After you complete your degree, you are hired by The Peddle Power Company to be their Environmental/Sustainability Coordinator. This is a new position for them, in the past they have made sure to comply with environmental rules and regulations and considered that sufficient. Your job is to move them to a new level as they would like to be able to take advantage of the renewed interest in “green” products and processes. But they don’t really know how to get there.
Background: The Peddle Power company makes bicycles. They make road bikes, mountain bikes and hybrids. They sell their bikes through bike stores that are owned and operated by others. They manufacture their bikes at one manufacturing plant in Blue Sky, ID. They make their bikes using traditional manufacturing processes. They have not seen any growth in their business for the last ten years and would like to grow by at least 10% per year in both sales and profit and to do this in the most sustainable way possible: environmentally, economically, and socially.
The first task you are given is to write a briefing paper for management that lays out your plan for the next five years. They want to understand your vision for where they should be as a company in 5 years. They want to see what steps you plan to take to assess where they are now, to plan for future changes, and to implement those changes over time. Try to be both idealistic and realistic. If they think your plan is not possible, your job may be at risk. However, they did hire you to transform the company and have given you a chance to lay out a new future for them. Management of the company is your audience for this paper, speak directly to them.
You don’t need to become an expert in bikes or production processes but try and be as detailed as you can. In other words, don’t use vague generalities like “reduce waste”. What type of waste? What is your plan for measuring it and then reducing it? Vague general statements will only put you on the hot seat when you present your ideas to mangement, think through the steps that you plan to take and layout your concepts so that your audience can see the roadmap.