ACBE100 Business Report: Deloitte's CSR and Education Focus

This business report examines Deloitte's Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives, focusing on the need for greater investment in quality education to align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The report identifies a CSR issue related to the SDG of quality education, arguing that Deloitte has not prioritized education to the same extent as environmental and charitable initiatives. The analysis explores the importance of education in the modern service-oriented world, where skills and knowledge are essential. The report analyzes Deloitte's CSR reports and evaluates potential solutions, including redirecting funds, initiating programs for young professionals, and establishing learning institutions. It concludes with recommendations for Deloitte to enhance its contribution to the global community by focusing on the SDG of quality education, recognizing the interconnectedness of education with other sustainable development goals. The report uses data and evidence from multiple sources to support its arguments and recommendations.

BUSINESS REPORT 1
BUSINESS REPORT
Student’s Name
Professor’s Name
Institution
Course
Student’s ID
Date

BUSINESS REPORT 2
Introduction
Corporate Social Responsibility has been seen as an initiative that is aimed at helping the
members of the society, but it has now changed to a risk management and organisational
strategy. Organisations all over the world are investing in Corporate Social Responsibility with
the intention of making a name for their organisations and promoting good life among the
members of the community. Deloitte is one of the global organisations that have not been left
behind when it comes to the promotion of Corporate Social Responsibility at an organisational
level. However, there are a few shortcomings which need to be addressed for the company to
fully contribute to the well-being of the global community. Deloitte has failed to align some of
its initiatives with Sustainable Development Goals, and this means that it might not be
effectively contributing to the development of a good future for the global community.
Identify and define a CSR issue that relates to the SDG you have chosen to target and your
organisation.
It is no doubt that Deloitte has done a tremendous job when it comes to contributing to
programs that help the needy in the global society. However, there is a sustainable goal that the
company has neglected, and that is the promotion of quality education (Tai and Chuang, 2014).
The company has concentrated more on two aspects of CSR, and they are the environment and
reaching out to the needy (Schwartz, 2017). Considering that Deloitte is an organisation that is
more concentrated in a profession that is associated with the need for higher education standards,
it ought to make sure that the levels of education are promoted to enhance professionalism in the
near future.

BUSINESS REPORT 3
The reason why the issue of education is crucial to SDG and to Deloitte as well is
because of the direction that the world is taking (Suliman, Al-Khatib, and Thomas, 2016). The
modern world has shifted, and trends are taking a different lane and pace. The world is shifting
from manufacturing to service delivery. Deloitte is a service providing company, and it has
employed thousands of employees, and at the same time, it is operating in many nations. This
means that the company should be on the front line to understand the need to have an educated
global population in future. In the service-providing industry, skills and education are
compulsory for the employees and organisations that want to thrive (Nilsson, Griggs, and
Visbeck, 2016). It is therefore essential for Deloitte to concentrate on the Sustainable
Development Goal of promoting quality education that will help in making sure that the world is
transformed and provided with intellectual minds that have the capability to take the level of
education a notch higher.
Explore the issue by sourcing and analysing relevant and reliable information
The issue of Deloitte is failing to invest much in quality education as its CSR initiative.
The latest CSR report from Deloitte; which was released in 2017, shows the initiatives that the
company has been funding directly and indirectly (Deloitte, 2017). In figure 1, it is evident that
the company has given most of its attention to different issues but has neglected the issue of
education. It is evident that the different initiatives that the company has focused on cannot be
promoted in the absence of bringing up bright minds and bright minds can only be fostered
through education (McWilliams, 2015). Looking at figure 2, there is a point that is clear, and that
is the essence of education and what people think about education. The data shows that among
the sustainable development goals, education is the highest goal and this is because it is the pillar
of all other sustainable development goals.

BUSINESS REPORT 4
Fig 1
Fig 2
Identify and evaluate potential solutions to the issue leading to clear recommendation(s).

BUSINESS REPORT 5
Different solutions are at the exposal of Deloitte if it needs to deal with the CSR issue at
hand. It is imperative to note that Deloitte has not only been working alone, but it has also been
channelling its money to other organisations that take care of the needs of the environment and
the less fortunate members of the society (Deloitte, 2017). It is for this reason that it would be
essential for the company to start engaging directly in its initiative. There is no question about
the financial ability of the company to provide a solution to the issue at hand, and this is because
the company has been contributing a lot to other programs. The first solution would be to reduce
the funds that are channelled to other organisations for CSR and to concentrate the money to an
initiative that will be taking care of the education needs of the members of the society (Le Blanc,
2015). The company deals with professionals who are highly educated, and it is therefore evident
that it has advisors on how it can approach the whole issue of promoting education at a global
scale.
The second solution for the company would be to initiate programs that help the
upcoming professionals in its field. There are many young professionals who have done courses
which are related to finance, and they are stuck with no one to turn to. It is a high time that the
company uses the resources it has to intervene and help the professionals. The third solution
which has worked for many other non-governmental organisations is the establishment of
learning institutions in nations that are in dire need. Deloitte has been working with other
organisations to look after the needy children in Uganda (Deloitte, 2018). Therefore, the
company has a channel that it can use to execute this strategy. The reason why the issue of
concentrating on education is essential to Deloitte is that almost every organisation has invested
in taking care of the environment and giving charity in forms of food and clothes. If the whole
world took the same direction, the sustainable goals would never be achieved, and this is because

BUSINESS REPORT 6
of overconcentration on one initiative. Organisations should deal with sustainable goals that are
associated with their operations in one way or another.

BUSINESS REPORT 7
References
Deloitte. 2018. Corporate Responsibility: Making an Impact that matters in our community.
Retrieved from https://www2.deloitte.com/ie/en/pages/about-deloitte/articles/corporate
social-responsibility-report.html
Deloitte. 2017. Shaping our world: Deloitte Sustainability Services 2017. Available at
https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/nz/Documents/risk/deloitte
sustainability-services-2017.pdf
Le Blanc, D., 2015. Towards integration at last? The sustainable development goals as a network
of targets. Sustainable Development, 23(3), pp.176-187.
McWilliams, A., 2015. Corporate social responsibility. Wiley encyclopedia of management,
pp.1-4.
Nilsson, M., Griggs, D. and Visbeck, M., 2016. Policy: map the interactions between Sustainable
Development Goals. Nature News, 534(7607), p.320.
Schwartz, M.S., 2017. Corporate social responsibility. Routledge.
Suliman, A.M., Al-Khatib, H.T. and Thomas, S.E., 2016. Corporate social
responsibility. Corporate Social Performance: Reflecting on the Past and Investing in the
Future, p.15.
Tai, F.M. and Chuang, S.H., 2014. Corporate social responsibility. Ibusiness, 6(03), p.117.