Sustainability/Corporate Social Responsibility Report: Case Study of Adidas
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Sustainability/Corporate Social Responsibility Report2
Sustainability/Corporate Social Responsibility Report: Case Study of Qantas Group
INTRODUCTION
Qantas is an Australian airline that carries out its business operations in different global
parts. It is ranked as the largest airline in terms of the fleet size and the overall number of the
international flights it has. On the other hand, the airline is among the oldest airlines to be
founded as it comes third after Avianca and KLM. Briefly, Qantas was founded in the year 1920.
The heart of the business operations is located in Sydney where the main hub or operation area is
the Sydney Airport. Over 60% of the total share are considered to be in the domestic market
while the remaining one is considered to be allocated to the passengers travelling to various
global regions. The airline is also considered to have embraced the concept of workplace
diversification. This is due to the fact that it has tried to integrated people of all races as its
employees (Qantas, 2015). For instance, during the year 2007, it introduced an initiative dubbed
as Torres Strait Islanders and Aboriginal working program. At this juncture, the main objective
was to create some mandatory positions for the two marginalized communities in order for them
to enjoy equal rights and privileges in the airline. For instance, today, Qantas has reserved 1-2%
of all working positions to these communities. Contrarily, the company can be said to have
experienced a managerial difficulty, especially in its human resource department, due to the fact
that the total number of employees have been decreasing since the year 2012. The airline has a
total number 33,584 employees in 2012, 33, 265 during the following year, and 30,751 in 2015.
The number reduced further to 28,622 by the end of the last financial year (Qantas, 2015). The
nose-diving is a worrying one given that it does not correspond with the increment in the total
number of passengers who prefer using Qantas Airline. The vision of the airline company is to
make sure it has created the best low fares and premium airlines in the world. In short, it is
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interested at ensuring its passengers have benefitted from the cheap and affordable airline
services compared to its rivals. Furthermore, Qantas has an overall plan or vision of dominating
in the airline business not only in the Pacific region but also in other parts of the world.
Contrarily, the airline cannot be said to have had stable profitability margin over the recent past
few years. For instance, it incurred a total loss of -2,843million Australian dollars in 2014
(Qantas, 2015). This presented a reduction in the level of business performance compared to the
profitability margin it registered during the previous financial year. As noted earlier, the airline is
highly concerned about streamlining its business operations by ensuring that they lie within the
socially accepted grounds. For instance, the diversification of its workplace is a very good
example of the social aspect the company has tried to improve. Apart from that, the business has
also tried to incorporate environmental sustainability issues. For instance, it tried to make sure its
aircrafts are properly maintained in order to emit enormous harmful gases, thus, polluting the
environment. It has also tried to integrate other important environmental sustainable programs in
order to keep on improving the environmental conservation awareness initiatives among its
employees, passengers, and the community at large. Therefore, this paper will delve on
examining Qantas airline operations and performance based on important business issues and
aspects such as the financial records, social initiatives, and the environmental programs the
airline has introduced to enable an investor make informed decision regarding investment.
Financial/Economic Performance
Qantas Group can also be considered a very active organization in terms of financial and
economic performance. Being among the oldest airlines in the world, it has been able to lay
down a lot of strong economic foundation that has enabled it to have gain huge profit in the
period it has remained operational. Despite it experiencing huge variation in terms of
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profitability especially over the recent past, it has been able to register some impressive financial
performance during some financial years. For instance, the airline was able to register a ‘before
tax profit’ of $975 during the financial year 2014/2015 (Qantas, 2015). However, the “after tax
profit” during the same financial year was considered to have raised to the level of $560 million
(Qantas, 2015). Furthermore, the earning during the second half of these financial year was
considered to be the best especially due to the fact that there was improved performance among
the employees. As a result, the move ended up attracting more passengers to use Qantas Group
airline services.
On the other hand, the airline has also been able to register improved cumulative benefits
especially towards the end of 2013. According to Qantas (2015) it was able to register an
improved performance of benefits, which accumulated to $1.1 billion. In short, such
improvement indicated a considerable improvement in the generated revenue while at the same
time reducing the overall costs being incurred. In short, some of the financial/economic benefits
associated with Qantas Airline during the financial year are indicated below;
Earnings before interest and tax were equal to $975 million
Earnings after interest and tax were equal to $560 million
The return on capital investment was equal to 16%
The operating cash flow $2 billion
The Net Free cash flow was equal to $1.1 billion
The realized transformation benefits totaled at $894 million
The reduction in the net debt for the airline was $1 billion
The statutory earning per share (EPS) stood at 25.4% (Qantas, 2015)
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The analysis of the financial information indicated above is a clear sign that Qantas
Airline is conduct a solvent business. This is due to the fact that it has been able to register a net
profit of $560. The upholding of the assertion comes along despite the fact that the group has
debt of $1 billion. The amount of profit it earned during the financial year is a clear indication
that its ability to repay its loan is not a challenge at all due to the fact that its net profit is more
than a half of the total debt. As a result, this means that it is possible for Qantas to wind up its
overall debt within a period of 5 to 10 years after which it can start enjoying the net profit
without the worries of repaying any form of debt.
Social performance
As noted earlier, Qantas is one of the most effective organizations in terms of ensuring
that the social welfare of its employees, passengers, and other community members are taken
care of properly (Drew, 2013). The major objective of carrying out the above mentioned
initiative is to make sure the airline does not taint its image both locally and internationally. First,
its initiative to allocate some working positions to the Aborigines and Strait Island people is one
of the best social initiative the airline has ever made. Since its inception, the initiative has
managed to offer 1-2% of its total job positions to the two marginalized communities (Chang et
al., 2015). As a result, the step has enabled the airline to gain an Australian image where all
members of the community are deemed to have equal chances of working there. Apart from that,
the move has enable Qantas to have a boost in its total approval rating ratings among the
Australians as the number one choice whenever they want to travel by air. The group has also
tried to ensure the airline has created a program that can help to create a sustainable wage system
despite there being destructive external forces such as the recent world inflation. The move has
not only enable the employees not only to receive their salaries but also enable them to have
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bonus whenever they able to complete a full financial year. The major aim of creating such an
important program is to make sure the employee’s social welfares are protected despite there
being strong forces of economic inflation that have ended up affecting many organizations
globally.
Apart from that, Qantas Airline has also moved in to create an effective employees
agreement programs in in order to create good industrial relationships. For instance, one of the
most effective aspects that can be used to create a proper engagement strategy between the
employees and the airline (Drew, 2013). As a result, the creation of the agreement has enabled
the both sides to a proper, effective, and constructive dialogue between the stakeholders and the
union groups such as those formed by the employees. For instance, the creation of the
‘Enterprise Bargaining Agreements (EBA)’ has enable Qantas Airline to be transformed in a
positive manner where the organization has found it safe to initiative most of its transformative
agendas (Chang et al., 2015). As a result, the creation of better working terms and conditions has
ended up rising the morale of the union groups. As a result, Qantas has continued being highly
effective compared to the other rivals in other global parts. The employees are also sign the
agreement in order to be covered for at least a wage freeze period of 18 months. This means that
they are assured of their job security despite the community running and operating through
hardships such as the external economic forces. Moreover, the move also means that the
company is also able to keep on creating an effective way of dealing with all grievances raised
by their employees thoroughly and in good time.
The airline’s board of governance has also ended up creating a proper ethical procedure
for any employee who may have important information that may unearth a person that have been
involved in any form of organizational impropriety (Chang et al., 2015). Apart from that, the
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airline understand that any form of whistleblowing may end up endangering the life of such an
employee. As a result, it has ended up creating a proper protection procedure where such
employees will remain enormous as their real identity will never be revealed at any given time.
In short, the ethical procedure is meant to instill fear and to promote financial austerity among
the top management officials of the organization. Contrarily, the same rule prohibits any of the
Qantas Airline employee to engage in any form of trading between organization and another
party (Qantas, 2015). At this juncture, they are not supposed to be involved, in any form, in
taking care of the financial security of the company in case they are in possession of any form of
private and confidential information. The move is deemed important due to the fact that it helps
to ensure there is protection of the available and crucial information concerning the company.
The best performing employees are properly remunerated in order to promote a hard
working culture among the whole Qantas Airline community. The major aim is to promote
proper working ethics in a manner such that there would be effective customer experience. The
airline understand that the improvement in the delivery of services can help to improve the image
of the whole organization. As a result, this would act as a very important step that can help to
transform the operations of the business, thus, transforming it in a proper and positive manner.
Furthermore, the move is deemed highly important in trying to create a proper way of improving
the overall profit margin of the airline (Chang et al., 2015). Therefore, this is the major reason
Qantas Airline strives at supporting a positive employees’ culture where they are made to believe
they have a share of the company. The major aim is to create a sense of ownership among the
employees in order to promote a strong sense of working. They never feel excluded by the top
management teams, as well as other important shareholders (Drew, 2014). In short, some of the
social benefits the employees as set to gain through Qantas airline include the non-cash benefits,
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Base Pay or cash benefits, and cash bonuses, which also called STIP. These benefits are evenly
spread on the basis of different organizational aspects such as in the case of the injuries, falling
sick, holiday seasons, and during the retirement period.
Environmental Performance
Qantas Airline has also created a set of rules that tends to take care of its environmental
obligations. It is worth understanding that the group does not carry out its business operations as
an autonomous body but rather as part of different international and regional communities. For
instance, its airline operations have to be governed by the environmental sustainability laws
enacted by bodies such as the Commonwealth, the Territory, and the State. Furthermore, Qantas
has also tried to adhere to the sustainability rules set by the international environmental
regulation commission and legislation commission (Qantas Group, 2013). In short, the main
purpose of the main purpose for the adhering to such important rule is to make sure the
organization is not affected, at all during its entire operation. Apart from that, it understand that
failure to adhere to the set environmental conservation rules may not only attract fines but also
taint its international image (Qantas Group, 2013). In short, the proper incorporation of the
environmental rules, by creating management avenues that improve the operations of any
organizations, have been deemed ones of the ethical business practices.
For instances, Qantas Airline has come up with proper environmental regulation policies
in order to sensitize the employees, the management team, the stake holders, and the immediate
community on the need of conserve it (Drew, 2014). For instance, it makes sure the aircrafts are
properly maintained and checked before use in order to make sure they do not pollute the
environment (Qantas Group, 2013). The major aim is to make sure it has maintained high
standards of environmental performance as one of its major objectives, thus, qualifying it to be
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among the top most organizations to promote the organizational sustainability (Qantas, 2015).
The environmental sustainability program has not only been incorporated among its employees
but also among its major national and international partners. Here, it pays special focus on issues
such as the health, safety, security, and the general environment. This is due to the fact that it
wants to minimize the overall pollution is cause to the environmental and to the rest of the
community it comes into contact.
The group has come up with a special board of committee that has been fully entrusted
with the mandate of over-sighting the proper compliance and implementation of the
environmental rules (Qantas Group, 2013). Therefore, the board is supposed to make sure all
departments have complied with the set environmental sustainability rule while at the same time
ensuring that proper corrective measures have been carried out in order to correct any department
that defies such rules. The formation of such special committee is a clear indication the group
has taken the environmental conservation issues with the much seriousness they deserve. This is
due to the fact that the committee is able to initiate a proper working procedure where adequate
systems end up being enacted (Chang et al., 2015). It is also responsible for exposing any form
of flaws that may exists during the enactment of the environmental conservation program
(Qantas Group, 2013). Moreover, it also helps to make sure there is maintenance of a steady path
for the measurement of the environmental performance for the Qantas airline at all times. The
groups has also made sure there is holding of proper licenses, as well as permits that depicts it is
willing to comply with the set environmental conservation rules and procedures (Drew, 2014).
Apart from that, it also makes sure there is effective compliance to the set environmental
conservation rules among its major partners. For instance, it has also been very active in
participating in major environmental conservation forums both locally, as well as internationally.
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The major aim is to create a proper working ground and also to promote awareness about the
importance of taking care of the environment in order to make sure there is increased security for
the posterity.
Conclusion
Based on the analysis carried out in the three sections mentioned above, it is worth
pointing out Qantas Airline is one of the best option an investor can worth investing in. This is
due to the fact that the airline has been determined to have a positive business operation. Its
capability to register positive net profit prospects is a clear indication the investor stands a
chance of earning form the shares he/she will have invested. Contrarily, the airline has also been
ranked as one of the best in terms of adhering to the social rule. The employees are offered
enough freedom to enhance their performance and hence more growth of the business prospects.
Likewise, Qantas is also very sensitive about matters concerning the environmental awareness,
principles, and regulations. This means that it has continued improving its international and local
business image, thus, standing a chance of expanding its passengers’ base.
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Bibliography
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CSR in the Airline Industry: The Case of Asia-Pacific Airlines. Sustainability, 7(6),
7762-7783.
Drew, C. 2013. The Spirit of Australia: learning about Australian childhoods in Qantas
commercials. Global Studies of Childhood, 1(4), 321.
Drew, C. 2014. Pacific Southwest Airlines: The First Large Discount Airline. Deregulation and
Competition: Lessons from the Airline Industry, 101-122.
Qantas Group. 2013 Our Commitment to Environmental Sustainability. Qantas Group Airline. 1-
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Qantas. 2015. A Strong, Sustainable, and Future: Qantas Annual Report 2 0 1 5. Qantas Airline
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