Sainsbury's: CSR, Brexit Impact, and Strategic Recommendations

This report provides an in-depth analysis of Sainsbury's, a UK-based retail organization, addressing key issues and offering strategic recommendations. It examines the company's overall performance, highlighting challenges such as industry pressure, competition from rivals like Tesco and ALDI, and the impact of economic uncertainty. The report emphasizes the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), detailing Sainsbury's CSR initiatives like 'Best for Food and Health,' 'Sourcing with Integrity,' and 'Respect for the Environment,' and stressing the link between CSR and business strategy. Furthermore, it explores the potential impact of Brexit on Sainsbury's, including the blocked merger with Asda and the resulting effects on investors and consumer spending. The report concludes with a reflection on teamwork experiences and the skills needed for effective collaboration. References to relevant academic sources are included to support the analysis.

INTRODUCTION TO
BUSINESS

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
Key Issues and Recommendation.......................................................................................3
Benefits of CSR Project......................................................................................................3
Possible Impact of Brexit on Sainsbury's...........................................................................4
Reflection...........................................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION............................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES............................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
This report includes some of the issues which are being faced by Sainsbury's which is a UK
based retail organisation and how these issues can be solved by the company. CSR needs to be
linked to strategy this report includes its importance. Affect of Brexit over Sainsbury's have
also been included in this report.
Key Issues and Recommendation
Overall Performance
Sainsbury's is a retail organisation and is facing troubles due to pressure from industry. It
has also seen that non-food sector of Sainsbury's is also not performing well(El-Kassar,
Messarra and El-Khalil, 2017). This has affected its total sales and which have reduced.
To solve this issue Sainsbury's have to focus on its non-food sector and for this itr can develop
marketing strategy and should include the whole Sainsbury's focusing less on non food
products of the company. This issue can also be solved by Sainsbury's by providing specific
purchase benefits like discount.
Competition
This is another issue which is being faced by the Sainsbury's. The organisation is facing
tough competition from Tesco and ALDI. This affects its performance in the market.
To solve this issue Sainsbury's need to revise its strategies in various aspects and develop the
latest strategies for marketing and its capabilities for competitive advantage.
Economic Uncertainty
This means that uncertainties of economy have negative imp-act on the performance of
Sainsbury's(Ajina and et.al., 2019). This is an external factor and also difficult to control by
the organisation. This make it more difficult.
To deal with this issue Sainsbury's have to ensure that its policies are flexible so that they can
be changed as per the requirements and it has ready plans to implement when uncertainties
occur.
Benefits of CSR Project
CSR refers to a model through which companies can self mange their activities for the
benefit of society. There are various reasons which make it important for companies to have
CSR strategies and then link it with business strategies(Hoinaru and Năstase, 2019). CSR
activities undertaken by Sainsbury's are

Best for Food and Health
In this Sainsbury's have made changes in their food products which are good for health they
have reduces salt, fat, sugar in their products which reduce negative impact on the health.
Sourcing with Integrity
in this CSR activity of Sainsbury's they have ensured that their own products and brand will
not contribute for deforestation, sustainable sea food, they have double the amount of British
products to be sold.
Respect for the Environment
This includes policy and strategy of the company that it will put all the waste to positive use.
They have ensured to reduced operational carbon emission by 30%.
CSR strategies of Sainsbury's also include welfare of community like 20 million children will
be able to enjoy physical activities and welfare of those who are working for Sainsbury's like
providing job opportunities.
This is very important to link CSR with strategy (Watson and et.al., 2018). For example,
Sainsbury's can highlight its CSR activities in its marketing campaign which means linking
CSR with marketing strategies this will build up positive image of the company.
Another is that CSR should be linked with activities of the organisation. This has benn done
by Sainsbury's and which have resulted in its healthy food products and sustainable products.
This is also beneficial as many activities like use of waste can reduce cost of the company and
will also become a CSR activity.
Possible Impact of Brexit on Sainsbury's
Brexit blocked the merger of Sainsbury's and Asda. This has resulted that investors have
shunned Sainsbury's (Ramanathan, Subramanian and Parrott, 2017). This combination was
meant to be a response to Tesco by the Sainsbury's. But because of competition concern this
was blocked by the Brexit.
This was done as mergers and acquisition which are major have ruled out and for the
sensitive concern that competition should be on the basis of price rather than by merger and
acquisition.
In relation with Brexit Sainsbury's have faced more reduction in share prices. This has been
said by the CEO that Sainsbury's would need 12-15 months so that it can adopt what it needs
to adopt.

Due to effect of political uncertainties and Brexit consumers' spending reduced and because of
that Sainsbury's faced reduction in profit and profits of Sainsbury's were wiped out by the cost
which incurred in closing of the stores.
It was said by the chief of Sainsbury's that the scenario of Brexit hangs over customers and
create uncertainty in the business environment.
This has also affected supply of people from other parts of EU as UK have decided to leave
EU (Slack, 2018). This is because people are facing problem in visa and rights which are
awarded to individuals.
Reflection
While working in a team, I faced a lot of problems as the other team members were
new for me, and I was not aware about their perception and beliefs. It was very difficult for me
to understand the different ideas of other tram members but later on I act as initiator and
established a good relation with other members (Ajina and et.al., 2019). The main benefit
which I realized after working in team is that it helps the individuals to build a good
communication with each other and builds a trust among members. The main challenge which
I faced while working in team was the conflict of interest. As each and every individual have
different opinion and viewpoints thus it resulted in conflict where team members began to
disagree with each other. The skills which I need to develop for effectively working in team
are communication skills and decision-making skills. The reason is that throughout the entire
presentation, I was not able to effectively communicate with other team members. Besides
this, I was not able to take reliable decision like which presentation themes to choose etc.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded that CSR plays a crucial role within organization. As each and every
organization faces various issues as well as problems thus in this context, CSR helps
ordinations to build a good image in market and work towards interest of stakeholders. The
emergence of Brexit has affected various organizations in a great way like Brexit has imposed
some restrictions upon international trade, political instability etc. At the end, for working in a
team a large number of skills are required like communication skills in orde to overcome
various team challenges.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ajina, A.S. and et.al., 2019. The importance of CSR initiatives in building customer support
and loyalty. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics.
El-Kassar, A.N., Messarra, L.C. and El-Khalil, R., 2017. CSR, organizational identification,
normative commitment, and the moderating effect of the importance of CSR. The
Journal of Developing Areas. 51(3). pp.409-424.
Hoinaru, R. and Năstase, M., 2019, May. A balanced approach: Brexit from political and
business perspectives. In Proceedings of the International Conference on Business
Excellence (Vol. 13, No. 1, pp. 804-816). Sciendo.
Ramanathan, U., Subramanian, N. and Parrott, G., 2017. Role of social media in retail
network operations and marketing to enhance customer satisfaction. International
Journal of Operations & Production Management.
Slack, N., 2018. Essentials of operations management. Pearson UK.
Watson, D. and et.al., 2018. BREXIT and the Implications of Food Safety Cultural
Compliance in the Food Manufacturing Sector. Acta Scientific Microbiology. 1(4).