Week 3 Assignment – Planter’s Peanuts as a Model of InnovationPLEASE DO NOT SUBMIT A BID FOR THIS ASSIGNMENT IF YOU DO NOT HAVE EXPERIENCE WITH GRADUATE LEVEL WRITING TERMS AND CONCEPTS. ALL DIRECTION

Week 3 Guidance - What WaveRiders Do

            The authors of the text book identified five ways of thinking that help businesses find opportunities to attain a competitive edge. This requires a change of thinking to utilize expertise, leadership, and time commitment to the eco-advantage mindset. Therefore, a strategic focus will involve the following five areas:

1. Look at the forest, not the trees. This will involve thinking broadly , big picture,  about time frames as to how long it takes, potential payoffs as in revenues and intangibles, and boundaries as to the possibility of adding value to the entire supply chain.

2. Start at the top. Senior management staff, CEO, must be engaged in sitting the vision for the organization.

3. Adopt the Apollo 13 principle. Establish tough environmental goals – raise the bar, and don’t take no for an answer.

4. Recognize that feelings are facts. Look from the outside in. Emotions and perceptions carry enormous weight, and the customer is always right.

5. Do the right thing. Clear and core environmental values inspire employees, customers, regulators, and potential adversaries alike.

WaveRiders also know how to map environmental performance, this requires understanding the process, creating measurable matrices, use the data to make decisions. This is called eco-tracking. Here is the textbook list of the top Eco-Tracking tools:

1. AUDIO analysis. This involves the layout of the entire process from start to finish, including the supply chain. This is necessary to know how much a company pollutes and consumes from the natural resources.

2. Life-cycle assessment looks at the entire circle and measures environmental impacts at every phase. This is needed to find and identify ways to reduce the resources consumed and to lower costs all along the supply chain.

3. Environmental indicators: this involves capturing and recording data. Identify what to track as it relates to energy, water, air, waste, compliance. See table on p. 175 of the text book.

4. Material database. Remember that what gets measured gets managed. Data management is a critical tool for generating eco-advantage in all categories: risk, cost, revenue, and intangibles.

5. Comparative metrics to drive competition. This is necessary to show where the company stands. Data and indicators are critical to fact-based decision-making and sound environmental management.

6. Environmental management systems. This is necessary to compile all data and use it a cross the organization. Different department might need different data.

7. Emergency procedures: this is where an organization can think about environmental risks before they become problems.

8. Partnerships. The organization should work hard to build partnerships with all stakeholders and players (see eco-advantage players, p. 97 of the text book) in the process including: NGOs, experts, government, communities, other companies,

REFERENCES:

Esty, D.C., & Winston, A.S. (2009). Green to gold: How smart companies use environmental strategy to innovate, create value, and build competitive advantage. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. ISBN: 9780470393741