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The Chevron Corporation is considered to be one of the five largest energy-producing companies in the world and they are trying to become a more sustainable company. To improve sustainability they are investing in local communities through health, education, and small business funds. They are researching and learning how they affect biodiversity, in ecosystems that they are drilling in. They are also finding ways to be more energy efficient and lower their emissions. Although there are many examples of these sustainable activities there are few concrete numbers that can be shown in order to show exactly how sustainable Chevron is.

Increasing by approximately 32% a year globally over the last five years, wind energy has proven to be a clean, abundant, and cost effective renewable source of energy. Wind energy is an important part of the strategy to replace fossil fuel electricity generation. Fossil fuels such as coal, oil, and natural gas currently generate over 70% of the power consumed in North America. The dramatic increase in the cost for fossil fuels and the growing pressure on the world's nations to reduce greenhouse gas emissions have combined to position wind power as the world’s fastest growing new source of electricity generation. This case study discusses a major producer of America’s wind energy, Wisconsin Energy Corporation (WEC), and their strategies and commitments to alternative energy and a more sustainable future. The company’s “triple bottom line” including economic, social, and environmental benefits will also be evaluated.

Overall, the North American Steel Industry has made significant strides to protect our environment and preserve our resources by: reducing overall energy consumption per ton of steel by 29% since 1990; reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (including CO2) by more than 25% from 1994 thru 2003; reducing air toxics volumes by more than 70% from 1994 thru 2003, and total air & water discharges by 69%; collecting and reusing of steel making by products such as: slag for road building, railroad ballasts, fertilizer, glassmaking, & other applications; coke oven & steel making gases for fuel/heat generation; increased steel manufacturing efficiencies now result in the production of 100 units of steel from 114 units of raw steel vs. 140 units previously, which has resulted in a yield improvement of 16% to 87% from 71%. These statistics indicate that the industry is doing an efficient job improving the environment in such a short span of time. Recently, United States Steel Corporation has been taking strides to improving sustainability within its corporation. Originally, U.S. Steel has always been a company that prides itself on good business practices. Today, they are taking further steps by incorporating sustainable measures to fit the trend developing in society. This is a study devoted to evaluating U.S. Steel’s current successes and failures regarding their recent sustainability practices.

University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) mission is to provide outstanding patient care and to shape tomorrow’s health system through clinical innovation, biomedical, and health services research, and education. By operating their health system by this mission, UPMC is the leading health provider in Pittsburgh. Their vision is to create a new economic future for western Pennsylvania. They want to build a new perspective of the way people think about health care by creating new avenues in the health care field.

“The traditional definition of sustainability calls for policies and strategies that meet society’s present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” 1 Sustainability is a concern in private and public sectors all over the world; it is an issue that resonates with people in all age ranges, income levels, and geographic locations. The main idea of sustainability is “reduce, reuse, and recycle.” People and organizations alike must consider every possible effect from the decisions they make in regards to the environment. Sustainability is a challenge in each and every industry, but with the consistent consumption of numerous resources, it is also a necessity. The food industry, like many others, has begun a transformation of its production processes. Drastic changes are being made in the areas of energy consumption, packaging, emissions, and waste. In the United States, between the years 2005 and 2010, “more than 1.5 billion pounds of packaging was diverted from landfills.” The goal is increase that number by another 2.5 billion pounds in the next ten years. As of now, the food and beverage industry “is on track to reduce packaging weight by 19 percent, or 2.5 billion pounds, by 2020. That’s the energy-saving equivalent of removing 363,000 homes or 815,000 gas-guzzlers.” 2 (Cacciola, 2011) As to be expected, Heinz is at the front of the line when it comes to sustainability and originality. The company’s sustainable goals are right in line with the industry and the U.S. Government. Three of the sustainable goals Heinz lists are: (1) reducing GHG emissions by twenty percent of the next ten years, (2) reduce energy consumption by 20%, and (3) reduce packaging by 15%. 3 (The Seed of Heinz's Success, 2011)

In todays business environment outsourcing attracts considerable attention. The general rationale is that anything that is not a core competency of the firm is a candidate for outsourcing. The touted benefits are generally considered to be substantial cost savings, better productivity and more strategic use of scarce resources within the firm. In contrast, vertical integration has to some degree come to be viewed somewhat negatively the argument being that no single firm in todays competitive environment can possibly or should manage an extended enterprise. But as this series of case studies show, some firms are flourishing by going against prevailing logic and vertically integrating their supply chains.

According to the Herman Trend Alert, at least 30% of the nation’s workforce is unsatisfied with their current employment (Duecy, 2004; Grossman, 1999). Employee management is based on ideas and procedures developed to increase worker motivation, productivity and performance. Successful employee management can contribute to not only increased product output but also product quality. Companies rely on skilled managers to hire competent workers who will work productively and make profits for the company. People have always been central to organizations, but today their strategic importance is growing in the knowledge-based business world like never before. An organization’s success is becoming increasingly dependant on the knowledge, skills, and abilities of its employees. Without these assets companies would surely fail. How a business is managed and how they take care of their employees and customers, helps set the core competencies, which set an organization aside from its competitors. It is important to align the company’s strengths and internal capabilities to that of the external market. Companies are always looking for more efficient ways to produce goods and services. When new technological advancements give a company a competitive advantage, their competitors can easily catch up by implementing and improving on the new technology. To be successful in today’s market, companies need an extremely capable, flexible and dedicated workforce, a flexible and innovative management, and the capability to hold on to developed talent. To accomplish these objectives, the company needs a talented HR department. In addition to hiring the right people to carry out specific jobs, HR managers have to build up dedication and allegiance among the workforce by keeping them up to date about company plans, as well as laying out the implications for job security and working conditions. EMPLOYEES’ SKILL AND TRAINING

Much has been written in the recent marketing literature on the perceived importance of moving from a transaction basis to a long-term relationship basis in terms of personal selling. Since the traditional marketing mix paradigm has dominated marketing philosophy for so long, many perceive there is a marketing shift, especially in service marketing, to the relational marketing paradigm. A sales force from five industries, representing primarily service industries (n=142), were tested on a number of statistical techniques including correlations, stepwise regression, and n-way ANOVA, and yielded no significant trend to support the theoretical paradigm shift.

Unfortunately, many businesses discuss that rather than valuing people as their most important asset, firms are focusing their efforts on downsizing, outsourcing and taking other actions in order to reduce their labor costs. Instead, developing employee loyalty through inspiring leadership, knockout facilities, and a sense of purpose, management strategically leverages the three most popular traits that employees love about their companies. By questioning HR representatives, managers, and fellow co-workers, the authors were able to determine our own version of the most common traits that employees develop loyalty at Mellon Financial Corporation, the Abreon Group, and the Pine-Richland School District. A number of interesting trends from surveying both administrator and employees of these three diverse settings in Pittsburgh, PA were found. Toxic worry was minimized and loyalty maximized when employees are encouraged to professionally and personally enjoy the people they work with, since this is extremely important to tactical on-time issues with minimum conflict.&nbsp

The key to sustaining a competitive advantage through effective management is working with people. Especially dealing with sport management and marketing, concepts such as organizational culture and reputation are identifying strategic assets that are intangible resources. These concepts form the basis on the strategic theory behind the Resource-based View (RBV) of the firm. Strategic assets are intangible since they are inherently hard to duplicate, since duplication requires the inputs of how an object reacts with all the senses. Intangible assets are, by their very nature, ‘unknowable’ in the purest sense and, thus, difficult to duplicate. In addition, intangible assets are rare in that the variations that will be found within will be profound from owner to owner. The organizational cultures and reputations of the Duke University and the University of Cincinnati were compared, since they have petitions for national level basketball, but radically different organizational cultures. What constitutes organizational culture in one organization will have differences not present in another’s culture, thus allowing for some teams to maintain a sustainable competitive advantage.

The franchiser-franchisee relationship (FFR) can be examined from two theoretical perspectives, Agency Theory and Exchange Theory. Strategic management of demands that the leadership makes decisions on what the company should do and what the company should not do. This type of decision-making is called making trade-offs and has much to do with Agency Theory’s applications to FFR. One reason that operational effectiveness is the preferred way is that it has inherently little risks during the short term. Managers would be willing to make decisions if the risks were not so high on the long term. From the Agency Theory viewpoint, dual distribution can be analyzed in a cost versus cost trade-off schema. The approach argues that both franchising and company ownership have costs associated with them. Dual distribution is considered an internal solution to the cost tradeoff. Some of the costs in question are inefficiency of client risk sharing, franchisees that are free riding and the legal costs of terminating a franchise. Under dual distribution the mix of company ownership and franchising minimizes the sum of these total costs. When looking at market demand and the impact strategic decisions may influence it several factors come into play, including point of sale service. The components include the impact of outlet level services provided to the consumer enhancing value via the shopping experience, the franchiser’s level of effort to streamline the supply chain to all retail outlets, which enhances the image and reputation of the brand with the customer. Aspects of Agency Theory can be extended to include credible communication of franchise brand equity.&nbsp

Successful entrepreneurial companies are those that realize the benefit technology can provide before the competition does. Additionally, there are intangible benefits for companies that utilize technology before their competitors. While the competition is attempting to catch up, companies can build off of their current technology and continue to out-distance themselves from the competition. Although there are many positive and negative forces associated with entrepreneurial start-ups today, there exists a multitude of opportunities for entrepreneurialism to grow. A start-up company’s staff located in Pittsburgh was interviewed for their insights and several strategies were examined in this paper.

All organizations, whether they are involved in the creation of goods or services, perform three functions that are necessary for the organization’s survival. These three functions are finance/accounting, marketing, and production/operations. This paper will focus on contributions that each of these three functions would make for a producer of electronic production/operations and on consumer goods. An area that has become increasingly important to a company’s success is E-commerce. The Internet has revolutionized how an organization can operate with regards to its interaction with customers and suppliers.

The traditional definition of sustainability calls for policies and strategies that meet societys present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs (1). Sustainability is a concern in private and public sectors all over the world; it is an issue that resonates with people in all age ranges, income levels, and geographic locations. The main idea of sustainability is reduce, reuse, and recycle. People and organizations alike must consider every possible effect from the decisions they make in regards to the environment. With over 600,000,000 passenger cars on the road in the world, and over 50,000,000 passenger cars built each year, it is imperative that automakers make sustainable decisions (2). It is not just the large number of vehicles in the world that is cause for concern, but the immense amount of resources needed to manufacture, transport, and fuel them. Automakers must consider the impact that each car has during every stage of its life cycle, in addition to their responsibility to society (in terms of the environment, education, and safety) and the impact of their suppliers. This case study is designed to discuss the background of Toyota and highlight the companys current actions in regard to sustainable marketing; a comparison will also be made to the sustainable efforts of Honda and Subaru.