Why you should link your environmental strategy to your market strategy
We've been talking about target conflicts in another blog entry recently. There, we looked at potential practical problems that can come up when economic and environmental goals don't match. Let me give you another perspective on this which is the core problem in many of my client organizations running an EMS.
To say this in simple terms: Every company adopts a market strategy, and if it seriously runs an EMS, it also has some kind of an environmental strategy in place. There are two main types of market strategies: Either you have unbeatable products and / or technologies to sell, or you have unbeatable prices. So if you run for product leadership, you invest primarily in innovation and product development, and if you follow the price strategy, your investments aim for lower cost in procurement, production, marketing, etc.
So where is the link between market strategy and environmental strategy? When asking my clients, I often see shoulders going up and down... Of course there is a link, and this link is a very tight one indeed! Imagine if you run a low price{jcomments on} strategy, and at the same time you run a strategy for environmentally high end products - you really think this would go well together?
My recommendation: Always ensure harmony between your market strategy and your environmental strategy! If you go for low price products, your first consideration in environmental issues should be the cost factor. This means that you should look for cost reductions, as in energy and material flows. If you run for product quality, your first consideration in environmental issues should be the improvement of the ecological quality of your products: material used, recyclability, handling, power consumption if in use, and so on.
Still not convinced why you should do this? Look at this point: your organization's board is much more likely to pass environmental improvement project suggestions if you can argue with positive market strategy impacts...
Need help with this or like to discuss your situation with me? Contact me.
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