Sunday, February 23, 2020

Case Analysis.Corporate Sustainability Study Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Analysis.Corporate Sustainability - Case Study Example Key issues and such as the melting of the polarized caps, global climate change, the impacts and facts of CO2 emissions, increased awareness for the impacts of oil and gas drilling, and a host of other factors all contribute to the increased awareness and concern that consumers are reflecting towards business with regards to sustainability issues. Within such a context, it is readily noted throughout the corporate sustainability piece in question that UPS has actively engaged in seeking to promote a further level of green business and sustainability at each and every stage of their corporate structure. All the way from maximizing efficiency by utilizing advanced computer programs and metrics to plan and pack each and every plane or product that carries packages for the efficiency to utilizing LPG as a low impact/low CO2 fuel for the transit of packages and many other factors, the firm has shown a clear and definitive concern both for the demands of the consumer and the future prospec ts of the environment. KPI: relevance and use as indicators Key performance indicators are a means by which UPS can seek to track whether or not it is been successful over the past several years with regards to the key determinants of efficiency and other metrics that it has defined. Within such an understanding, UPS has defined these KPI as the following: water consumption, energy consumption, gallons of fuel per ground package, aircraft emissions per payload capacity, CO2 emissions, number of reportable spills, aviation gallons burned per 100 available time miles, CO2 pounds per available time miles, total charitable contributions, full-time employee retention rate, employee choice index, injury rate, and lost time injuries (Santiago, 2011). Within such an understanding, it can be concluded that these KPI’s are the ultimate metrics by which UPS seeks to measure itself with regards to how it has improved over the past several years and where it seeks to take the development of the firm in the very near future. Benefits of utilizing and leveraging a sustainability report Although there are many benefits that can be definitively realized as a result of the creation and analysis of a corporate sustainability report, such as the one which is been analyzed within this brief essay, the two most important benefits that such a report can provide our with respects to the internal and external benefits that can be garnered. With regards to the external benefits, the delineation and discussion of metrics, KPI’s, and other determinants are useful in encouraging shareholders of the firm to have a degree of faith that the entity is fully cognizant of the realities of the current market and is actively working to provide resolution to some of the key challenges and/or problems/opportunities that face it within the next several years (Soupata, 2011). Similarly, the benefits can also be understood with regards to the internal ramifications that such a summary ca n have. Whereas it is not unnatural for the higher of salons of corporate management to come up with reports such as the one which has been analyzed herein, it is something of an anomaly when such reports are engaged by middle management and sought to be promoted at all levels throughout the

Friday, February 7, 2020

The Alcan Case Coursework Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 3750 words

The Alcan Case - Coursework Example Advantages and Disadvantages of the current Alcon technology infrastructure When Robert Ouellette joined Alcan as the Vice President - Corporate IT, the company was found to spend 80 % of its annual IT budget on external consulting and outsourcing services and also on hardware equipment and software. The annual budget for technology infrastructure was estimated to be around $76 million. Alcan had a complex technology infrastructure to support its diverse business operations. This consisted of 400 network sites and six main data processing centres. Under this regime, Alcan also used extensive hardware equipment including 3,000 servers, 31,500 personal computers and about 9,000 laptops. In addition, the IT employees had to manage information in 30,000 voicemail boxes and also answer 3,700 calls per month. To facilitate the smooth functioning of such technology infrastructures, Alcan had forged partnerships with numerous IT firms. Thus the current technology infrastructure included a range of diverse equipments. The company’s network was extremely complex in nature. Alcan had developed clusters of interdependent sites through a period of continuous acquisitions. Different suppliers provided service on these networks: it included big suppliers like MCI, Equant, Bell, Videotron as well as small local suppliers. In order to access the central network one had to go through many of these interdependent sites which were linked to a master site which in turn was linked to another master site that was finally connected to the main network of the company. So, a person wanting to access the company network had to go through a number of sites before that. As Alcan increased its acquisitions and sales, the clusters of these sites also multiplied in number. Gradually the whole system became so complicated that it started giving rise to instabilities within the network. It was hard to predict the after effects of removing even one single link, but it could be safely presumed that the consequences w ould be difficult to manage. (Dube, Bernier, Roy 2009, p8) Alcan had contracts with six different companies till 2009 for managing its six main data processing centres. They included the Hewlett Packard and the T-Systems in Germany, the T-Systems in Paris, the IBM in Toronto, the CGI in Montreal and the CGI in Saguenay. Thus, a lot of time and resources were spent in managing these different contracts. Gradually, the responsibility of simultaneously managing the six data processing centres required a greater amount of technical expertise than that which was already available within Alcan. (Dube, Bernier, Roy 2009, p8) Advantages and Disadvantages of the new Alcon technology infrastructure Alcan started implementing an infrastructure standardization plan in 2003 after it had acquired Pechiney. Under the regime of the new technology infrastructure, an Infrastructure Shared Service Centre was first set up for bringing the networks, servers and workstations to a common platform and thus decrease the complexity of the existing technological installations. Though the operations of the different business groups varied widely from each other, their technology infras