SMART Recommendation Breakdown

This assignment delves into the process of developing SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) recommendations. It outlines the breakdown of objectives into smaller tasks, the allocation of resources (financial and non-financial), and the determination of project requirements. The assignment also emphasizes the identification of necessary processes, data requirements, theoretical research, competitor analysis, primary data collection (interviews, surveys), data evaluation, and verification through theories. Finally, it highlights the synthesis of findings, recommendations, conclusions, and the final submission.

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
University
IMPLEMENTING CSR ACTIVITIES WITHIN ORGANISATION
TO MEET SUSTAINABLE OBJECTIVES: A CASE STUDY IF
ACCESS KEYBOARDS LIMITED
Name
ID
Unit Title
Code Number
Lecturer’s name

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
Table of Contents
Introduction...................................................................................................................... 3
Task 1: Project management plan...................................................................................3
P1. Project aim.................................................................................................................3
Project objectives.............................................................................................................3
Assumptions.....................................................................................................................4
P2. Project management pan...........................................................................................4
P3. Work breakdown structure, and time plan.................................................................8
Work breakdown structure............................................................................................... 8
Gantt chart....................................................................................................................... 9
Critical path.................................................................................................................... 10
Task 2: Project logbook..................................................................................................10
P4. Small-scale research 700........................................................................................10
Task 3: Performance review.......................................................................................... 16
P5. Data analysis........................................................................................................... 16
P6. Recommendations...................................................................................................18
Task 4............................................................................................................................ 19
P7. Reflection on value for conducting the research......................................................19
Conclusion..................................................................................................................... 20
References.....................................................................................................................21
Appendix........................................................................................................................ 23

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
Introduction
CSR (Corporate social responsibility) is often regarded as a broad term for describing
the effort of an organisation behind improving the society in various ways. As opined by
Aguinis and Glavas (2012), companies are involving highly in their CSR strategy in
order to strengthen thei9r global and local communities. Furthermore, organisations are
considering the CSR to target different significant marketing segments such as
Improved Public Image, Increased coverage of social media, better employee
engagement and retained investors through attracting them. This study is aimed at
explaining the topic in brief to unveil detailed information and knowledge about the
implementation of CSR in order to enhance the sustainability in Access Keyboards Ltd.
Researcher has selected the small sized company (Access Keyboards Limited) with
workforce of 15-20 employees and with small annual income of €1 million in the year
2016. The company manufactures and sells the computer hardware products in local
market of UK (Manta.com, 2017).
Task 1: Project management plan
P1. Project aim
The aim of this study is to analyse the consequences of corporate social responsibility
over sustainability and competitive advantage critically. Researcher is going to use real
and practical examples from Access Keyboards Ltd for identifying the scope of
implementation for findings.
Project objectives
 To develop the project plan for examining the CSR role in corporate
 To evaluate the significance of CSR in Access Keyboards
 To identify the existing barriers of Access Keyboards in implementing the CSR
strategies to ensure sustainability and competitive advantage for the business
 To suggest relevant strategies for mitigating the identified barriers

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
Assumptions
 Access Keyboards might require the incorporation of CSR strategies for retaining
existing consumers and employees and attracting the new ones
 Existing strategies of Access Keyboards might be adequate to satisfy the
shareholders thus, company may not be required to implement new strategies of
CSR
P2. Project management pan
Scope
Based on the knowledge gathered from theories and market researches included in
current project, researcher has tried to highlight the possible issues that may arise to
Access Keyboards for handling CSR insufficiently. However, direct changes are not
entertained in the company for observing and evaluating their impact. Apart from that,
researcher has focused on analysing the feedback collected through this research and
tallying them with relevant theoretical concepts for suggesting the apt findings or
changes for the company. Therefore, researcher can derive to positive and effective
outcome from research project.
Cost
Researcher has estimated the expected cost for completing this research project
successfully. Researcher has estimated €450 that includes meeting with respondents to
collect qualitative information and conducting the survey to gather the quantitative data.
However, researcher has estimated the cost for implementation of recommendation
around €3000 that will be provided during end of the study. This cost excludes the total
cost for the current project. The above cost is designed based after evaluating the cost
in each step of the research to come up with apt findings.
Time
Researcher has taken exact 28 days for completing this project. The first 7 days were
spent behind collecting the theoretical knowledge about CSR (Corporate Social

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
Responsibility) and its impact over business sustainability and attractiveness.
Researcher has compared and contrasted the wide arguments of authors about
understanding the prospect of CSR and relating it with the profitability of a company.
Therefore, through acquiring the theoretical knowledge, researcher then further
captured understanding about implication of CSR in different companies in next 5 days.
Thereafter, researcher has gathered valuable information about present business
operations of Access Keyboards and its big competitors in next 5 days. Then researcher
got busy in interviewing the high ranked officers of Access Keyboards that took almost a
week or 7 days. This schedule was very significant in order to collect the primary data
and making their analysis for relevant output from the project. However, researcher took
only 4 days to conduct the survey where existing consumers of Access Keyboards were
involved. Researcher has collected all the data and information collected from this
survey and analysed them to learn or understand the impact of present business
operation of Access Keyboards over customer service. However, the project
recommendation implication can be expected to be out in 3 months.
Quality
The quality of this research project is relied over its performance in achieving research
objective. Through addressing the research objective that is drawn upon evaluating the
topic, researcher has tried to align the research objective with the sustainability of
Access Keyboards. Apart from that, in the end, researcher has assessed the success of
project based upon the recommended strategies for enhancing the business
performance of Access Keyboards.
Communication
As opined by Yang and Kao (2012), communication is very crucial tool for a researcher
to deal with respondents efficiently and gathering their viewpoints more deeply.
Furthermore, in many instances it has been found that consumers are likely to respond
independently with the better communicator. In the current project, researcher has used
relevant communication modes and the communicative channels for ensuring
appropriate interaction with shareholders of Access Keyboards. It is regarded as crucial

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
element to ensure proper development of the project place since communication mode
and channel widely affect the information and data used in the project work. Researcher
has tried to establish better communication with participation along with privacy
maintenance to enable respondents to give their opinion independently. Some of the
channels and mode used in the present research project is face-to-face, telephonic
interaction, virtual and survey communication. In order to communicate with officials of
Access Keyboards and collect the qualitative data, researcher has telephonic and face-
to-face interaction. On the other hand, in order to deal with consumer, researcher has
used the social media platform such as online measurement, online questionnaires and
so on.
Resource
However, financial resources are important and already highlighted in the above
section; researcher has marked some other important aspects or resources useful in
accomplishing the research project successfully. Researcher has used ample number of
journals, books, newsletters, case studies and websites for gathering the secondary
data. These data were very significant in understanding the aspects of CSR over
competitive advantage and sustainable growth of an organisation. Apart from that,
researcher has also gathered the primary data such as feedback of higher officials and
consumers of Access Keyboards to acquire the practical understanding about the issue.
Furthermore, tools of data processing and other electronic equipments were also used
for evaluating the data and developing the project successfully.
Risk
As per the viewpoint of Von (2011), many research projects over CSR could not be
implemented successfully or have not produced positive output for the company due to
the application requirement was high expertise to enhance the sustainability and
competitive advantage that is relied over other business strategies as well. Similarly,
Access Keyboards might also become a victim of such consequences and lose their
existing consumers ad highly skilled employees. Moreover, if Access Keyboard will fail
to meet with basic requirements of employees or consumers, huge disappointment can

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
be generated among the consumers and they could move on to other organisation thus,
chance for competitive threat could be high. Moreover, shareholders might also become
uninterested in participation with further business strategy for growth and development.
Employee morale can be decreased and key players might not be able to promote
business development. Apart from that, vague response from the participants may lead
to inappropriate findings that could leave serious impact over current business operation
of Access Keyboards. The chances of denunciation of participants could grow and
hamper the successful accomplishment of research project.

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
P3. Work breakdown structure, and time plan
Work breakdown structure
Figure 1: structure of Work Breakdown for project planning
(Source: created by author)
ProjectPlanningIdentifyingtheneedTheoriticalresearchTasksRecommendationTestingTrainingtraningoneforanalysis

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
Gantt chart
ca
te
g
or
y
Actions Days
1 2-5 5-
10
10-
12
12-
14
14-
18
18-
21
21-
25
25-
29
29-
34
34-
37
A Identifying the need
Determining the project requirement
Identifying the processes required
Identifying the data requirement
Breaking down aim into the smaller
objectives
Allocating the Resources
(Financial/Non-financial)
Determination of requirement of project
Identification of required processes
Identifying data requirements
B Theoretical researches
data analysis of competitor and the
company
C acquisition of Primary data (Interview,
Survey)
D Evaluating the collected data
Verifying of primary data findings
through theories
Analysing and summarising findings
E Recommendation
F Conclusion
Submission

End
A
B
C
D E F
Start
MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
Table 1: Gantt chart
(Source: created by author)
Critical path
From the figure drawn upon process or path selection of researcher, the most apt and
relevant path can be identified that is quick and accurate result achievable.
Figure 2: Critical path of project
(Source: Created by author)
The above-mentioned table already identified about the task segregation for
accomplishing the project, thus in the current section better comprehension are
mentioned only with categorised used in critical path.
Task 2: Project logbook
P4. Small-scale research
Methods applied
The researcher has use positivism research philosophy merged with descriptive
research purpose and deductive research approach for conducting the study as they
avail opportunity to evaluate different types of research data for evaluation (Adams and
Lawrence, 2014). Although case study, action research, focus group or experiments
Start

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
could be conducted for the data collection, the researcher engaged in survey for
acquiring data from respondents in their natural environment. This was essential for
ensuring unbiased feedback in part of the respondents (Wahyuni, 2012).
The researcher has utilised simply mixed method for research (Teddlie and Tashakkori,
2011). For qualitative data, the researcher has conducted structured telephonic
interviews through open-ended questions with 2 officers and the manager of Access
Keyboard Ltd, while only the manager and one officer agreed to participate in interview.
For quantitative data, the researcher has conducted survey among 15 employees of the
company. The researcher distributed online questionnaire containing 4 close-ended
questions among the employees of the company. The MCQ style questions for the
survey were developed based on Likert’s scale (Tuli, 2011). Although all the
stakeholders of the company come under the category of population for both the
qualitative and quantitative data collection process the researcher has applied non-
probability sampling method and chosen the manager, 2 officials and 15 employees of
the company to ensure that people with first-hand experience with the research issue
are only approached for data collection. As 1 officer refused to contribute in the study
thus total sample size for the study is 17.
Qualitative research
Q1. How is import CSR for sustainability forAccess Keyboard Ltd?
Respondents Responses
Manager Meeting the CSR responsibilities is extremely important for our company,
existence of the company in the market depends on the company’s ability to
meet the CSR requirements
Officer The company has to follow its corporate and social responsibilities to avoid
legal obligations
Table 2: Import is CSR for sustainability for Access Keyboard Ltd
(Source: Created by author)
Q2. What activities does Access Keyboard Ltd undertake to address CSR
requirements?

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
Respondents Responses
Manager The organisation has arranged professional and safety trainings for its
employees
It also meets the import standards and regulations of UK government for its
hardware acquisition
Officer Regular safety and disaster training is provided to the employees
Customer safety are kept in mind while selling the products
Table 3: Access Keyboard Ltd’s attempt of addressing CSR requirements
(Source: Created by author)
Q3. What areas of improvement does Access Keyboard Ltd need to immediately
focus on?
Respondents Responses
Manager Employee engagement through meetings and group activities
Officer Better infrastructure for making the work environment more suitable for female
employees
Table 4: Improvements needed in CSR activities of Access Keyboard Ltd
(Source: Created by author)
Quantitative research
Q1. How far are you satisfied with the hygiene and safety precautions of your
workplace?
Options Total respondents Number of responses Response %
Highly satisfied 15 2 13%
Satisfied 15 3 20%
Neutral 15 6 40%
Dissatisfied 15 4 27%
Highly dissatisfied 15 0 0%
Mean Median Mode SD
2.8 3 3 1.014185106
Table 5: Employee satisfaction with hygiene and safety

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
(Source: Created by author)
Figure 3: Employee satisfaction with hygiene and safety
(Source: Created by author)
Q2. How far do you agree that your contribution and opinion is valued in the
company?
Options Total respondents Number of responses Response %
Strongly agree 15 3 20%
Agree 15 2 13%
Neutral 15 4 27%
Disagree 15 5 33%
Strongly disagree 15 1 7%
Mean Median Mode SD
2.933333333 3 4 1.279880947
Table 6: Value of employee opinion
(Source: Created by author)
Strongly agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly disagree
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
20%
13%
27%
33%
7%
Response %
Figure 4: Value of employee opinion

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
(Source: Created by author)
Q3. How frequently have you received product related complaints from the
customers?
Options Total respondents Number of responses Response %
Never 15 2 13%
Very rarely 15 1 7%
Rarely 15 4 27%
Frequently 15 6 40%
At every visit to store 15 2 13%
Mean Median Mode SD
3.333333333 4 4 1.2344268
Table 7: Customer complaint
(Source: Created by author)
Never Very rarely Rarely Frequently At every visit to
store
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
40%
45%
13%
7%
27%
40%
13%
Response %
Figure 5: Customer complaint
(Source: Created by author)
Q4. What change would you like to see in the existing processes of Access
Keyboard Ltd for better work experience?

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
Options Total respondents Number of responses Response %
Employee
involvement in
decision making
15 5 33%
Suitable work
environment for
female employees
15 3 20%
Improved health
factors
15 3 20%
More holidays 15 2 13%
Others 15 2 13%
Mean Median Mode SD
2.533333333 2 1 1.457329587
Table 8: Change requirements
(Source: Created by author)
Employee
involvement in
decision making
Suitable work
environment for
female
employees
Improved health
factors More holidays Others
0%
5%
10%
15%
20%
25%
30%
35%
Response %
Response %
Figure 6: Change requirements
(Source: Created by author)

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
Task 3: Performance review
P5. Data analysis
Chosen analytical method
For the analysis of qualitative data, the researcher has used the descriptive analytical
method and used the transcript for the analytical tool (Ormston et al. 2014). On the
other hand, for quantitative analysis the researcher has used methods such as
statistical analysis, frequency analysis and inferential analysis and tables, charts and
statistical analytical tools such as mean, median, mode and standard deviation are used
for evaluation. These tools help in evaluating the data based on the frequency of the
occurrence of a particular response (Baskerville and Wood-Harper, 2016). In addition,
the inferential analysis helps in acquiring deep insight to the issue through surface level
data (Ormston et al. 2014).
Analysis
From the qualitative data presented in the previous task, it is evident that management
of Access Keyboard Ltd has considerable awareness of the CSR requirements of a
business organisation while this conception is not communicated properly across the
lower level. For instance, in response to the first qualitative question while the manager
explained CSR to be significant for company’s sustainability in the market the officer
considered it as a legal requirement. This explains the approach of the official towards
CSR. On the other hand, responses to the question 3 of the qualitative section pointed
out that the organisation needs to incorporate its employees in its decision-making
processes and participate more in the social and community activities.
Based on the response of employees to the quantitative questions and statistical
analysis of the acquired data the researcher has identified that the organisation needs
to put further consideration to its CSR activities for generating employee and consumer
satisfaction. In response to the quantitative question, 1 majority of the employees have
chosen neutral while the second highest choice was dissatisfied. Therefore, it can be
stated that the organisation needs to improve its CSR activities for changing this neutral

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
state to satisfied one. On the other hand, in response to quantitative question 2 majority
of the respondents chose disagree which clearly indicates the employees of the
organisation feel less valued which might considerable employee dissatisfaction and
employee turnover.
Moreover, result of qualitative question 3 provides the impression that customersmight
be dissatisfied with the products or services of the company. Here it is noteworthy that
despite the claim of the manager in response to the question 2 of qualitative section that
import activities are conducted as per government regulations the customers are not
satisfied with the product quality. Finally, the qualitative question 4’s response avails the
insight to the reason behind dissatisfaction of the employees. Both the manager of the
organisation and employees has identified lack of employee engagement as the issue
that needs to be mitigated for better sustainability of the company.
P6. Recommendations
Employee engagement
SMART Criteria Measures to be taken
Specific  Company shall introduce the monthly feedback system to
enable employee satisfaction and their positive perception
 Organisation should organise the happy hours for their
company.
Measurable It is possible to measure with high employee motivation and their
engagement level in any program organised by the company.
Attainable Organisation has already a website for assisting youths and other
employee to be engaged through social media platform.
Reliable Using this strategy can be very helpful for Access Keyboards since
engaging the employees in developmental business strategies are linked
with participation of Employees.
Time base Implementation of current strategy can be expected to be completed within
in 3 months (Refer to the appendix).
Table 2: SMART recommendations

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
(Source: Created by author)
Apart from that, through appointing the needed work force from local community can
boost the support of the company along with social and economical support. Access
Keyboards are required to sponsor the activities of local communities and assist the
female or aged employees while dealing with health hazards and maternity periods
respectively thus, company might be able in establishing a positive image of the
company. Therefore, such activity can also attract customer and create positive
perception among customer to deal with Access Keyboards. Apart from that, company
can directly influence the sponsorship of local social events in the community. Through
doing so, company will be able to display their positive contribution for the society. It has
been observed in many cases that companies are gaining competitive advantage and
sustainability due to their positive image in local community. Customer buying behaviour
is affecting widely and that is retaining more customers to the business. However,
researcher has also recommended Access Keyboard to improve the work environment
i.e. hygiene and better infrastructure for motivating the employee as well as retaining
more customer to the company. Improving the work environment can be very crucial for
the company since researcher has observation of consumer loss due to unhealthy and
unfamiliar working conditions at Access Keyboards. Apart from that, researcher has
also suggested to give focus on quality management. As per the observation of author,
competitors are far ahead of Access Keyboards in their product quality as well as quality
in delivery the service or product to end user. It should be the prior concern of
management of Access Keyboards while retaining the old and existing consumers to
the company.
Task 4
P7. Reflection on value for conducting the research
Through evaluating the project objectives with output of the research, success of this
research project can be measured.

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
Objective 1: this study has improved the ability of researcher for accomplishing a
project successfully. Researcher has faced many hazards during the practical
implementation of this research project thus, researcher has overcome with some
possible recommendation for the company through this study.
Objective 2: with the help of qualitative questions, researcher has tried to address the
second objective. Through gathering the feedback of high officials of Access
Keyboards, researcher has aligned the activities of CSR as important element to
determine the image of company in market and among employees.
Objective 3: through evaluating the responses of qualitative and quantitative questions,
researcher has tried to identify that communication is very crucial element that is
affecting the business of Access Keyboards a lot. Company is not been able to deal
with consumers sufficiently due to lack of communication effectiveness. It is hindering
the sustainability of Access Keyboards and interrupting the growth as well as poor
performance in competitive market.
Objective 4: in the end, researcher has come up with most suitable recommendations
analysing the existing barriers and challenges of Access Keyboards to derive the
sustainability and competitive advantage through implicating the CSR activities in
business operation of the company.
Therefore, this study has been very helpful to the researcher in developing the research
as project developer. It has enhanced the analytical, data interpretation and the skill of
data presentation of the researcher.
Conclusion
The successful completion of this research project has provided some very significant
data about the research project. It can be now understood that how companies are
generating their positive social image and generating the long-term preferences among
the consumer since they are tend to move with socially responsible organisation.
Researcher has used different techniques to understand the existing barriers and
challenges of Access Keyboards. Thereafter, through using effective data analysis tool,

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
researcher has highlighted the segment that is threatening the company a lot and
required immediate change. Through collecting the theoretical knowledge about CSR
(Corporate Social Responsibility) and its impact over business sustainability and
attractiveness, researcher has compared and contrasted the wide arguments of authors
about understanding the prospect of CSR and relating it with the profitability of a
company. Moreover, through delivering suitable recommendations, researcher has tried
to close the gap or the challenges and derive the organisational sustainability and
competitive advantage through aligning the CSR activity in the business operation of the
company.

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
References
Adams, K. A. and Lawrence, E. K. (2014) Research Methods, Statistics, and
Applications, USA: SAGE Publications
Aguinis, H. and Glavas, A., (2012). What we know and don’t know about corporate
social responsibility a review and research agenda. Journal of management, 38(4),
pp.932-968
Baskerville, R.L. and Wood-Harper, A.T., (2016), A critical perspective on action
research as a method for information systems research, Enacting Research Methods in
Information Systems: 2, pp. 169-190
Dhaliwal, D.S., Li, O.Z., Tsang, A. and Yang, Y.G., (2011). Voluntary nonfinancial
disclosure and the cost of equity capital: The initiation of corporate social responsibility
reporting. The accounting review, 86(1),
Goetsch, D.L. and Davis, S.B., (2014). Quality management for organizational
excellence. Upper Saddle River, NJ: pearson
Kerzner, H., (2013). Project management: a systems approach to planning, scheduling,
and controlling. John Wiley & Sons
Manta.com, (2017), Cite a Website - Cite This For Me, Available at:
http://www.manta.com/ic/mxm2w21/gb/access-keyboards-ltd [Accessed 13 Apr. 2017]
Oladimeji, Y.L., Folorunso, O., Akinwale, A.T. and Adejumobi, A.I., (2011). A framework
for costing service-oriented architecture (SOA) projects using work breakdown structure
(WBS) approach. Global Journal of Computer Science and Technology, 11(15), pp. 1-
15
Ormston, R., Spencer, L., Barnard, M. and Snape, D., (2014), The foundations of
qualitative research, Qualitative research practice: A guide for social science students
and researchers, 4(2), pp.1-25

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
Sharp, N., Enzi, J., Fountoulakis, E., Lam, B. and Rabbior, M.C., International Business
Machines Coporation, (2012). System and method for displaying gantt charts with other
project management tools. U.S. Patent 8,245,153
Teddlie, C. and Tashakkori, A., (2011). Mixed methods research, The Sage handbook
of qualitative research, 2(1), pp.285-300
Tuli, F., (2011), The basis of distinction between qualitative and quantitative research in
social science: reflection on ontological, epistemological and methodological
perspectives, Ethiopian Journal of Education and Sciences, 6(1), pp. 97-108
Von Groddeck, V., (2011). Rethinking the role of value communication in business
corporations from a sociological perspective–why organisations need value-based
semantics to cope with societal and organisational fuzziness. Journal of business
ethics, 100(1), pp.69-84
Wahyuni, D (2012), The research design maze: understanding paradigms, cases,
methods and methodologies, Journal of applied management accounting research,
10(1), pp. 69-80
Yang, J.B. and Kao, C.K., (2012). Critical path effect based delay analysis method for
construction projects. International Journal of Project Management, 30(3), pp.385-397

MANAGING SUCCESFUL BUSINESS
Appendix
ca
te
g
or
y
Actions Days
1 2-5 5-
10
10-
12
12-
14
14-
18
18-
21
21-
25
25-
29
29-
34
34-
37
A Identifying the need
Determining the project requirement
Identifying the processes required
Identifying the data requirement
Breaking down aim into the smaller
objectives
Allocating the Resources
(Financial/Non-financial)
Determination of requirement of project
Identification of required processes
Identifying data requirements
B Theoretical researches
data analysis of competitor and the
company
C acquisition of Primary data (Interview,
Survey)
D Evaluating the collected data
Verifying of primary data findings
through theories
Analysing and summarising findings
E Recommendation
F Conclusion
Submission
Table 9: Gantt chart of SMART recommendation
(Source: Created by author)