Monsanto: A Global Agriculture Company Focused On Sustainability

Company have the opportunity to focus on Soybean and Corn seeds

Growth opportunities in the Asia Pacific and African regions.

Strategic acquisitions can increase the cash flows.

Expansion of the company in the Latin America and India to enhance revenues because of the highly agricultural oriented places.

Enhance and improve the chemicals and procedures in the area of biotechnology.

International Monsanto Tribunal Advisory Opinion

Analysis of the data submitted by Monsanto to the Indian authorities on genetically engineered.

Structure is adequately developed, with all or most elements include

About Monsanto

Monsanto is a global modern agriculture company and it is an American based multinational agricultural biotechnology Corporation having its headquarters at St.  Louis Missouri.  This company basically help the farmers all around the world to grow their crops by effectively utilizing the energy, water and land.

The company believes that innovation has the great potential to bring a balance between the human beings and sources of our planet. However, the company believes in three core values which are integrity, respect and transparency.  In this company, more than 20000 employees are working across the world and it is providing its facilities in 69 countries. The company is committed to a carbon neutral footprint by the year 2021. This company was founded by John Francis queeny in the year 1901.The company started as manufacturer business chemicals,and then in the year 2000 to 2009, the company started focusing on the agricultural field by introducing Chemicals for the agriculture sector. There are many types of products offered by the company such as crop seed, glyph sate herbicides and row crops. Monsanto is the first Agriculture company across the globe that introduce the second generation biotechnology create products and the revenue of the company is around dollar $ 14.64 billion(Mayes, 2010).

Stakeholders are playing a very important role in running the business successfully. These stakeholders are affected by the actions of the company. Stakeholders of the Monsanto Company are customers, investors and shareholders, employees, competitors, suppliers and government agencies.  However, Monsanto Company maintains the ethical culture that respond to the primary as well as secondary stakeholders. Moving ahead, the marginal, overlooked and the underestimated stakeholders also identified. Marginal stakeholders are those which are highly affected by the firm's actions such as employees, investors and farmers(Monsanto, 2017). Talking about overlooked stakeholders, then there are three types of stakeholders includes internal stakeholders, customers and external stakeholders. On the other side, underestimated stakeholders are those which are highly neglected by the company, but they are important for the actions of company.  Some of the stakeholders of Monsanto Company are mentioned as below:

1. Investors or stockowners:

The below list is the list of top 10 investors of the Monsanto company with the percentage of the stock and origin. The maximum percentage of the stock is held by the Fidelety management and research i.e. 9.01%.

2. Competitors

Competitors are also the major part of the Monsanto company and major competitors analysed for Monsanto Company includes multinational giant Dow chemical Company(DOW), agricultural genomics firm Evogene Ltd., and seed and chemical supplier Syngenta (SYT), based in Switzerland.

3. Customers

Core Values and Products

Monsanto Company has the direct relations with the consumers. The company’s direct primary customer is the Farmers and agricultural product traders.

Monsanto Company worked with the business for Social Responsibility (BSR) in order to identify the sustainability levels exist in the company. There are many social and environmental issues faced by the company such as climate change, integrity and transparency, food security, use of the less natural resources, and less focus towards the work and society, and decrease in the food availability and access. Modern agriculture is the sustainability approach of the company that provides support to the farmers by providing them some digital tools and the company believes in the fact that “growing better together”. This sustainability approach involves the three main goals or approaches for the company, which is better planet, better life, and better partner(Grant, 2005).

According to the report of sustainability of the company 2017, various facts and figures have been identified that explains the contribution of the company towards handling various social and environmental challenges. The company adopted sustainability approaches towards the various social and environmental issues faced by the firm. The environmental issues that faced by the company includes climate change, natural disasters and less protection for the animals and birds. The company took a lot of initiatives to handle these kinds of the issues. Looking at the facts and figures from the sustainability report, the company has taken the following initiatives:

• Established more than 70% habitats for monarch butterflies
• Company invested more than US $5 million on the Honey Bee health research,
• Building strategies towards at the achievement of carbon neutral food front by the year 2021
• Continued to help the farmers use one by third here resources for unit and
• Company improved its overall irrigation water application efficiency to 77%.
• Also, to handle the environmental issues the company can initiate to manage the 89% of the waste from landfills. 

Moreover, social issues that company faced are related to the food availability and impact of the company on the society and towards the life of farmers. In order to tackle these challenges, the company is:

• Providing training to the more than 2.5 million smallholders farmers,
• Helping 5 million resource poor farmers’ families and
• Improving the food quality and increase the availability 1.5 million people.
• Targeting the 100K farmers across the 400 village in India.

This is true with regard to the company that it refers to the Triple bottom line or Modern sustainability development goals (MSDG). These sustainability approaches or goals are agreed upon the 2030 development agenda of the United Nations, UN global compact, and sustainable development goals. The company and its work are contributed to each of the sustainability development goals.  There are six Sustainability goals have been identified through the extensive mapping process out of which the company identified the three main MSDG goals which are found more significant and the relevant to the business of the Monsanto(Lengreth, 2009).

1. Better planet: The Company has the aim to make this planet better by handing all the environmental issues. The company is taking actions against the climate change and the natural disaster issues faced by the company.
2. Better lives: The second MSDG goal of the company is to make the lives of the farmers and society better. The company is focusing to provide the food availability facilities to the farmers and the society by providing training to the smallholders’ farmers, by helping resource poor farmer families and by improving the food quality and increase the availability to millions of people in a year.  
3. Better Partner: The most important sustainable goal of the company is to work with the integrity and transparency by undertaking the clean water, hygiene and sanitation projects.

The sustainability report of Monsanto Company is prepared in accordance with the GRI index which is a global reporting initiative that includes the various elements important for the organizational reporting. There are many issues related to environment and social has been faced by the organization and the company took initiatives in order to handle these risks. All the important aspects of the environmental and social category have been described in the following table which show the indicators of the global reporting initiative (GRI).

• Climate change:Climate change is the biggest challenge faced by the company as it has a direct impact on the agriculture as well as on the humanity. Monsanto Company is totally dependent on the agriculture industry, so it is better to take care of this challenge as it will lead to some of the effects such as drought, extreme heat, rise in the sea levels, flooding and the changing weather conditions.
• Water: Ensuring the access and usage of clean and fresh water is the other environmental issue faced by the company.There are around 70% of the water is consumed by the human beings in the production of crops and other agricultural activities.  There are many areas in the world facing the scarcity of the water due to the greater demand and because of the growing population(Monsanto Limited, 2001).
• Biodiversity:The term biodiversity is defined as the variations in the life on this earth. There are millions of the plants, animals and the other species which are essential for the growth and the feeding of the increasing population. The company facing challenges as there is very low protection and preservation towards the biodiversity.
• Greenhouse gas emissions:The change in the climate also leads to increase the percentage level of the gas emissions such as it increases to 24% of the carbon dioxide in the environment. Therefore, the goal of the company is to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions by 22% during crop production.  By the year 2016, the company still focusing on to reduce the levels.
• High wastage:During the production of the food and working towards various projects, the company faced a high wastage of the products. The company need to control the food waste, pesticide waste, fuel waste for the healthy life and environment.

Stakeholders of Monsanto Company

Social issues that company faced are related to the food availability and impact of the company on the society and towards the life of farmers. In order to tackle these challenges, the company is providing training to the more than 2.5 million smallholders farmers,helping 5 million resource poor farmer families and improving the food quality and increasing the availability 1.5 million people. According to the category of the GRI Index G4, the social issue category includes the following aspects(Singh, 2010).

Labour practices: there are many issues have been faced by the company related to the employees and their safety. The employees are the assets of the company and their health and safety is on the highest priority. Some of the challenges faced by the company include the high rate of injuries, poor performance of the employees because of the low rewards and the carelessness of the employees.

Food quality: the food quality is highly affected because of the excessive use of the pesticides for the production of crops and plants. However, it leads to affect t the health and well-being of the employees in a negative way.

From the above table, we have compared the environmental and social aspects of the two companies: Monsanto and Dow Company.  The data is compared on the basis of the environmental aspects such as energy consumption, emissions of gases and waste management initiatives taken by both the companies. This data has been derived from the sustainability reports of 2016 of Monsanto Company and Dow Company.From the comparison of the two companies and its Global reporting initiatives G4 index, it is clear that the company is successful in handling all the social and environmental issues(Hague, 2017). The company is fulfilling its responsibilities towards the society and environment. The above data shows that the Monsanto Company and its initiatives are better than the Dow Company.

Triple bottom line is the accounting framework that basically focusing on the three main dimensions which are social, environmental and financial. This framework is also known as the framework of 3P’s includes people, planet and profits. After analyzing the sustainability report of Monsanto Company, it is analyzed that the company focuses on people, planet and partners. In the Sustainability report of Monsanto Company, financial part has been ignored. Company doesn't mention anything about the capital required to take initiative towards the social and environmental issues. There are many ways to improve the sustainability report structure. The company can add financial part as well as the cost incurred on the initiatives taken by the company. Some of the recommendations to address the triple bottom line are given as below:

• Triple bottom line is basically an accounting framework so it is important to add the information related to the business capital income, cost and another financial measure that company have.
• To address the triple bottom line, it is very important that company should compare its financial performance with the industry in order to calculate the difference the initiatives. The comparative analysis will help to analyze the current company situation and the future goals. On the basis of the current situation, the company can set the goals for the future and continued to work towards initiative.
• The company should elaborate some more economic measures that can be taken to deal with the bottom line such as income expenditure, Taxes, employment and other business diversified sectors. Some of the elements that need to be included in the sustainability report are personal income, cost of employment, revenue by sector, employment distribution by sector(Howell, et al., 2009).

Direct Customers and Competitors

It has been analyzed that some of the strengths of Monsanto Company are its strong research and development capability, leading the market in the production of agricultural seeds, efficient supply chain network, strong brand portfolio and strong alliance with BASF.  The weakness found for the company is that it has the limited market share because of stiff competition. Moving to the opportunities and threats for the company, then the company have the opportunity to focus on Soybean and Corn seeds also and have the growth opportunities in the Asia Pacific and African regions. Some of the threats for a company are its increased competition as well as the environmental regulations that prohibit the customers to use certain products of the company(Grant, 2009). TOWS is the another tool which is also used to analyze the strengths, opportunities, weakness and strength, but it involves the strategies which can be made by utilizing the strength and weaknesses of the company. There are four types of strategies which can be built by combining all the factors such as SO strategies, WO strategies, ST strategies and WT strategies. (Refer appendix 1 and 2)

Ethical theories, approaches and strategies are found on the priority in the company. According to the report, there are three main approaches identified as a priority in the company which are better planet, better life and better partners.Monsanto Company also focuses on the code of ethics to address the critical issues. There are many strategies which can be used to gain a sustainable competitive advantage some of the strategies are:

• Effective supply chain management of the company need to be expanded and should focus more numbers of suppliers and farmers. 
• The company should also adopt the advertisement strategies to promote the company strengths,create awareness among the people, suppliers and farmers about the services provided by the company. The company has the option to use social media as one of their strategy for the promotion of the products of the company(Team, 2017).
• Other strategy recommended for the company is to expand the business in the Asian and African region because of the greater potential of growth for Monsanto Company.

The bad publicity with regard to the company involves various ethical and unethical aspects.  Monsanto company also been in the news because of many reasons and some of them reasons are its food safety, corporate responsibilities and quality of seeds. There was a news highlight related to the company and that reflect as that “Monsanto seeds are evil”. This is a bad publicity as it spoils the image of the company which is the unethical practices(Then, 2013).

For instance, there are many complaints has been also received from the people and also government found this industry as a harmful effect on the people and their health. In France, the company imposed a ban on the company because of the customer complaints, low quality of the products.

Conclusion

Monsanto Company worked with the business for Social Responsibility (BSR) in order to identify the sustainability levels exist in the company. There are many social and environmental issues faced by the company such as climate change, integrity and transparency, food security, use of the less natural resources, and less focus towards the work and society, and decrease in the food availability and access. Modern agriculture is the sustainability approach of the company that provides support to the farmers by providing them some digital tools and the company believes in the fact that “growing better together”. This sustainability approach involves the three main goals or approaches for the company, which is better planet, better life, and better partner.

References

Grant, 2009. An exclusive focus on sustainable agriculture, Available at: https://www.usasean.org/sites/default/files/uploads/aboutus/csr/members-reports/Monsanto.pdf

Grant, H., 2005. 2005 Pledge Report: Seeding values, Available at: https://www.monsantoglobal.com/SiteCollectionDocuments/CSR_Reports/MonsantoPledgeReport-2005.pdf

Hague, T., 2017. International Monsanto Tribunal Advisory Opinion, Available at: https://www.monsanto-tribunal.org/upload/asset_cache/189791450.pdf

Howell, V., Gleklen, J., Letzler, K. & Aguilar, D., 2009. Competition and Innovation in American Agriculture, Available at: https://www.justice.gov/sites/default/files/atr/legacy/2010/03/09/254997.pdf

Lengreth, R., 2009. The Planet Versus Monsanto, Available at: https://www.forbes.com/forbes/2010/0118/americas-best-company-10-gmos-dupont-planet-versus-monsanto.html#230ca40f10dc

Mayes, R., 2010. Monsanto company: buy recommendation, Available at: https://fisher.osu.edu/supplements/10/9160/2010-winter-monsanto.pdf

Monsanto Limited, 2001. Monsanto company: 2001 annual report, Available at: https://bib.kuleuven.be/files/ebib/jaarverslagen/Monsanto_2001.pdf

Monsanto, 2017. Annual report: A limitless perspective, Available at: https://monsanto.com/app/uploads/2017/05/2016_monsanto_annual_report.pdf

Singh, T., 2010. Monsanto: from a strategic perspective. Business Strategy Series, 11(2), pp. 90-99, Available at: https://www.emeraldinsight.com/doi/abs/10.1108/17515631011026416

Team, M., 2017. Growing better together: sustainable report, Available at: https://monsanto.com/app/uploads/2017/12/Monsanto_CSR_2017_Executive_Summary.pdf

Then, C., 2013. Analysis of the data submitted by Monsanto to the Indian authorities on genetically engineered maize MON89034 x NK603, Available at: https://www.greenpeace.org/india/Global/india/report/MON89034_x_NK603_application_India3.pdf