Business Communication Report: Strategic Approach and CSR Challenges

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of business communication, focusing on strategic planning and corporate social responsibility (CSR), with ThirdWay Interiors, a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME) in interior design and building services, as a case study. The report delves into strategic planning elements such as SWOT analysis, long-term goals, and the application of strategic planning theories, contrasting the approaches of micro organizations, corporate businesses, and ThirdWay Interiors. It examines different business approaches, including storytelling and contemporary workplace designs, while also addressing challenges like lack of human resources and financial issues. Furthermore, the report explores the CSR challenges faced by micro, SME, and corporate organizations, emphasizing the significance of ethical and sustainable business practices. The analysis provides insights into how businesses can operate ethically and sustainably, offering a valuable understanding of effective business communication and strategic management.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
SUSTAINABLE APPROACH TO BUSINESS MANAGEMENT................................................1
Strategic planning........................................................................................................................1
Approach of business..................................................................................................................3
Corporate social responsibility challenges..................................................................................5
Strategies for operating in ethical and sustainable way..............................................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................7
REFLECTION.................................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
Business communication is the process of sharing information within enterprise or with
outsiders. Most of the successful companies understand that if they will have a sound system of
sharing information then time taken in making any decision will go down and conflicts in
organisation will also reduce (Bovee, Thill and Raina, 2016). This report is based on ThirdWay
interiors. It is a small and medium sized enterprise that provides services related to interior
designing and building. An important part of this project will also include micro organisation and
corporate businesses. This file will explain strategic planning and different approaches of
business. Challenges regarding CSR will also become part of this assignment. Few strategies
for following ethics and developing a sustainable business will be studies as well. This report will
have a self-reflection regarding own learnings that will be a significant part of this assignment.
SUSTAINABLE APPROACH TO BUSINESS MANAGEMENT
Managing a business in this era is really a difficult task. There are various factors like
technology, globalisation, etc. which are creating hurdles for entrepreneurs especially for SMEs.
Besides problems related to earning profit and attaining more market, companies have to cope-
up with new kinds of challenges like fulfilling corporate social responsibility.
Strategic planning
ThirdWay is a small firm. They understand that company have many big competitor and
acquiring significant amount of market share is crucial for them in order to survive for a long
time (Cardon and Marshall, 2015). Strategic planning is the process of explaining tactics and
deciding strategies relating to allocation of resources. It contains various elements which are as
follows:
SWOT analysis – Every organisation has some strengths which give them confidence
for operating in highly competitive business environment. Small and new firm make mistakes
because of their lack of experiences, like of every company ThirdWay also have too many
weaknesses.
 Strengths – This company is known for their innovation and creative ideas from
employees is main reason behind the initial success which they have attained in their
business (Lauring and Klitmøller, 2015). They use latest technology and maintain a
high level of quality in their work.
 Weaknesses – ThirdWay does not have much clients, they have limited market
because of poor performance and less concentration of marketing activities. Funding is
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another trouble for this enterprise they do not have necessary amount of funds for
expansion of their business.
 Opportunities – In present scenario, they are designing offices of small firms
(Nickerson, 2015). Management of this organisation can start making efforts for
signing deals with big corporations. Currently they are operating in London. They can
enter in new domestic market, like Manchester once they have significant number of
clients in London.
 Threats – They are running their business in a highly competitive industry. They can
easily loose their permanent customer if company fail to provide better service. Getting
necessary amount of funds can be considered as another threat for this firm. They
have many competitors so company may fail to get essential capital in upcoming time
specially at the time of expansion.
Long term goals
Every organisation has some mission. They make long term objectives in order to move
forward towards their vision. ThirdWay want to become leading organisation in term of providing
services of interiors designing. Instead of focusing on tradition, they concentrate of innovation.
They want to use latest technology in their business and earn trust of their clients (Eisenberg,
Johnson and Pieterson, 2015). This small company also want to enter in other part of Europe
because they believe that simply depending on domestic market would not make them leader of
the industry where they are operating.
Application of strategic planning theory
Their are various theories relating to strategic planning like rationalism, philosophical
synthesis, etc. ThirdWay are using organisation development theory, this organisation want to
make changes in their working style in regular interval of time because they known that they are
if they want to grow with a high pace then they have to focus on innovation and other key areas
like employee satisfaction, process of decision making etc. This enterprise understand that if
they will not innovative new designs and provide service to clients according to their need then
their organisation cannot develop in desired way (Steele and Plenty, 2015).
Micro organisation
These are very small organisation where, generally, less then 10 employees work. If
business is run by a single person then this form of organisation will also lie in this section. They
use rationalism as the theory of strategic planning where they set small goals for self, make plan
for attaining them and then execute those plans. Micro organisation also review obtained results
so they can avoid committing same mistake more than one time (Chaudhri, 2016). This model
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run on a particular sequence and it do not focus on external business which can make a huge
impact on an organisation.
Corporate business
Most of the big corporate businesses follow Philosophical synthesis theory of strategic
management. This is a broad approach where besides internal factor, external elements are
also included. Multi-national corporation consider political, social, ethical condition of business
environment where they are operating. These companies operate in many regions so the
significance of external factor at the time of planning is import6ant for them.
Approach of business
ThirdWay is a small and medium enterprise. They have own limitation and strengths
which separate them from many multi-national organisations. Below are some key part of the
approaches which is adopted by this company:
 This firm try to avoid excessive overhead because they do not have much financial
resources and they know that if they will not use their limited capital in proper way then
they may face issues relating to investment and liquidity (Mayfield, Mayfield and
Sharbrough 2015).
 ThirdWay has low operational cost and this is the prime reason that they try to raise this
point in-front of potential clients. They promote the idea of better service at low rate.
Interior designing of offices is a work which is related to creativity and innovation. This
company has talents employees who understand demand of customer and design their
offices according to their need.
Below are some unique business approach adopted by ThirdWay:
Storytelling – This organisation analyse special condition of the space which is available
to them, instead of focusing of what they do not have, they concentrate on what they can do
with available area. This thinking assist them in attaining both of of their objectives i.e. low cost
of business and increase sale by delivering better results (Lauring and Bjerregaard, 2017).
Contemporary workplace – This company always ask about what client need. This is a
fast paced world and needs of customer are changing swiftly. ThirdWay is designing workplaces
according to the modern world. They use ideas which is unique and fulfilling demand of
customers.
Below are some crucial problems and their solution which ThirdWay (SME) have to face:
Lack of human resources – This company is new and they do not have sound HR wing.
In the industry of architecture, finding appropriate employees is very difficult because identifying
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workers who have innovative mind is difficult task (Alnajjar, 2015). This issue can be resolved
by hiring a good and experienced HR professional who is already working in same industry and
have good contact. Instead of hiring talented workers, this company should focus on recruiting
those candidates who can stay in the organisation for long period of time. This will stop a big
problem which normally arise in developing organisation i.e. high rate of employee turnover.
Financial issues – Although financial position of this company is fine in present scenario
but because of external factor like Brexit and swift change in technology they may have to cope
up with problems of funding. This organisation should start fining new sources of funding like
angel investor or bank loan if they want to provide more strength to their financial problem and
expand their business out of the London.
Finding clients – Getting clients in this industry is not an easy task because most of
order which other companies are getting is due to informal contact and mouth publicity.
Manager of ThirdWay are talented and they have own contact (Dulek and Campbell, 2015). But
their permanent clients can only provide stability to this firm in their business. They cannot help
them in increasing their area of operations. Adopting right marketing tools and making sound
promotional strategy are some of the plan which this organisation has adopted for managing
this problem.
Approach and strategies of micro businesses
These type of organisations mainly focus on survival and limited expansion of business.
Their are operating in business world in order to earn livelihood. They do not think of mergers
and acquisitions and most of their problems are related to finding more number of customers.
They do not have any aggressive approach and their problems can get resolve by making
necessary modification in conducting business (Alnajjar, 2015). These organisations are highly
dependent on permanent customer and they do not make any plan for dealing with changes
which can happen because of external factors.
They follow the strategy of making permanent clients instead of finding new customers.
This tactics is the main reason behind their sound stability. If a micro organisation do not have
many permanent clients then their business will get shut in short period of time because finding
new customer is hard for them. Another strategy which they adopt is related to selling goods
and services at low price. Although this strategy is not adopted by every organisation but most
of them attract customer by giving special discount which is given by big companies because of
their no bargaining policy (Mayfield, Mayfield and Sharbrough 2015). This is an ethical and
sustainable way of doing business.
Approach and strategies of corporate businesses
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Big corporations focuses on two areas in terms of ''business approach'', first is
continuously lowering down cost of operations and second is expanding organisation in market
(Business communication, 2017). They use latest technology in their working because they know
that it can assist them in increasing operational efficiency in reduce wastage of resources. Their
is a general perception that clients like to hire an organisation who are using latest technology in
providing better service to the clients. Merger and acquisition, strategic alliance etc. are some of
the approaches for expanding business.
Corporate business understand that they have to follow some ethics in order to develop
a sustainable business. They always focus on impact of implementing a tactics at the time of
making plans (Chaudhri, 2016). This strategy play crucial role in increasing trust of public in
company and achieving trust from their side is key behind developing a successful business.
Corporate social responsibility challenges
Every company, whether small or big, has some responsibilities towards the society
where they are operating. Normally people think that all big corporations has to do something
for this society but this is not responsibility only multinational corporations, micro and SME also
have to do something for this society where they are running their business. Below are
challenges faced by different forms of organisation:
Micro
Although it is true that every company has to focus on CSR but if the size of an
organisation is small or a single person is running business then the number of challenge will be
almost negligible. Micro sector do not face any major challenges relating to CSR but if
government of a country force them then they can do some small thing for society.
SME
Small and medium enterprises like ThirdWay always focus on expansion and
maturation. At the time of implementing strategies relating to expansion, medium sized
company has to start spending some money on welfare on society. Challenges regarding
keeping environment clean and safe is not easy for SME. Normally when a small enterprise is
preset at a stage where they are becoming a biog corporation then people expect them to
concentrate and spend money on social responsibility. But in reality their financial position is not
even near to big corporation and spending huge money of fulfilling corporate social
responsibility will make a negative impact on their financial position (Eisenberg, Johnson and
Pieterson, 2015). Even if they will make a separate fund for CSR then using it in proper way is a
big challenge.
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ThirdWay understand that they have to do something for society and they are
considering on designing offices for charitable trust. This is a fine approach because it do not
require any additional expenditure and allow employee to use their skills in doing something
which they are already doing. They have attain success in this work because it improved their
image in London and they get unpaid promotion (Henderson, Cheney and Weaver, 2015). Their
are two ways which can be used for measuring the success of CSR. First is comparing firms
policies and plans against the actual work which they have done for social welfare. Another way
of measuring success is to find whether the targets set by local authorities and government
bodies are met or not. Government expect a particular amount of expenditure of SME company,
if company is spending that amount then it means that they have attained success regarding
their CSR.
Big corporations
The biggest challenge for corporate business regarding CSR is related to making sure
that money allotted for corporate social responsibility is used in right manner i.e. without any
misuse (Nickerson, 2015). Lack of vision is another challenge. Most of the companies know that
they have to fulfil CSR but they do not right areas of social development where they can spend
money. Coca-cola is committed to spend 1% of their annual income on CSR activity and they
are working in various fields like education, environment, community etc. They have made a
vision and long term and this is assist them in forwarding on right track. Compared to SME and
micro organisation, their approach is different as it is much organised and they are very serious
about it. Coca – Cola has CSR goals, this is their only measure for measurement.
Strategies for operating in ethical and sustainable way
For Micro enterprise
These types of organisation understand they no one is going to ask them about CSR.
They should maintain some moral grounds and do charity on own basis. Their strategy should
be related to finding a particular area where they want to make changes and then do small
things for society (Cardon and Marshall, 2015). Maintaining work ethics and using new method
of working are some core part of various strategies which is made by micro firms for operating
in ethical way and developing a sustainable business.
For SME
In order make sure that ethics are followed in organisation, SMEs like ThirdWay
generally focus on three key areas for operating in ethical way. Selection of partner carefully,
offer value for money taken from customer and evaluation of business activities in ethical way.
They are using latest technology and affordable rate for developing a sustainable business.
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For Big Corporation
MNCs like Coca Cola has has a code of ethics which they follow at any cost. They have
a unique strategy regarding operating in ethical way. They have a telephone number, toll free,
which is available for all of their stakeholders. This is a ethics line and if they have any issue
relating to the ethics then they can call of this number (Bovee, Thill and Raina, 2016). They are
making necessary changes in product and services in order to develop sustainable business.
CONCLUSION
At the end, it can be concluded that developing a sustainable approach for running
business is very important for every organisation. Issues like CSR and ethics are crucial part of
sustainable business and it assist an enterprise is saving themselves from various problems.
Strategic planning is related to finding long term goals and making plan for attaining it. It has
various theories, and different form of organisations adopt different theories.
REFLECTION
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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Education India.
Cardon, P. W. and Marshall, B., 2015. The hype and reality of social media use for work
collaboration and team communication. International Journal of Business
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Chaudhri, V., 2016. Corporate social responsibility and the communication imperative:
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Dulek, R. E. and Campbell, K. S., 2015. On the dark side of strategic
communication. International Journal of Business Communication. 52(1). pp.122-142.
Eisenberg, E. M., Johnson, Z. and Pieterson, W., 2015. Leveraging social networks for strategic
success. International Journal of Business Communication. 52(1). pp.143-154.
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organizational identity in strategic communication and organizational issues
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Business Communication. 52(1). pp.97-121.
Nickerson, C., 2015. The death of the non-native speaker? English as a lingua franca in
business communication: A research agenda. Language Teaching. 48(3). pp.390-404.
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Steele, G. A. and Plenty, D., 2015. Supervisor–subordinate communication competence and job
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Online
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