1. Future Fuel
2017 Fiscal Year Renewable Energy Goals to Increase Earnings
Tara O’Brien
MBAC 6000 34D
Spring 2016
Dr. Claudia Santin
Date of Submission:
02/02/2016
Assignment Due Date:
02/07/2015
2. Mission & Vision as Guideposts
• FF Mission
• To produce oil and fuel resources that support our eco-system, deliver a
quality product, and strive to continually improve our procedures
• FF Vision
• Increase the resources for future generations through the ecological
awareness of our production today
Thriving organizations ensure their goals are consistent with their
Mission & Vision (McKee, 2013, p.)
3. Social Responsibility & Code of Ethics
• Integrity – Shareholders, Customer & Stakeholders
• FF is committed to uphold the highest standard of ethical business practices
• Transparency
• FF seeks to continually share information in a timely manner with our
employees, consumers, shareholders and the community
• Regulatory Responsibility
• FF is dedicated to attain all regulatory standards and conduct stringent
auditing of our procedures to ensure they are meeting legal regulations
4. Social Responsibility & Code of Ethics
• Sustainable Development
• Sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the
present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet
their own needs (IISD, 2016). FF commits to going above and beyond
regulatory standards to achieve Sustainable Development
• Innovation
• FF aims to improve our processes in a continuous cycle of evaluation and
pursue creative solutions
• Community Relations
• FF believes community relations and efforts to aid the local environment
are top priority
5. 2016 Earnings & Future Needs
• Low 2016 earnings after operating costs
• Stock performance dropping
• Need for forecasting
• “An accurate forecast can establish measurements to guide management,
facilitate planning and goal setting and basically create a plan to avoid risks
while helping the company meet its goals and milestones” (Dahl, Forbes, 2013)
• Increase profits by lowering costs
• Live by mission, vision and values
6. 2017 Future Goals
• Create a more sustainable company
• Change that will impact our environment for the better
• De Facto Plan – if we have not planned to change our operations in an effort to
better our environment, then the lack of a plan becomes a De Facto Plan
(McDonough, 2005)
• Reduce cost of electricity and demand for electricity
• Reduce cost and help community by reducing demand for electricity
• Push energy back into community
• Have a consequence of our goals be a boon to the community
7. 2017 Actions for Achievement
• Increase R&D budget to 35% for 2017
• Research and development team focuses on new renewable and viable
alternative energy sources
• The future is green
• Create an environment free of fear to foster creativity (Robinson, 2006;
Brown, 2008)
• Sip our energy – Learn from nature
• “Organisms sip energy” – Janine Benyus (2009), Partner & Co-Founder of
Biomicry 3.8
• Learn from Nature for new procedures
8. 2017 Actions for Achievement
• Equip HQ and 8 western sites with solar energy systems and wind
power generators
• Learn from green architects and create our own energy and lower our costs
• Life needs growth for replication, free form energy (sunlight) and open
system of chemicals – McDonough on Francis Crick/DNA (2005)
• Reduce electrical operating costs in years to come
• These common changes are showing cost benefits
• Reducing these costs will lower overall operating costs
9. Facts about Energy Savings
Rick Needham – Director of Energy and Sustainability at Google:
• “The levelized cost of energy (LCOE) from solar plants in the U.S. dropped
by 28% in the past year. Solar panels have dropped in price by 80 percent
over the last five years”
• “The “capacity factor” or the percentage of time that wind turbines are
active has increased,” he added. “Capacity factors now hit 50 percent,
thanks to better site selection and improved turbine efficiency. In the past,
capacity factor was closer to 30%. Wind farms in optimal sites in the
Midwest can produce power for 5 cents a kilowatt hour, and that’s before
federal tax credits,” he said. (as cited in Kanellos, 2013)
10. Commitment to Shareholders & Innovation
A quality product is our top priority
A quality product will increase stock value
Through quality procedures we can benefit generations to come
We make a commitment to you to use innovative ideas to
increase our product and company value
11. Thank you
Foster innovation and creative solutions
Let’s sip our energy
The future is green
Build a Future for Future Fuel
12. References
• McKee, A. (2013). Management: A Focus on Leaders (2nd ed.). New Jersey: Prentice Hall.
• IISD. (2015). Sustainable Development. (Homepage of website). Retrieved from
http://www.iisd.org/topic/sustainable-development
• Dahl, D. (2013). FedExVoice: Why forecasting leads to success in your business. Forbes: ForbesBrandVoice.
Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/sites/fedex/2013/05/23/why-forecasting-leads-to-success-in-your-
business/#45a26b876e14
• McDonough, W. (2005, February). William McDonough: Cradle to cradle design [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/talks/william_mcdonough_on_cradle_to_cradle_design#t-773597
• Robinson, K. (2006, February). Ken Robinson: Do schools kill creativity [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity
• Brown, T. (2008, May). Tim Brown: Tales of creativity and play [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/talks/tim_brown_on_creativity_and_play
• Benyus, J. (2009, July). Janine Benyus: Biomimicry in action [Video file]. Retrieved from
http://www.ted.com/talks/janine_benyus_biomimicry_in_action
• Kanellos, M. (2013). Google explains why the future of energy is green. Forbes / Green Tech. Retrieved from
http://www.forbes.com/sites/michaelkanellos/2013/03/20/google-explains-why-the-future-of-energy-is-
green/#a521dcbc366f
13. Tara O’Brien 02/02/16
This PowerPoint presentation is solely my creation and all
references have been cited and credited.
Notes de l'éditeur
Organizations must keep core values central to future goals. In reviewing the 2017 production and fiscal goals, the focus should include the core values that this company was founded upon. The mission and vision must consistently be applied to these goals. Future Fuel is a resource company that can provide those resources while also giving back to our eco-system for generations ahead.
Organizations make commitments made to shareholders, customers, employees, community and their environment. These are often spelled out in a Corporate Social Responsibility Policy and/or a Code of Ethics.
A strong organization will continually review the strategic plan to align it with the Corporate Social Responsibility Policy and the Code of Ethics. The highlights of Future Fuel’s policy are these key values:
Integrity
Transparency
Regulatory Responsibility
Sustainable Development
Innovation
Community Relations
Integrity is the top value. Running a business with honesty and ethical business practices builds trust among stakeholders. Through trust customers will be gained and earnings increased.
Trust also requires clear and honest communication. Preparing transparent and timely communications about processes, achievements and even struggles, can put an organization ahead of competitors and gain community and consumer loyalty.
Another key priority is compliance with legal regulatory issues. Businesses need to attain regulatory standards to remain in business, but Future Fuel intends to go beyond regulatory standards with innovative solutions.
A fuel company that seeks to deliver products through sustainable development is a unique concept. To excel as a unique organization with a unique concept, innovation and process improvement need to be a core goal. For instance, Future Fuel will continually seek ways to give back to the environment and make it healthier.
Innovation requires a culture that fosters creativity in all areas of the employment structure; engineers, policy makers, finance experts and support staff. Creativity and innovation creates results. It creates solutions.
Community relations is also a top value. It is possible to give back to more than just the community today, but also to the great-grandchildren of this community, as long as innovative solutions to today’s problems are continually sought.
Last year the Future Fuel stock was underperforming and earnings goals were not reached. A thriving organization can take a hard look at the facts and move forward using that knowledge. Short term goals need to be addressed, but long range planning is key to organizational success. Using forecasting to predict costs, risks and future trends well past 2017 is a strong tool and will help create alternative plans for future developments. After completing environmental scans, surveys of the community and a competitor performance analysis, one primary trend has been identified – the future is green. Money invested now to increase green initiatives will enable Future Fuel to remain both competitive and sustainable.
Investments made now will increase earnings by lowering operating costs and most importantly, these investments will align Future Fuel with its core mission, vision and values.
Through some serious changes, higher earnings in future fiscal years can be created by implementing sustainable energy processes. These changes will support productivity, profitability and the company’s environmental goals, thereby avoiding the blind nature of some of our competitors. If a plan to change for the better is not implemented, the effects of our actions become a De Facto plan. This is a path to avoid.
In order to avoid falling into a De Facto plan, the goals proposed are:
Reduce electrical operating costs
Create our own energy – thereby reducing the demand for electricity in the surrounding community
Go above the primary goals and produce enough energy to push some back onto the community grid – which will reduce the cost of energy for the community
By making an effort to create more efficient and sustainable operating procedures, exponential gains can be realized in the future. A competitive advantage will be held, the company will remain relevant by staying on the cutting edge of future trends, and will support the community for generations.
A notion Tom Bennet, CEO, has supported and promoted is the fact that investments now in the right technology will create large dividends and profits down the road. Fifteen years ago, scientists were largely ignored when they spoke about the destruction of our planet. Today a majority of society is focused on green goals. The future is green.
The first proposal is an increase to the research and development budget to 35% for 2017. By giving the monetary resources to the research and development team now, Future Fuel can explore the cutting edge of renewable technologies and profit from these expenditures.
In modern society, organizations tend to squash creativity because the focus is on the failures or the goals that were not achieved. An organization should be goal oriented and use metrics to measure success, but it cannot instill a fear of failure. Employees must be allowed to make mistakes if they are to learn from those mistakes to find the answers. Supporting an environment where developers are free to fail and supplying a large enough budget is key to expanding creativity and researching the newest solutions to problems.
The R&D team will focus on innovations learned from the environment on how to best live in the environment. Janine Benyus is a leading scientist and founder of the Biomimicry movement, which focuses on what can be learned from nature’s current design. The goal is to create procedures that use energy efficiently in order to lower costs and environmental impact.
Those goals focus on the future. The goal for the next year is to implement the technologies that have already proven effective across the world. By equipping Future Fuel’s headquarters and 8 sites with solar energy systems and wind power generators this year, energy costs will decrease, after the cost of implementation is absorbed.
William McDonough - a green architect known for his “cradle to cradle designs” asks society to consider the full life cycle of the product being designed. This idea can be incorporated into our procedures by creating our own energy. All growth needs energy.
These changes will reduce the overall operating budget over time. After an analysis of the company’s expenses, one of the greatest is the energy needed for product output. This is not the driver for these changes, but is a strong argument to support any forward motion. It will take time to break even on this investment, but after the break even point, the return on investment will increase every future year.
The cost of solar energy systems is dropping and the capacity of wind turbines is increasing. Now is the time to act on this technology.
Innovation is the key to creating a product that will not only increase a company’s value but will allow companies to give back to future generations.
Profits can be increased by looking at the global picture of our company’s financial expenses and gains and making changes to be a better “whole” organization. By investing in remaining a forward-thinking, creative and innovative company, we will keep our commitment to the shareholders.
In conclusion, an increase to the research and development team’s budget is proposed. A goal to foster an environment where employees can be creative and unafraid to fail will be set. This will increase the opportunity for unique solutions to today’s problems as well as implementing procedures to benefit the future generations.
These solutions will be based on becoming an efficient organization in production operations and energy usage.
Focus will be placed on becoming a green organization by first implementing solar energy systems and wind turbines at the headquarters and at 8 sites.
Together we will launch Future Fuel into the future by becoming a competitive organization who is on the cutting edge of green industry trends.
Thank you.