Introduction
Every major
organization today is faced with the issue of change. Change is necessary in
organizations for a variety of reasons. It could be the need to cope up with
technological advancements, the need of coming up with more efficient work
procedures, restructuring of the organization structure due to changing
environmental factors both internal and external or just changing as part of a
rebranding exercise. But while change is both inevitable and necessary, it is
imperative that it should be sustainable change. Sustainable development is a
term that was coined by the World Commission on Environment in the year 1987
and it was translated to mean the development should be addressing the problems
of the present without compromising the future generations (Clegg &Walsh,
2004).
One of the
organizations that have successfully implemented a change program for corporate
sustainability is the Canon Company. Canon is a multinational Japanese company founded
in the year 1937. It is a leading manufacturer in the imaging and optical
products industry. The sustainable development initiatives of the company can
be traced back to 1994 when the company began publishing Global Environmental
reports. BY the year 1997, canon Oceania had also began publishing their
reports. The year 2009 was a culmination of a long campaign by Canon and other
leaders in the IT industry to get legislation introduced into Australia to make
recycling of E Waste mandatory (Keifer,2005).
Sustainability Problem
In the context
of research, Projects are said to be simultaneously beneficial. This is because
they are directed towards solving a problem (Hult& Lennung, 1980). Global
warming has been one of the greatest concerns for companies. If it is not to be
put in check, then it will overly influence increase in cost of primary
materials and other supplies. Furthermore, global warming will have the effect
of social disruption due to extreme weather patterns and climates. This is not
a good environment for business practice. The other problem identified is the
customer’s efficiency resource programs. While it was easy to control the
company’s waste and effectively manage it, the electronic waste form the
customers could not easily be controlled. The tradeoff would be to increase the
product life time but the demerit of this would be increased production cost
which would lead to a decline in profits.
Another big
challenge is the global economic downturn. The hard economic times naturally
affected canon. However, it was noted that while the company was affected
globally, Oceanic Canon was able to weather the storms of this hard times. This
could be attributed to government stimulus packages as well as the strong
economy which was a suitable environment for them to operate in. Canon did some
research to establish on the need for government legislation to enhance sustainable
change. As Hult and Lennung (1980) point out, there has always been a
relationship between research and the application of the results. Perhaps this
was what informed Canon’s management to embark on an ambitious research initiative.
Oceanic Canon set up the Byteback pilot program in Victoria to investigate
different models of how a Product Stewardship Legislation scheme might work and
to demonstrate to the government that its legislation was necessary. This was consistent with the organization
culture at canon of innovation. Conceptual cultures in an organization serve
help in guiding research (Hatch).
The Byteback program which is still running
was put up to form the basis of a national scheme to be rolled out across the
country. It showed that over 50% of the waste that was collected was from
recalcitrant manufacturers who were not prepared to take a responsible attitude
to product stewardship without legislation. Their effort s bore fruit when the
government announced that it would introduce Product Stewardship Legislation in
2011. This legislation will be capable of covering a broad range of products,
and that first cab off the rank will be a national scheme for TVs and IT
equipment. This was something that Canon had been fighting to see for close to
eight years.
The Change Process
Initially, its experts
widely thought that there is a blanket procedure for change that could be a universal
standard. However, as Dunphy and Stace (1993) point out, this is changing with
time. Different circumstances catapult different reactions and changes within
different organizations. For instance, the
2009 Sustainability Report Canon reported a 13% reduction in waste to landfill
since 2007 which had been set as the benchmark year. This percentage could be
small but if the Organization Development theory is anything to go by, change happens
by small cumulative adjustments (Dunphy & Stace, 1988).
As organizations
change, they must put environmental factors of the globe in mind (Russell &
McIntosh). One of the notable Changes that were put in place that could have
made this possible is the appointment of a national waste provider. This was
with an aim of improving the accuracy of the company’s reporting. The company was also contracted to identify
opportunities for improvement where Canon could reduce its waste to landfill
further. Plans are also underway at the
moment to implement a new data base that will capture carbon emissions and
waste on a month by month basis so that we can monitor our progress against
targets and implement corrective action if necessary. Canon has put in place a project management
methodology that includes conducting a lessons learned session after each
report. This helps them come up with lessons learnt and gives them new
strategies.
The change
process of canon also focused on the customer base. This can be seen through
the Creation of products, services and information that assist customers with
their efficiency. For instance, the Uniflow and SecurePrint software have been
developed to help achieve this goal. The
company also decided to focus on tailor-made solutions for the customers. This
is because there are constantly changing needs as well as a very dynamic
technological environment. This put a demand on the company to continually
focus on long-term development of new products. Efficiency has the long term
desired effect of reduced waste and reduced carbon foot prints.
The company also
made a bold step with the goal of surmounting the challenges of a global
economic instability by having a diverse portfolio. This would cushion The
Company from the risk of lack of business in the dynamic environment. Canon is
one of the two leading companies in their field. They have been tendering with
the government and their experience is that tenders from government departments
and large corporate clients are requiring an increasing amount of information
about the environmental performance of both the products and the organisation.
They are also increasing the information required about CSR initiatives. Canon
found that they can always do well in this part of the tender by providing
their Sustainability Report and reference to our web site. Customers understand that they take
Sustainability seriously and this means that they get to be contended. While
Sustainability issues may not be the decider in tenders there is an ever
increasing standard that the company has had to meet to even be considered.
The goals of
Oceanic Canon are based on the global goals and their performance is measured
against a standard set of criteria. However there are always differences in the
local market and Canon provides a great deal of freedom to Canon Oceania to
pursue their own strategies according to their region. Also the focus changes
with time. Their focus in Australia as
described in the sustainability report has been to integrate the business and
consumer marketing activities and to strengthen their position in the market by
going into partnerships to provide more channels by which their products are
sold.
For some of the
other Canon companies they have already taken this approach and are focused on
different issues – for example in UK where the economy is not in as good shape
as in Australia and the government has
announced big cut backs in spending. This will have an impact on their strategy
compared to that of Oceanic Canon. In
the environmental area their focus has been on the coming E Waste legislation
whereas in Europe the WEEE legislation has been in place for some time.
Some gains are
hard to measure as they have to do with the company’s Brand and reputation.
Product Stewardship activities like Byteback and Cartridges for Planet Ark fall
into this category, there have also been huge savings in electricity in New
Zealand and CiSRA as well as the reduction in waste to landfill which has
resulted in savings at some branches in waste costs. In economic terms there are the company has
implemented innovative marketing programs in the consumer product area to
directly target the consumers while at the same time supporting the
resellers. The consumer products are
sold through an indirect mode; that is their products are not sold directly by
Canon but through partners such as Officewor.
Bottlenecks
As would be
expected, nothing comes without its ups and downs. It has not been smooth
sailing for canon. There are some of the sustainability initiatives that didn’t
pick up immediately as had been planned. Last year after much research on best
opportunities for abatement the company adopted a Canon Oceania target to
reduce its Green House Gas Emissions by 1.5% per year until 2020. The idea was
to use the target that Ross Garnaut had proposed was Australia’s fair share of
reduction if the world wanted to keep below 2 degrees of warming, that is, 25%
reduction on 2000 levels. Because carbon
emissions are not one person’s responsibility but involve many different
functions in the business it has taken longer than expected to get everyone to
understand the target, to understand
their role in achieving it, and to
commit to actions that they can take in their area.
The other
impediment has been competing for resources with other projects. As with all
corporate initiatives you have to compete amongst a whole range of priorities
for senior management time and resources. The resistance to change is often as
a result of personality differences (Oreg, 2006) and this has proved to be a
challenge for canon. Convincing management on the importance of sustainability
indicatives over other projects has been a tall order. However the managing director has been
supportive of such initiatives and there have been no significant issues that
have been strongly resisted. But still, some projects are taking longer than
expected. Change management is always hard because it is not easy to agree on
the factors that should influence it. (SirKin, Keenan & Jackson, 2005). There is also the challenge of being
able to clearly articulate the business case which sometimes takes one or two
iterations.
Another
challenge for Canon has been in the economic area. While there has been massive
growth in the consumer electronics area there has also been significant
competitive pressure and pressure on margins. The company has had to take
actions like reduction on transportation costs to stay in front of the market
in the consumer area and to improve their position in the office equipment market. There is also the
coming product stewardship legislation which has meant that management has been
very heavily involved with the industry and government in establishing an
effective national scheme for collection and recycling of E Waste – taking into
account the lessons learned from the home insulation scheme!
Conclusion
Canon is a
leading manufacturer in the imaging and optical products industry. The
sustainable development initiatives of the company can be traced back to 1994
when the company began publishing Global Environmental reports the year 2009
was a culmination of a long campaign by Canon and other leaders in the IT
industry to get legislation introduced into Australia to make recycling of E
Waste mandatory. This has been a good precedent that has been set in place and
it should be emulated not only by the management involved, but by every
employee of the company as well as the customers. Leadership begins when a
problem is noticed. When this problem persists on, the person is inspired to
help. This is leadership (Wheatley, 2008). The company should therefore impress
on everyone to embrace the sustainable change initiatives and own the process.
References
Clegg, S. & Walsh, L. (2004). Lecture 2: Drivers
of Change [PDF].
Dunphy, C. & Stace A. (1988). Transformation and Coercive Strategies for
Planned Organizational Change: Beyond
the OD Model. London: Ebsco Publishing.
Dunphy, C. & Stace A. (1993). The Strategic Management of Corporate Change
In Human Relations. 46(18).
Hatch, P. (1993). The Dynamics Of Organization Culture: Academic Management Review,
18(4), 657-693.
Hult, M. & Lennung S. (1980). Towards a Definition of Action Research: A Journal
of Management Studies, 242-250.
Keifer, T. (2005).Feeling Bad: antecedents and
consequences of negative emotions in ongoing change. Journal of Organizational Behavior. 26, 875–897.
Oreg, S. (2006). Personality,
context, and resistance to organizational change. 15 (1)73 – 101
Russell, S.V., & McIntosh, M. (in press).
Organizational Change for Sustainability. In N. M. Ashkanasy, C. P. M. Wilderom & M. F. Peterson (Eds.),
Handbook of Organizational Culture &
Climate (2nd ed.).Sage.
Sirkin, L., Keenan P,
& Jackson A. (2005). The hard side of change. Harvard Business review, 109-113.
Wheatley (2008). What is our role in creating
change? London: Berrett-Koehler Publishers Inc.
No comments:
Post a Comment