuring that clients can access the best tea products every time they purchase. To satisfy the B Corp certification requirements, the company needs to conduct a needs analysis to assess the workforce’s skills gaps. A needs assessment should address the social and environmental aspects related to work procedures. Project management techniques can be used to initiate and manage the process until it is completely integrated into the company’s system. Once the manufacturer is able to obtain the right raw material from suppliers consistently, the company’s clients appreciate the gesture and show loyalty (Ngo, 2015). Most importantly, the approach leads to the achievement of the company’s vision and mission as it pertains to the natural environment.

Requirements and Scope

Offering employeses competitive remuneration and motivating them is expected to introduce changes to the HR system and the payroll. Assessing the suppliers’ farming practces prior to engagement will require the procurement department to spend more time and resources. It will also require outsourcing of farming experts to train suppliers. These changes are expected to affect the compnay’s budgets significantly.

Roles and Responsibilities

The human resource department and other managers should strategize and guide the entire improvement process.The marketing and product development departments are responsible for conducting assessments that obtain customer feedback. Since these initiatives require intense planning and resources, the procurement department should use project management techniques to initiate and manage it until it is completely integrated into the company’s system.

References

B Lab. (2021). Certification. Retrieved from Certified B Corporation: https://bcorporation.net/certification

Bauman, C. W., & Skitka, L. J. (2012). Corporate Social Responsibility as a Source of Employee Satisfaction. Research in Organizational Behaviour, 32, 63-86.

Hennig-Thurau, T. (2000). Relationship Marketing: Gaining Competitive Advantage Through Customer Satisfaction and Customer Retention. (T. Hennig-Thurau, & U. Hansen, Eds.) Springer Science & Business Media.

Ngo, V. M. (2015). Measuring Customer Satisfaction: A Literature Review. Finance and Performance of Firms in Science, Education and Practice, (pp. 1638-1655).

Shuman, M. H. (2016). Bringing the B to Baltimore: Using B Corporations as a New Tool for Economic Development. Abell Foundation. Retrieved from https://abell.org/sites/default/files/publications/BCorps%206-28%20(002).pdf

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Evaluating the Strategic and Operational Impacts

In this project, you will demonstrate your mastery of the following competencies:

Recommend operations management methods and techniques to increase value for customers
Evaluate how operations management generates value for an organization
Explain local, national, and global sustainability in relation to functional areas of business
Scenario
You work as the chief supply chain officer at the large international corporation, NationaliTeas. NationaliTeas manufactures and sells tea worldwide. Its motto is “Keeping people and their taste buds awake (when they want to be awake).” Its mission is to “Make the world more awake through rejuvenating and refreshing beverages and sustainable practices that uplift workers, communities, and souls.” Its vision is “to be the most respected tea manufacturer across at least three continents for our tea and our actions, which will be driven by a commitment ethical sourcing, minimal waste, and empowerment of our employees.”

You would like to establish an operational goal of having your corporation apply for a B Corp Certification within the next two years. You believe this would add value to the organization and help it to prioritize a stronger focus on sustainable operational practices. You have conducted a reassessment based on the recommendations for applying for B Corp Certification, and you’ve evaluated the corporation’s current strengths and areas for improvement.

Now, you need to develop a proposal for the board of directors that explains why prioritizing the triple bottom line (TBL) through working toward B Corp Certification has organizational value. You must also propose three high-impact initiatives to help strengthen the corporation’s commitment to people, planet, and profit based on your evaluations.

Directions
Part One: Justification of Benefits: Justify the value of working toward more intentionally incorporating the TBL framework into organizational decision-making, specifically how ethical business practices regarding people, planet, and profit can benefit society, the environment, and the company’s profit. Specifically, address the following:
Key Components: Explain the three key components of the TBL framework and how each component benefits businesses and society.
Organizational Value: Provide a justification regarding the value and benefits of using the TBL framework to inform corporate decision-making and explain connections between the organizational mission and the organizational vision.
B Corporation Benefits: Briefly describe the organizational benefits of attaining B Corp Certification.
Part Two: Operational Recommendations: Read through the Preassessment Evaluation Summary (located in the Supporting Materials section) for each aspect of the TBL (people, profit, and planet). You will need to provide a detailed description of the initiatives that will create the needed improvement. You should note the organizational and societal value of the initiative along with the operational management techniques recommended to plan and complete each initiative. For each of your three initiatives, address the following:
Organizational Impacts: Describe the organizational benefits of each initiative, specifically noting the expected positive impact of completing each. Examples of positive impacts include better alignment with the organization’s mission, vision, and culture statements, increased amounts of funds or resources saved, and improvements to the organization’s brand.
Societal Impacts: Describe the societal benefits of each initiative, specifically noting the expected positive impact of completing each. Examples of positive impacts include increased community building and positive environmental impact.
Customer Impacts: Describe the consumer benefits of each selected initiative, specifically noting the expected positive impact of completing each. Examples of positive impacts include increased alignment with target markets, improved product access and availability, and improved customer satisfaction.
Business Risks: Explain the business risks associated with prioritizing, planning, and resourcing each initiative and how these risks will be considered and monitored.
Operational Management Techniques: Recommend an operational management strategy or technique (e.g., project management, lean manufacturing, or Six Sigma) that is appropriate to implement for each selected initiative, and explain why.
Defining Requirements and Scope: Define the requirements for the successful implantation of each selected initiative as well as the scope of each. Describe how changes to the requirements and scope would impact timelines, budget, and risk.
Roles and Responsibilities: Explain the key internal and external stakeholders who would be involved in planning and implementing each selected initiative, as well as why each identified stakeholder is needed to successfully implement the initiatives.