Company Description, Core business activities and Operating locations:
Jaguar Cars Limited is a manufacturing company founded in 1922 that currently produces cars with some of the best designs (jaguar.com, 2017). It operates in the field of both designing and manufacturing luxury and sports cars. It was acquired by Ford in 1989 and has produced Formula 1 racing cars from 200 to 2004. Jaguar and Land rover were transferred to Tata Motors in 2008 and they are headquartered in the same plant of Whitley, Coventry. The company mainly operates in the automotive industry with a lot of growing opportunities in the form of innovation, design and technology. Jaguar mostly operates in the countries of United Kingdom.
Volkswagen Group operates under the parent company of Volkswagen AG (volkswagenag.com, 2017). This company also operates in the automotive industry and instead of producing luxury and sports cars, the company manufactures and produces the vehicles which can be used as both passenger vehicles and also for commercial purposes. It is one of the leading multi-brand groups in the context of automotive industry and leads the industry from some angles. The commercial vehicles produced ranges from trucks to buses and the passenger vehicles include motorcycles, small cars and just a few luxury vehicles. Volkswagen primarily operates cross six countries of America, Asia and Africa.
The social reports of both the companies talk about the various methods and ways in which the business objectives of the firms are reached with compliance to the ethical and corporate social responsibility issues (Kolk, 2016). However, the scope of the report published by Jaguar is larger than that produced by Volkswagen.
The major themes implied by the companies to evaluate the various aspects mentioned in the reports involve content analysis and quantitative analysis. Both the firms try to analyze both social environmental and financial aspects with respect to the journey they have undertaken, that is the path already covered and the path to be undertaken to reach goals in the upcoming years.
The major types of information included in the social report of Jaguar include the strategies used, the sustainable products developed by the firm, the sustainable services developed and the operations developed sustainably to produce these products and services. The report also includes information about the people and the total value and amount of global corporate social responsibility that they have or are trying to cater to (jaguar.com, 2017).
The most wide series of information included in the analysis of the social report of Volkswagen include the information about their management and strategies that help them to achieve their corporate social responsibility, their products and the processes involved in the production of those products and finally the people involved at various stages of manufacturing, development, management and research and development (volkswagenag.com, 2017). For example, the firm mentions the program called “Think Blue” which has successfully helped in manufacturing products sustainably.
Both the reports are presented in the first person and the tone and the major headings of the two reports are mostly similar. However, difference in the two reports lie in the areas of presentation and the range of information used in the two reports.
There are essentially seventeen development goals that needs to be followed by each firm operating in the automotive sector which are enlisted as follows:
Out of all these seventeen sustainable development goals most are tried to be adhered to by the both the firms (Hick et al., 2016). However, most of the goals are not addressed efficiently by both of the firms. Instead the existing systems and practices are effectively trying to make the firm more sustainable instead of taking greater care of the community and the environment in which it is operating. However, as both the firms operate in the automotive industry, it should also be noted that it is not possible for these firms to operate in a way that they cater to all of the objectives. Both firms are increasingly trying to cater to the sustainable goals in terms of bettering the lives of the community that they extend their products and services to. Both the firms mention the importance of partnerships and improved infrastructure in order to reach the goals of industry and economic growth. The report also portrays the activities and initiatives taken up by the firm to promote sustainable production in order to fulfill the development goals related to reduction of hunger and poverty. Moreover, both the firms focus on the implementation of principles of reduced inequalities especially in terms of gender inequality. For example, Volkswagen has used the revenue collections from the Environmental Mitigation Trust Fund to better the lives of children in different parts of the world where it operates.
Zadek argues that the social accountability approach of every firm is in fact inclusive approaches that in which organizations and firms are required to identify and predict and successfully and also address the changes in terms of corporate social responsibility and also cater to the volatile nature of stakeholders’ views and demands (Zadek, 2017).
The social accountability approach is utilized up to a huge extent in the report presented by Jaguar. There is a complete section in the report that talk about the engagement of the stakeholders and their view as to the extent to which the firm is catering to the various corporate social responsibilities. The report has essentially analyzed the reach of the firm in terms of reaching the goal of community’s welfare and increase in education by undertaking and increasing its partnerships with other firms operating in the same industry and under the same environment. For example, Jaguar and Land Rover are integrating the sustainability techniques together to reach better outcomes. It also mentions how the firm uses the help and aid of local governments to cater to the requirements of the environment and the people both directly and indirectly involved in the success of the firm (jaguar.com, 2017). The report states how the company uses a set of experienced and highly esteemed policy makers at the UK and the European level. It mentions how delegates of the firm regularly meet and hold conferences with ministers and parliamentarians in order to regulate its impact on the environment. One of the most assessed and discussed topic of such conferences is the analysis of Life Cycle Assessment of the various products produced. It also asserts that the firm analyses how the various sustainable strategies impact their sector and the firm and hence the stakeholders of the firm. The report also measures its contribution to various non-governmental organizations.
The social accountability approach is also used in the report published by Volkswagen. This section of the firm describes the mobility approach that the firm has undertaken to cater to the changing terms of sustainability in terms of reaching out to a larger target community base and catering to the demands of the stakeholders at the same time. It also portrays how the company has taken up activities based on a roadmap in order to achieve the self imposed goals. Most importantly, the report of Volkswagen carries out self evaluation and claims that due to certain series of misconduct and improper judgmental issues the company lagged behind in fulfilling some of the aspects of sustainability. The report claims that it will be investing a total sum of €34 billion in the upcoming years to bring about greater sustainable innovation by introducing features like e-mobility, digitalization, a wider variety and range of e-mobility and concepts of autonomous driving features (volkswagenag.com, 2017).
The report published by Jaguar claims how sustainability is an integral value associated with Jaguar and how the business plan of the firm aims at achieving a sustainable future altogether. The paper reports that it tries to produce with minimum of carbon emissions and also maximum fuel efficiency (jaguar.com 2017). The firm also tries to produce goods that are sustainable in the sense that there are better and higher facilities along with better and more innovative product creation. The report portrays how it uses a combination of innovation and electric technology to produce products that are of world class quality. For example, Jaguar has recently launched the I-Pace concept car which is the first electric sports car launched. The report also talks about the various sustainable mobility solutions business models prepared in order to cater to the sustainable development goals. One of the most important information conveyed by the report is the process in which the products are moved from the manufacturing units to the markets and customers. For example, the program called the Customer Experience Insight is used by the firm to develop the process of distribution on the basis of their own feedbacks. The report claims that the firm has switched from the method of road related transfers and switched to sea and water as a medium of transport (jaguar.com, 2017).
The report published by Volkswagen takes up measures to validate their claims about the reaching and fulfilling of sustainable goals by describing the process and the various steps of value chain associated with the process. The paper in effect brings to light the step of research and development undertaken to develop and produce smart products that help in collecting and analyzing information based on the use of devices which provide greater mobility and also bring about better digitalization and networking which in turn helps the firm to adhere to goals related to higher economic and infrastructural returns as well as the educational goals. The firm also describes the process of procurement in which the firm spends millions to ensure sustainable supply chain relationships and transport of their goods (volkswagenag.com, 2017). For example, the firm won the Green Car of the Year Award for producing some of the most sustainable cars. Next the process of production is described in which the safety and security of the workers is looked at and catered to as one of the sustainable goals apart from ensuring the environmental safety with respect to reduced pollution.
The only and most widely acclaimed perspective of mine that matches with the majority of the ideas that have been formed by the fellow members of my group is that being two of the best car companies in the automotive sector, both Jaguar and Volkswagen tries to adhere to their set of corporate social responsibility and maintain their social accounting in such a way that they rank high in the market not only in terms of revenue generation but also in terms of sustainability. My major perspective about firms was that the top firms in the automotive market will never be able to apply the concepts of business sustainability and reduce pollution as these firms are responsible for manufacturing products that are most prone to causing pollution. However, on reading the report each of us realized how the use of newer forms of technology, electronic devices and the features of e-mobility and use of diverse modes off communication and transport in these sectors are helping these firms to adhere the terms and conditions of sustainability while maintaining high end and long term stakeholder relations at the same time. We also learnt how important the social report of companies is in the analysis of its roadmap as to how far it has reached in terms of reaching its sustainability goals and how far it has to go in terms of reaching higher goals. The reports are also important in terms of highlighting the various activities and initiatives that the firms could take up or invest in as a result of having revenue generation and high ranks in the market.
Conclusion:
From the above discussions of the themes and formats and subjects covered in the report along with information on the sustainability goals and the extent to which the firms are trying to reach these goals. The reports show how with time the sustainability issue has become very important for firms working in the automotive sector as this manufacturing industry is highly prone to a lot of risk and pollution generation. The reports also establish the various levels at which different sections of the workforce work and collaborate to provide better means of sustainability, that is, making sure of the fact that the benefits accrued to the present generation is not at the cost of the benefits of the future generation.
References:
(jaguar.com, 2017) Available online at: https://www.jaguar.com/about-jaguar/sustainability/sustainability_report.html
(volkswagenag.com, 2017) Available online at: https://sustainabilityreport2016.volkswagenag.com/home.html
Hicks, C. C., Levine, A., Agrawal, A., Basurto, X., Breslow, S. J., Carothers, C., … & Garcia-Quijano, C. (2016). Engage key social concepts for sustainability. Science, 352(6281), 38-40.
Kolk, A. (2016). The social responsibility of international business: From ethics and the environment to CSR and sustainable development. Journal of World Business, 51(1), 23-34.
Zadek, S. (2017). Civil governance and accountability: from fear and loathing to social innovation. In Tomorrow’s History(pp. 85-91). Routledge.
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