Dow Chemical
Faculty of Business Administration
Academic Year 2014-2015
MBA 6503
Organizational Studies
Case Report:
DOW CHEMICAL: INNOVATING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
By
Vi Nguyen
Student # 3503832
Instructor: Prof. Doug Flint
October, 2014
Background on Dow Chemical Company (Dow)
Dow, a multinational corporation based in Midland of Michigan in the United State, was R&D-intensive and diversified-industry leader in chemistries, advanced materials, and agro-sciences with technology-based products and solutions. Dow’s annual sale in 2010 was $53.7 billion with approximately 50,000 employees world-wide.
Issues
Immediate issues:
Dow’s vision to be “the most profitable and respected science-driven chemical company in the world” was looking for aspirations and commitments to build on the momentum to drive Dow’s science and people into unprecedented areas of leadership, collaboration, and change.
Basis issue:
Dow pursues a two-phase ambitious plan to achieve profitability and sustainability goals. This dilemma hardly reached optimum solutions in short-run as expected by Dow’s top management team and stakeholders.
Importance of the issue
As a leading chemical company providing key inputs to various companies, Dow should satisfy the needs of its employees and public on safety, technology-advanced innovation, and environmental conservation. Without an effective strategic plan to address increasing conflicts of profitability and environmental sustainability, Dow’s growth might be impacted and profitability goals could not achieved as expected while the environmental conservation campaigns challenged Dow’s reputation.
Urgency of the issues
Depending on the public access to company internal information and education level of surrounding public and employees, Dow should sooner or later solve the problems of environmental sustainability while maintaining high growth to satisfy the profitability expectation of shares’ holders.
Analysis
Frame Work and Theories
This
Academic Year 2014-2015
MBA 6503
Organizational Studies
Case Report:
DOW CHEMICAL: INNOVATING FOR SUSTAINABILITY
By
Vi Nguyen
Student # 3503832
Instructor: Prof. Doug Flint
October, 2014
Background on Dow Chemical Company (Dow)
Dow, a multinational corporation based in Midland of Michigan in the United State, was R&D-intensive and diversified-industry leader in chemistries, advanced materials, and agro-sciences with technology-based products and solutions. Dow’s annual sale in 2010 was $53.7 billion with approximately 50,000 employees world-wide.
Issues
Immediate issues:
Dow’s vision to be “the most profitable and respected science-driven chemical company in the world” was looking for aspirations and commitments to build on the momentum to drive Dow’s science and people into unprecedented areas of leadership, collaboration, and change.
Basis issue:
Dow pursues a two-phase ambitious plan to achieve profitability and sustainability goals. This dilemma hardly reached optimum solutions in short-run as expected by Dow’s top management team and stakeholders.
Importance of the issue
As a leading chemical company providing key inputs to various companies, Dow should satisfy the needs of its employees and public on safety, technology-advanced innovation, and environmental conservation. Without an effective strategic plan to address increasing conflicts of profitability and environmental sustainability, Dow’s growth might be impacted and profitability goals could not achieved as expected while the environmental conservation campaigns challenged Dow’s reputation.
Urgency of the issues
Depending on the public access to company internal information and education level of surrounding public and employees, Dow should sooner or later solve the problems of environmental sustainability while maintaining high growth to satisfy the profitability expectation of shares’ holders.
Analysis
Frame Work and Theories
This