Scenario

Now that you’ve learned about the functional areas of the company through your internship and the company’s focus on teamwork and problem solving, your manager would like you to lead an effort to select a CSR issue that the company can adopt and champion over time. You’ve impressed others with your work so far. This is a significant vote of confidence from your manager and an opportunity for visibility from the CEO and even external audiences.

For this assignment, you will:

• Research the CSR efforts of your chosen company.
• Choose a specific current issue that can be addressed with sustainable solutions.
• Prepare a short presentation to leadership about the chosen issue and present some sustainable problem-solving actions that the company could take as part of a new CSR campaign. Use the Week 10 Assignment Template [PPTX] to help organize your work.

Preparation

In preparation for this assignment, complete the following:

• Review your selected company website and look for evidence of a social responsibility issue or problem that it has adopted to support in the local, national, or global community. Think about the following questions as you review the website. (Note: If you don’t find much evidence of a CSR issue on the website, you can identify one that you feel fits.) The Corporate Social Responsibility media can take you through these first questions and help you get a start on your assignment.
  • Is the company support for the issue financial or is there also a volunteer element?
  • How are employees engaged in the financial or volunteer activities? Are customers able to contribute financially and through volunteering?
  • How is the solution that the company supports sustainable?
  • How does the issue tie to the company’s mission and vision?
• Select a CSR issue to research. Possible topics include:
  • Workplace diversity, hiring, and equity.
  • Reducing the carbon footprint.
  • Clean energy.
  • Water stewardship.
  • Climate change.
  • Hunger.
  • Digital divide.
• Narrow the topic down to a specific CSR problem that needs to be solved. Explain how it relates to your chosen company and offer possible solutions that the company can support. Example:
  • Topic: Water stewardship.
  • Problem: Children’s access to clean drinking water.
  • Possible solutions: Dig safe wells for local and international communities, support UNICEF clean water project, or contribute bottled water to FEMA for natural disasters.
  • Relates to business: Water is a key ingredient for the product, and the organization has factories in the same states where children need clean drinking water.
• Research the CSR problem. Locate 3–7 reputable resources about the business problem and solutions. The resources you choose will help you to define the focus of your research and writing. Your research should also help you develop possible solutions to the problem. The QuickStart: Business Problems and CSR media will also help you to review key aspects of CSR campaigns.

Instructions

Using the Week 10 Assignment Template [PPTX], create an 8–10 slide PowerPoint presentation with slide notes on the chosen CSR topic and business problem. (Note: You may also choose to record a narrated presentation.) In your presentation, explain how the problem affects a local, national, or global community, and describe possible sustainable solutions that the company can support. 

Your presentation should include one or more slides covering each of the following areas. Do note that you can use slide titles more explicitly related to your chosen topic than the ones given below.

• Title slide.
• Introduction (optional).
• The Problem.
  • Define the CSR issue and related business problem.
• How the Problem Affects a Community and the Organization.
  • Explain how the CSR problem affects a local, national, or global community and relates to your chosen company.
• Advantages and Limitations of Possible Solutions.
  • Include at least three possible solutions and briefly summarize them in one slide.
  • Explain the advantages and limitations of each proposed solution for the social problem and discuss each solution’s impact on your chosen company.
  • Describe briefly any general aspects of costs, efficiencies, and effectiveness.
• Recommended Solution.
  • Recommend a solution for the social problem and explain how it aligns with your chosen company’s business, including its mission and vision.
  • Support a recommended solution to a business problem with relevant evidence and research.
• Sustainability.
  • Explain how your recommended solution to the CSR problem will be sustainable into the future.
  • Explain how the increased sustainability will impact profit and customer and employee satisfaction.
  • Supporting evidence (research).
• Conclusion.
  • Write a summary, justifying and supporting your recommended solution to the CSR problem.
  • Include relevant evidence and sound reasoning.
• References.