Developing skills for business leadership

The article discusses the role of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in the business world, with a focus on the policies adopted by Marks and Spencer group plc. It evaluates the effectiveness of the company's CSR policies and provides recommendations for new strategies that can be adopted by the company. The article also includes a Gantt chart and budget for a proposed campaign to promote ecological environment.

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Developing skills for business leadership
(Student Name)
3/20/2019
Table of Contents

Developing skills for business leadership 1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Aims & Structure.............................................................................................................................2
Industry sector and Importance.......................................................................................................2
Background of Company.................................................................................................................2
Countries, Culture and size..............................................................................................................3
Define CSR......................................................................................................................................3
CSR issues.......................................................................................................................................3
Role of CSR in Mark &Spencer......................................................................................................4
Stakeholder diagram........................................................................................................................4
Analyze Barriers..............................................................................................................................5
Changing minds and Heart Campaign.............................................................................................6
Objective......................................................................................................................................6
New Strategies of CSR that can adopted by Marks and Spencer....................................................6
Gantt chart.......................................................................................................................................7
Budget..............................................................................................................................................8
Strengths and Weakness..................................................................................................................8
Conclusion and Recommendations..................................................................................................9

Developing skills for business leadership 2
References......................................................................................................................................10

Developing skills for business leadership 3
Introduction
In the modern world of business, the practice of corporate social responsibility is much debated
and criticized. At the similar time, the argument has been arrived for the pro and corns of
practicing CSR in the business (Marano and Kostova, 2016). The Corporate Social
Responsibilities is where the companies exploit the market to survive in the long term success,
the practices and policies as they are operating. At some extent the company Marks & Spencer
has also adopted CSR in their business place to compete the market there are certain challenges
that are still faced by the company (Lueg, Lueg, Andersen and Dancianu, 2016).
In the following part there will be detailed discussion on role of CSR in Mark and Spencer and
made changes accordingly.
Aims & Structure
 To perform critical review of the CSR policies adopted by Marks and Spencer group plc.
 An evaluation of the effectiveness of the corporates social responsibility in Marks and
Spencer Group plc.
 To prepare campaign for the company according to the requirement of their CSR
 To make the recommendation to the Marks and Spencer company in performing the
programs of CSR
Industry sector and Importance
Due to the excessive capacity to expand the business, food and clothing sector is chosen. The big
retailers not only have their main focus on their people but in companies and also giving the

Developing skills for business leadership 4
main emphasis at all the level of the supply chain. Their activities at worldwide make the
different due to the reason every country has their own way to manage and operate. Moreover,
the laws and working condition also differ from place to place according to which they company
carry out and manage their business. The government, media and lobby groups are also enforcing
the policies that forces the companies to keep their benchmark and are also obligated to do
something where they can able to meet with the standards of an established society (Pantano,
Priporas, Sorace and Iazzolino, 2017).
Background of Company
Marks and Spencer is one of the leading brand that is common to every individual in the country
UK, it is considered as one of the largest retail industry in term of clothing that generated their
revenue from middle class and upper class individuals (Toms and Zhang, 2016). The company
has been ranked as 43rd largest retailer I the global market that consist of 900 stores with 600 of
them are located in the domestic market of UK. Marks and Spencer expedition regarding
bringing about the awareness in CSR activities that began in the year 2003, Marks and Spencer
has laid focus on their business concept of “doing the right thing” and hence the company have
also represent a market improvement in their standards, prices and values of their products but
above all their major focus was on enhancement of the number of consumers and the turnover
(Fisher, 2016).
Countries, Culture and size
UK is one of the developed countries with a population of 65.7 billion. The country has provided
huge market for the companies to expand their business. Their culture is very flexible as within
the controlled business environment of UK, they would able to maintain decorum and avoid

Developing skills for business leadership 5
casualness in the dress and conversation. The people of UK are good negotiators as they are
tolerant and good listeners. In UK non-verbal behavior us often ignored, they emphasize on the
legal documents rather than inter personal relationship. They are individualistic and the work is
based on logical reasoning and not on intuition and they are direct and informal (Cowling and
Lee, 2017).
India is considered as fast growing market at the global level. They have spread in the area of
3.287 million km with the population of 133.92 billion. India has a culture of power distance,
collectivism, uncertainty avoidance, masculinity, long term orientation and indulgence. The
subordinate is not expected to take any initiative towards the betterment of the company they
remain silent until asked by the boss to speak. They have a rigid culture in which the control is
given to higher authority only. The people of India are collectivist and work on their intuition
rather than on the reasons and more indirect and formal (Negi and Dangwal, 2016)
Define CSR
Corporate social responsibility is the responsibility of the company for the impact of their
decisions and activities on the social with the environment through transparent and ethical
behavior the CSR practices include:
 Takes into the account, the expectation of stakeholders
 Contribute to the sustainable development that includes health and welfare of society
 That cover all the compliances with applicable law and consistent with the international
norms of the behavior (Sheehy, 2015).

Developing skills for business leadership 6
CSR issues
Most of the companies ignore CSR in their business for earning maximum profit. They ignore
their responsibilities towards the environment and society that created great issues in their
organization. They have adopted unethical mean for achieving growth and prosperity in the
market. The companies imagine that the consumers can be satisfied only through price and
services therefore; they fail to meet the important aspects of CSR. The CSR issues are:
In the past the government has relied on the legislation and regulations to deliver the social and
environmental objectives in the business sector. Shrinking the resources of government, coupled
with the distrust of regulation has also led to the exploration of the voluntary and non-regulatory
initiatives instead (Klimkiewicz and Oltra 2017)
There is lack of consensus amongst the local agencies regarding the project of CSR. Such lack of
consensus often results in duplication of the activities by the house of corporate in the area of the
intervention. There is lack of interest of the local communities in participating and contributing
to the activities related to the CSR of the companies (Lim and Greenwood, 2017)
Role of CSR in Mark &Spencer
The company expedition regarding bringing about the awareness in the activities of CSR began
in the year 2003, they has laid the focus that the senses of business is doing the right thing. The
company highly focuses on the philanthropic and ethical responsibilities with keeping in the
mind that all the activities it perform are legally done without they allegation on the brand that
they carries (Scandelius and Cohen, 2016). The company has taken the steps towards protecting
the society by providing energy-efficient appliances as they have dual benefits with such kind of

Developing skills for business leadership 7
activities as they are performing philanthropic responsibilities and also enhancing the volume of
sales in effective manner (Tamayo-Torres, Gutierrez-Gutierrez and Ruiz-Moreno, 2018).
Stakeholder diagram
Employees: Marks and Spencer have over ten thousands employees nationally and
internationally. There employees come from different backgrounds and intellect. The want some
security from the company and require job security, fair treatment and god pay from the
company.
Consumers: the consumers are one who purchases the product and services as they are the end
user of the product. Such group is relevant to the company due to the reason they want high
quality of the products with wider range to make at affordable prices (Sheppard et al., 2016).
Consum
ers
Employe
es
Media
Investor
s
Suppliers
Govern
ment
Wider
Society

Developing skills for business leadership 8
Government: the national and local government is in charge making sure that the company create
sufficient jobs for their citizens and pay their taxes on time. They also set the rule and regulations
that govern trading and I what manner, the company should act and deal with the people.
Suppliers: the company has their suppliers globally. The suppliers generally want secure
contracts and fair prices for their products and services to the company.
Investors: the company has huge number of investors that paly an essential role in the company.
The motive of the shareholders is to earn more profit from the company at greater level.
Local Communities: these are such communities around where the Marks and Spencer stores are
located. They are the people that leave around the location of stores (Sulkowski, Edwards and
Freeman, 2018).
Analyze Barriers
Mark and Spencer have effectively adopted Plan A for CSR activities. They have taken certain
steps towards the CSR activities to make the company more successful. However there are
certain barriers that are faced by the company while adopting such plan in their organization as
they are explained in below points with the help of models:
Traditional Conflict Model: In such model the companies opting to practices forms of social
responsibilities are likely to see added costs for doing so. The major disadvantage of CSR for
Marks and Spencer is impact on cost. It increase cost to the company while investing the amount
in implementing the strategies. The plan A that are introduced by the company had an estimated
cost of around 200 million that are adopted in UK (Scott and Walker, 2017).

Developing skills for business leadership 9
Whereas the India is one of the high risk places for the CSR activities as most of the people are
not concern towards such activities that made the company linnet and waste of money on such
activities (Deshmukh and Mohan, 2017).
Added value model: such model trends are to focus on the issues such as value of CSR in
attracting socially conscious consumers. Such CSR activities that are taken by the company were
not successful in producing a desired amount of the effect in attracting the socially conscious
consumers that create a great loss to the company and to the investors.
India is one of the place where the people are not involve in charitable activities at greater level
that can cause loss to the company and investor at greater level.
Multiple Goal Model: it is such a model under which the corporations have a goal beyond
shareholder value that include the enhancement of community without respect to the monetary
gain. The failure of CSR program adopted by the company is in the great risk as the image of the
company can be damage in the competitive market. Although the CSR is about enriching the
stakeholders but if the strategy is not successful in bringing the extra profit then it majorly
depends on the values and morals of the investor (Keay and Iqbal, 2018).
Changing minds and Heart Campaign
“Changing minds and Hear Campaign” is the campaign that will be launched by Marks and
Spencer in UK and India to promote green environment in the country. The company will
distribute plants within minimal prices to the people to motivate the employees and other people
to make steps towards the green world.

Developing skills for business leadership 10
Objective
 To promote ecological environment
 To give charity from the amount collected
 To promote sustainable environment
Location: They will arrange such campaign near schools, colleges, shopping malls and other
crowded place for the campaign.
Target Marker: the target market for the company will be students, youth, elders, and all range of
consumers who cover under the category of social conscious consumers.
Timing: the timing for the campaign will be between 10:00 to 15:00
Promotion Strategies: social media, newspaper, live coverage, videos, and website
Stakeholders: government, company’s shareholders, local community and consumers.
New Strategies of CSR that can adopted by Marks and Spencer
 Marks and Spencer can launch different small programs such as donation, charity to
promote CSR activities in their business. it can help the company to control over their
cost in effective manner
 The company can involve investors and other stakeholders in such activities that would
help them in enhancing the bond in between them
 The company should arrange separate fund for such activities that decrease burden on the
company at greater level.

Developing skills for business leadership 11
 The company can control over the impact on environment by adopting sustainable
products and manner for producing gods or services.
 The company can support their employees and encourage them to support local charities
a swell as nonprofit organization by volunteerism to work on specific projects (Frynas,
Child and Tarba, 2017).
Gantt chart
Activities June
Jul
y
Augus
t
Septemb
er
Octobe
r
Novemb
er
Employment enhancing vocational
skills
Social Business Project
Employment matching gift program
Resource Donation
Ensuring environmental sustainability
Promoting Education campaign
Provide training to the staff
Setting rules and regulation for CSR
Motivate and engage employees
Use Social Media
Create Scorecard
Partnering with third party

Developing skills for business leadership 12
Budget
Particular Amount In $
UK India
Rental fee of Site 10000 8000
Tents and Props 2000 2000
Labour 5000 3000
Staff 4000 4000
Miscellaneous Charges 7000 5000
Cameras, Film, Recorders 8000 7000
Sound System and Speakers 7000 6000
Generator or Extension Board 900 800
Plants and Flowers 10000 9000
Stage or Event Décor 4000 3000
Props or Signs 2000 1000
Portable Restrooms 900 1000
Dustbins and Disposable
Service 500 400
Crew for Clean-up 900 1000
Advertisement 3000 4000
Total 65200 55200
Strengths and Weakness
Strength
 It is one of the effective manner through which the company would able to control over
their cost by not investing huge amount in such campaign and promote CSR activities
within their organization.

Developing skills for business leadership 13
 Moreover, the company can also attract social conscious consumers in more effective
manner.
 They can able to contribute towards the sustainability of the country in effective manner
Weakness
 The company can suffer from time consuming as they need to engage their employees
that may effect on their overall performance
 It has no surety that the campaign will be run successfully due to the reason most of the
people are engaged in their work and they have no such time to come over it.
Conclusion and Recommendations
From the above analysis it can be concluded that corporate social responsibilities play a vital role
in the growth of business. Marks and Spencer is one of the leading companies that have adopted
effective CSR activities in their business. they have spread their roots in UK and India therefore,
there CSR activities differ that are depend on their culture. The company needs to focus on
healthy CSR policies to manage the growth and effectiveness of the company at greater level.
They should control over their cost to satisfying more investors and consumers.

Developing skills for business leadership 14
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Developing skills for business leadership 15
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Developing skills for business leadership 16
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