Managing Successful Business Projects: CSR at Marks & Spencer Report

This report examines the Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) activities of Marks & Spencer, a leading UK supermarket. It begins by outlining the aims and objectives of M&S, emphasizing how CSR initiatives can enhance brand value and achieve organizational goals. The report details a project management plan incorporating cost, time, scope, quality, and communication strategies. A work breakdown structure and Gantt chart are presented to illustrate project phases and timelines. The research methodology involves qualitative and quantitative approaches to gather data from various stakeholders. The analysis includes data analysis and recommendations for the company based on the research findings, with a reflection on the research process. The report concludes by summarizing the key findings and their implications for M&S's CSR strategy.

Managing Successful Business
Project

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1 Aims and objectives of Marks & Spencer.........................................................................3
P2 Project management plan incorporating cost, time, scope and quality and communication. 4
P3 A work break down structured and a Gantt chart to provide time frames and stages for
completion..............................................................................................................................6
TASK 2 ..........................................................................................................................................7
P4 Research on objectives by using appropriate research method.........................................7
INTERPRETATION............................................................................................................10
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................19
P5 Data analysis...................................................................................................................19
P6 Recommendation for the company.................................................................................20
P7 Reflection on research.....................................................................................................20
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23

INTRODUCTION
Corporates which are generating huge revenues and profits from the society has a ethical
responsibility to return the benefits from a different way. So they have to provide a social
benefits to the society by which they can gain social ethics by using CSR activities which can
increase their brand image in the market (Ajmal, Helo and Kekäle, 2010). The present report is
based on the Marks and Spencer which is a leading supermarket of the UK. This report is having
content on the CSR activities and plans which can increase the brand value of the organisation.
TASK 1
P1 Aims and objectives of Marks & Spencer
CSR is an approach which is focused to improve their social welfare by the company and
it improves the business relations with all stakeholders and especially with the customers (Anand
and Fosso Wamba, 2013). CSR manage the business police. It is a management concept of
business. If an organisation like; Marks and Spencer want to achieve their objectives and goals
they can adopt CSR activities for full fill their targets and they can deliver best services to their
customers. One other advantage of these activities that company can create their brand image
and attract the clients of different groups.
Topic: “how can CSR activities helps to achieve organisational goals and objectives.”
Background: When employees of Marks & Spencer adopting CSR activities they can improve
their quality of product and attract large number of people. The ultimate objective of a company
is to earn maximum profit and for that managers have to prepare plans which are related to needs
of enterprises. CSR set the corporate social responsibility of business plan it supported the
business master plan. CSR impact on market and society and increasing the positivity influence.
There are some points of objective of CSR . It will also helps to expend market share of a
company. One another important benefit for adopting this that company can increase the sales of
their products.
Aims:- To enhance the profits by implementing CSR activities in the actual conditions.
Objectives:
1. To maximise the revenues by adopting CSR activities.
2. To attain organisational objectives to be in the targeted market of the company.
3. To analyse the significance of the CSR for the company.

P2 Project management plan incorporating cost, time, scope and quality and communication
It helps to implement project in the actual conditions which can help to the project
developer and implementer accordingly (Andersen, 2010). There is a project manager who leads
the project, and makes plan for the execution of project by taking inputs from project team and
stakeholder. Project management plans are created progressively which leads to develop, refine,
revisiting. The project management plan is not created at once but it is created in various
processes. It is made to execute the proper planning on the project that are assigned to team. It
has the combination of baseline and other associated line plans. In this manager of project
management team divides the task to their team so that every aspect of project can be fulfilled.
Project management plan covers every aspects as costs, scope of project, time required, quality,
communication, risk and resources.
Time: This factors is very important when a company produce goods and services they have to
deliver them on time to customers. Employees have to complete their work so they can full fill
organisational objectives. Managers prepare plans in which they decide time for every activity so
workers can enhance their skills and performance in market. It is also important for manager of
Marks and Spencer to give motivation and proper training to their subordinates so they can
complete their work with in time. Activities of CSR is completing in 3 months which is enough
for an organisation to complete a task.
Cost: The main aim of an organisation to decrees the cost and increase profits. Supervisors of
marks and Spencer have to adopt new strategies to minimise their cost from raw material to
manufacturer so they can deliver better prices of goods and services to their customers
(Chesbrough, 2010). If organisation do not give their best prices to their customers than they will
able to sustain in the market for long time. Apart from that enterprises have to cover their cost of
production and also maximise profits. Over all activities which are conducted in this research
will consume around Pound 1000 which is 10% higher than the last CSR implementation project.
Resources: This includes that company have both type of resources such as natural and men
made. Organisation have to adopt strategies and prepare plans to optimum utilisation of
resources. It will also helps to develop quality of products and services which are delivered to
customers. Employees can achieve their targets in effective manner. Ultimately it will help to
increase the revenue of enterprises.

Quality: It is another important component when a plan is prepared for production. It includes
consistency in production for example if marks & Spence produce 1000 units per day that it is
important they should follow quality standards when produce goods and services. If company
not produce quality products that it will be difficult for survival of that organisation because this
factor is directly affect profits of company. If a company can not achieve quality in production
that adoption of CSR is not benificial for that organisation.
Communication: It include that company have a sufficient communication channels for
communicating between employees. Organisation have formal and informal communication
channels by which subordinates connecting with each other. The manager have to decide proper
channel of communication so it will helps to full fill organisational goals and it will also helps to
quick decision making in the organisation.
Risk: Every business have their own risk. There is responsibility of manager that they reduce
risk by risk management. For this purpose manager can adopt some strategies by which risk can
be decrease in activities. It will helps to achieve organisational goals and target more efficiently.
Scope: When employees of Marks& Spencer conduct research, they can identify needs and
preferences of their customers. It will also helps to create brand value in market.
Project Management Plan

P3 A work break down structured and a Gantt chart to provide time frames and stages for
completion
Work breakdown structure: Work breakdown structure is a hierarchical project into phase which
included deliverables and work packages. It is a plant structure process that can define sub part
of effort to achieve the goal and objectives (Doherty, Ashurst and Peppard, 2012). The work
breakdown structure issues a common framework for the natural increase of the overall planning
and control of the partition of the work into the clear out the supplement from the declaration of
work can be improved and technical, schedule, price and material and labour hour reporting can
be fixed.
1. Aims and objectives: This is first stage of structure. the work break down structure
includes determine aims and objectives of a organisation. It include what a company want
from their operations. manager of Marks & Spencer is decides main goals and objectives
of a company for this purpose manger can also adopt CSR activities for defining
objectives of enterprises.
2. Project management plans: After setting goals and objectives of a company, manager
have to prepare plans for full fill that objectives. For this purpose there should be a
project manager who operate the activities of CSR which are helps to prairie project
plans. When project manager of Marks & Spencer prepare plan he should consider that it
relates with the organisational objectives.
3. Qualitative research: This is third stage of break down structure in which managers of
marks & Spencer conduct a research for collecting the data from different customers and
clients. This include a survey conducted by employees of organisation. CSR play
important role in this stage.
4. Analysis of data: When a manager conduct research after that they should analyse the
data which is collected from investigation. This analysis helps to take major decisions in
the organisation related to fulfilment of objectives and goals.
5. Recommendations for organisation: Last stage of break down structure is give
recommendations which is based ion the qualitative research and data analysis. It
includes any changes and improvement which are based on the the previous
investigation.

Gantt Chart: The Gantt chart is a map concept that can be done in similar and which can be
done by continues. It is the combination of the project report that we can explain the trade off
between the scope of work in the concept. Gantt chart can be establish the initial project system
and it can be also allocate the resource or the project. And that is define the report problems.
Gantt charts are not the correct all the time they can become overly complex with many activities
(Gareis, 2010). It is much better to create a clear and easily plan that define the work package in
short processor. Gantt chart is usually filled out the information. In this process the first step that
can identify the projects essential tasks.
TASK 2
P4 Research on objectives by using appropriate research method
It is essential to conduct a research to get outcomes for implementation of CSR in the
actual conditions. As the Marks and Spencer wants to implement CSR so it is essential to know
in which area they can conduct it. So an appropriate research method will be used to gather
informations by the company members. Some of the methods are here;

Qualitative research- This is a method which is used to to gather suggestions and opinion on
particular topic of targeted audiences. The data here are very exploratory and it gives a detailed
information of the research topic and defies the reasons and gives opinions about the topic. It is a
kind of research which also helps in finding out what a person is thinking and also give a
relevant reason of his thoughts (Kowalkowski, Kindström and Brehmer, 2011). Following things
that a qualitative research let us know are-
What a Prospect is thinking and feeling about our products and services.
What are the motivating factors of the customers.
How decision making get affected by the pricing
This research is basically about the detailed information of the behaviour and attitude of the
people.
Quantitative research- This method is use to collect numerical data which can help to
researcher to take a decision. In this type of research a structured facts and opinion of the people
are studied. Suitable figures, facts and reliable statistical are extracted by this research.
Following are the things that we come to know about from this research method-
 Do we have a suitable market.
 Awareness of our product in the market.
 Buying behaviour of the customers.
 Do we have more demands for our products and services.
Methods of quantitative research are as-
1. Aim to measure things
2. Approach should be scientific and the objective should be fulfilled.
3. One on one researcher
4. Postal methods
5. Electronic mailing
6. Self centralised.
By following procedure we come to know how the research is done and what all cafeterias are
there to analyse the various aspects of the topic. A sample is presented below to understand the
core aspect of the research study. As this research is based on the CSR and take a review from
the employees of the employees of the company. So qualitative research method will be used to

gather informations by workers of organisation which can help to implement CSR in appropriate
manner.
Survey report of qualitative research method
Name-
Age-
Gender-
1)Does Mark and Spencer's CSR strategy show a positive impact?
 Yes
 No
2) Is there any relationship you find in between CSR and competitive benefits?
 Yes
 No
3) Are you agreeing that the basic responsibility of Mark and Spencer is implementing the CSR
activity?
 Agree
 Strongly agree
 Neutral
 Disagree
 Strongly disagree
4)Which all problems were faced by Mark and Spencer?
 Women's right
 Child labour
 Safety of employees
5)What are the initiatives taken by Mark and Spencer?
 Empowering women
 Health related measures.
 Environmental factors.
6)What are the feasible references to enforce CSR activities?
 Voluntary organisations
 Charity events
 Providing fiscal assistance.

7)Who is responsible for the CSR implementation.?
 HR Departments.
 Leaders and management
 Administration.
8)Suggest some strategies to be included in CSR by Mark and Spencer?
 Line departments
 Trust Foundation
 Different department of CSR.
INTERPRETATION
Theme 1: Positive impacts of CSR
Findings: 80% people said that CSR is having potentials to make a positive impact on the
company.
Theme: 2 Relationship in between CSR and competitive benefits
Yes No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
18
16
4

Findings: 70 people which are involved in this research has agreed that CSR is having positive
relation with the competitive benefits.
Theme 3: CSR is basic responsibility.
Yes No
0
2
4
6
8
10
12
14
16
14
6
Agree strongly agree Neutral disagree Strongly disagree
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
4
6
2
6
2