SIM336 Strategic Management Report: British Gas CSR and Strategy

This report provides a strategic management analysis of British Gas Limited, examining the company's operations and strategic approaches. It begins with an introduction to strategic management and the context of British Gas. Task 1 delves into the external influences on the organization, utilizing PESTEL analysis to assess political, economic, social, technological, environmental, and legal factors. Task 2 focuses on corporate social responsibility (CSR) and sustainability, exploring their influence on decision-making within the company and evaluating the effectiveness of British Gas's responses. The report concludes with a summary of the findings and references the sources used.

strategic management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION.................................................................................................................................3
Task 1....................................................................................................................................................3
External influence to organisation.....................................................................................................3
Task 2....................................................................................................................................................6
Corporate social responsibility and sustainability..............................................................................6
CONCLUSION...................................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES....................................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Strategic management is defined as approaches and strategies use to manage the
operations of organisation. This report is based on the case study of British Gas Limited
Company. The organisation was established in the year 1997. Headquarter of the company is
located in Staines - upon- Thames, United Kingdom. Company deals in gas, electricity,
boilers and central heating, plumbing and drains, renewable energy and home appliance
services. Company serves its operation across the United Kingdom. This report will project
about different aspects related to strategic management in company. Henceforth, report will
emphasis on influence of various external factors over the organisation strategic management
policies and strategies. Furthermore, report will also emphasis on the influences of corporate
social responsibility and sustainability over the policies and decision making of the company.
This report will further analysis about the effectiveness in relation to the organisation
response. Report will also put its eye on different areas of improvement in the organisation
policies and strategies in regards to the corporate social responsibility operations.
Task 1
External influence to organisation
External influence is defined as all such external factors put an impact over the
organisation presence in respect to the corporate social responsibility function. In order to
assess about the external influences PESTEL Analysis is the most relevant tool to use.
PESTEL Analysis
PESTEL Analysis is a diversified tool used to analysis about the influences external
factor creates over the organisation. This tool involves many factors like political,
economical, social, technological, environment and legal factors. All such factors are the sum
of different external influences organisation face in order to conduct the business operations.
Political factor: Political factor is among the key external factor influences over the
organisation. Political factor in PESTEL Analysis tool give emphasis to assess different
policies and strategies government has framed in respect to corporate social responsibility
operations associated with the companies. Government all across the globe give huge
priorities to conduct the corporate social responsibility functions as companies take all the
resources from the society which enables them to give back whatever they have taken form

the society. Political stability is also a huge factor influences operations undertaken by the
British Gas Limited Company. Stable government situation on makes him able to run the
stable policies and strategies for the operation function (Alvarado-Herrera and et.al.,2017). It
also allows British Gas Limited Company to frame long term policies and strategies in order
to channelize the corporate social responsibility function of company. Stable government also
able to support companies to conduct more effective corporate social responsibility
operations.
Economical factor: Economic factor is also a key external influences company needs to deal
with. Economic factor involve economic stability in the United Kingdom. Currency exchange
rate, taxation policies of government and other key economic factors impact over the business
of company. It is projected that economic factor is among the most aggressive external factor
impact over the business of the British Gas Limited Company (ArAs, 2016). All prices offer
by company over different products deeply affected with the economic factors associated
with the United Kingdom. Inflation in the economy is also a key external influence company
needs to face. Inflation directly affect over the prices offer by company. Inflation further
restricts the purchasing capacity of the customers. It is projected that in case of corporate
social responsibility functions economic factor do not get to create the much impact except
over the profitability of the company. Profitability further impact over the budgets set for
conducting different corporate social responsibility functions undertaken by the British Gas
Limited Company. It can be stated that economic factor influences the corporate social
responsibility functions but in indirect manner.
Social factor: Social factor is another key external factor influences over the operations of
the British Gas Limited Company. Socials factor involves how the culture and society in
United Kingdom approaches the corporate social responsibility operations undertaken by
companies. It also involves how much the society in United Kingdom is aware about the
social responsibility and various environmental issues society is dealing with. Government in
United Kingdom also run different campaigns to spread awareness in respect tothe social
responsibilities so that more effective contributions from the society can be received
(Asmussen and Fosfuri, 2019). British Gas Limited Company conducts different social
responsibility operation as a part of the corporate social responsibility activity that involves
plantation, water harvesting and other key operation. Company make awareness with the
support of different marketing campaigns in respect to company’s initiative for the social
responsibilities. With the support of all such campaigns management of the British Gas

Limited Company aims to connect the general peoples in society with its social responsibility
functions to create the change in the society.
Technological factor: Technological factor drives company towards all such aspects that can
support company in conducting its corporate social responsibility function. Technology play
a huge role for the company in spreading awareness about all different social responsibilities
undertaken by British Gas Limited Company in form of marketing, holding and different
promotional campaigns. Technology also supports company in conducting key research bout
different social needs associated with the society. With the support of latest technology tools
company get to control and monitor the entire campaigns to get the best advantages and
benefits out of the campaigns. All technological advancement has supported company
immensely in conducting different social campaigns especially in order to promote and
monitor such campaigns. Promotions allowed company to spread awareness also to connect
general people with the campaigns so that more effective results can be created out of the
campaigns.
Environment factor: Environment factor is also an important external factor influences over
the operations of company related to corporate social responsibility. People recently become
very much aware in respect to different social responsibilities. Society becomes keener
towards utilising eco friendly products to conserve the environment from all harmful factors.
Government in United Kingdom played the major role towards promoting social
responsibilities for better future.
Legal factor: Legal factor comprises with all laws and regulations issued by government in
respect to its corporate social responsibility operation. This is also a crucial external factor
create influences over the operations of company related to corporate social responsibility.
Government in United Kingdom has opposed to social responsibilities over all companies in
form of corporate social responsibility functions (Chandler, 2019). All regulation issued by
government related to the corporate social responsibility operation is a part of the legal factor
involve in PESTEL Analysis. All regulation of government is a part of the social awareness
raise by government to promote social responsibilities to conserve the nature and other
natural resources for the future generation. Legal factor is among the key external influence
company face.
All the above factors are different external factors influences over the corporate social
responsibility operations undertaken by the company.

Task 2.
Corporate social responsibility and sustainability
Corporate social responsibility is considered as the social responsibilities undertake
companies in order to improve the conservations of different natural resources. The concepts
of corporate social responsibility is based on the fact that companies take all the resources
requires from the society it utilise all such resources to gain profits which further becomes
responsibilities of such companies to give back to the society in against to whatever it has
taken from society (Crane and Glozer, 2016). A share of profits companies need to invest in
order to channelize any social responsibility as a part of the corporate social responsibility. It
is more like a moral duty and responsibility of the companies to undertake operations under
corporate social responsibility functions. This is legal requirements also which company
needs to cope up with. In case of failure of company towards meeting up the requirements of
corporate social responsibility regulations government will take a strict actions against the
guilty organisation.
Influence of corporate social responsibility over decision making in company
Corporate social responsibilities are more like a regulatory compliances company
needs to undertake. Every year British Gas Limited Company needs to set a budget to
undertake the operation related to corporate social responsibilities. This is more like a
compulsory task company needs to undertake. Due to its composure over the company it
create extra burden over the company. British Gas Limited Company is very keen to cope up
with the regulations of the corporate social responsibility. It requires investment of time and
financial resources of the company to undertake the operations attached with the social
responsibility.
Corporate social responsibility is more like any other operation undertake by
company except the fact that corporate social responsibility functions are not aimed to initiate
in order to generate profits and business outcome. Management of British Gas Limited
Company needs to follow the entire process they undertake in case of regular business
operations. Proper planning, monitoring, control and other associated activities needs to
undertake in order to conduct the social responsibility function (Farooq, Rupp and Farooq,
2017). Proper planning and monitoring requires quality efforts and time of management to
initiate the social activities. The actions undertaken under corporate social responsibility
directly influences the decision making of company just like other regular operations.

Company needs to get involved in it as it requires investment of company’s financial
resources and also the time needed to conduct the proper planning.
Corporate social responsibility also allows company to channelize a positive brand
image in market. Brand value put a huge impact over the business of company. Positive
brand value of company allows organisation to connect with large number of people in
society. Company take decisions in such a way that it can connect with large number of
individuals in order to conduct the social responsibility operation. As the well designed
corporate social responsibility function allows company to get connec3ted with large number
of peoples in society with the support of company’s marketing campaigns so that more
stakeholders can get connected with the company (Grayson and Hodges, 2017). Company
also needs to take important decision related to promotion of the corporate social
responsibility campaigns. Promotion play a huge role in improving the outcomes of the social
responsibility operation. Company make precise marketing campaigns in order to get the
proper advantages of the social responsibility operations. It can be stated as the operations
company undertake under corporate social responsibility influence all aspects of the
company’s management decision making process. This is more like a regular activity
company needs to undertake in order to conduct the business operations.
Critical evaluation on the effectiveness of organisation response
British Gas Limited Company has always been very much active in respect to
undertake the corporate social responsibility functions as a part of the business operations of
company. Organisation has been involved in many social responsibility operations like
plantation, water harvesting and other social responsibilities as a part of the corporate social
responsibility campaigns of company. Impacts occurred during the social responsibly can be
projected in following points.
Improved brand value: Operations undertaken by the British Gas Limited Company has
improved the brand value of the company. The organisation has been involved in corporate
social responsibility functions like water harvesting, plantation and other key operations. All
such operations could drive company to make significant changes in United Kingdom in all
such sectors (Gupta, Briscoe and Hambrick, 2017). The changes company could create has
improved the trust of people in the operations of company. Brand value plays a huge role for
the customers in taking purchasing decisions. All such operations drive company to achieve

an effective brand value in market. All such functions allowed company to contribute in the
improvement of the society with the support of all such operations.
Improved brand loyalty: Brand loyalty is defined as trust of customers in the company’s
products and services. Corporate social responsibilities company undertake with the aim to
make significant changes in the society to achieve better values for the society and peoples.
British Gas Limited has been a part of various social responsibility operations such as
plantation, water conservation and other key social responsibilities (Hong, Li and Minor,
2016). All such operations undertaken by company as a part of corporate social responsibility
could channelize into effective brand loyalty for the company. Brand loyalty allowed
company to gain all objectives behind the business operations of company. This is the factor
which drives customers to procure company’s products and services every time it is required.
All the operations has channelized into effective and positive impact over the consumer
loyalty in respect to company’s products and services.
Strengthened stakeholder list: Corporate social responsibility operations engaged by
company allow organisations to improve its stakeholder list. Stakeholder is such entities that
are associated with the organisations in any professional capacity. Corporate social
responsibility operations allow company to strengthen its stakeholder list. It allows company
to connect with key potential customers of company as a part of any social campaign or
activity. It also allows company to interact with many new suppliers that can improve the
presence of company in target market (Liang and Renneboog, 2017). British Gas Limited
Company has been a part of so many social causes like plantation, water harvesting and other
key social responsibly which allowed company to improve its stakeholder presence market. It
has also allowed company to improve the customer base of company on a constant company.
Management of the British Gas Limited Company give huge priorities to channelize
promotion about its social causes. It runs campaigns so in such a way that new potential
customers of company’s products can also become part of the campaign. Company has been
constantly able to improve or enhance its key customers by channelizing different social
responsibility campaigns.
Improved market presence: Operations related to corporate social responsibility allowed
company to improve its market presence. This is the term market presence is used to denote
the facts that how the company’s products and services has been accepted by the potential
customers in the market. All such campaigns run by company as a part of the corporate social

responsibilities has allowed company to connect general public in the campaigns and also it
allowed company to promote its services and products along with conducting the social
activities. All such aspects have enabled company to improve the presence of all its products
in the target market.
Financial burden: Corporate social responsibility is also a financial burden over all
companies. In order to initiate different social responsibilities as a part of the corporate social
responsibility it requires quality amount of time and financial resources of company. It
needed proper planning so that all activity under corporate social responsibility can be
conducted by company (Moon and Knudsen, 2018). All such aspects create extra burden over
the company’s financial resources. Along with all other advantages related with corporate
social responsibility this is among the key barrier company is engaged with. British Gas
Limited Company has been a part of so many social responsibilities as a part of the corporate
social responsibility operation. All such operations and functional activity company has been
a part off in form of corporate social responsibility created extra financial burden over the
company’s financial resources. It also needed company to involve its human resources in
order to control and monitor all the different social responsibility campaigns company has
been a part off.
Make social change: Corporate social responsibility involves making a social change that
can benefit to the entire society. The aim behind the concepts of corporate social
responsibility is in order to conduct the business operations organisation takes plenty of
resources from the society (Rodriguez-Fernandez, 2016). It becomes the responsibility of the
corporate sector to give back to society whatever they have taken from the society. In all the
process of corporate social responsibility company able to create social changes. British Gas
Limited Company has been a part of so many social responsibilities like clean water,
plantation and other key responsibilities which has allowed company to make changes in the
society. All such changes crated benefits for the society.
All the above factors have denoted the impacts related to corporate social
responsibility over the company.
Areas of improvement

British Gas Limited Company has been a part of many social causes as a part of the
corporate social responsibility functions. Company can make the following improvements in
its social responsibility operations.
Improve online marketing: Company can promote its campaigns over different social
media networks to connect with majority number of peoples. In United Kingdom young
people are vary active over different social media applications. With the support of digital
marketing campaigns will be able to involve all te young people in United Kingdom and it
will also improve awareness in between the young people in United Kingdom about all the
social responsibilities company is been a part of.
Risk management: British Gas Limited Company do not give mush emphasis to risk
management as a part of the corporate social responsibility function. This is also another key
change company can implement while undertaking any social campaign as a part of the
corporate social responsibility operation (Schrempf-Stirling, Palazzo and Phillips, 2016). This
will improve the impacts of different campaigns of company. Risk management will also
improve the utilisation of company’s financial resources. This will allows company to utilise
its funds in more systematic and profitable manner.
Both the implementations mentioned above will allow company t achieve better
outcomes as a result of the corporate social responsibility campaigns.
CONCLUSION
The above report is based on the case study of British Gas Limited Company in
respect to its corporate social responsibility campaigns. Company has been a part of many
campaigns as a part of the corporate social responsibilities. All such campaigns has allowed
company to make potential changes in the society. Corporate social responsibility drives
company to achieve social changes that can improve the social values and it can also benefit
to the future generation by conserving all different natural resources. With the support of
corporate social responsibility company can improve its brand value, brand loyalty, customer
trust, values, belief, growth opportunities and many other changes. All such impacts allow
company to entertain more effective growth opportunities for the business. It also creates
opportunities to enhance the profitability of the company. Campaigns undertaken buy
company as a part of the corporate social responsibility also create extra financial burden

over the company’s resources. Company can improve the online marketing and risk
management to achieve more effective outcomes.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alvarado-Herrera, A. and et.al.,2017. A scale for measuring consumer perceptions of
corporate social responsibility following the sustainable development
paradigm. Journal of Business Ethics. 140(2). pp.243-262.
ArAs, G., 2016. A handbook of corporate governance and social responsibility. CRC Press.
Asmussen, C. G. and Fosfuri, A., 2019. Orchestrating corporate social responsibility in the
multinational enterprise. Strategic Management Journal. 40(6). pp.894-916.
Chandler, D., 2019. Strategic corporate social responsibility: Sustainable value creation.
SAGE Publications, Incorporated.
Crane, A. and Glozer, S., 2016. Researching corporate social responsibility communication:
Themes, opportunities and challenges. Journal of management studies. 53(7).
pp.1223-1252.
Farooq, O., Rupp, D. E. and Farooq, M., 2017. The multiple pathways through which internal
and external corporate social responsibility influence organizational identification
and multifoci outcomes: The moderating role of cultural and social
orientations. Academy of Management Journal. 60(3). pp.954-985.
Grayson, D. and Hodges, A., 2017. Corporate social opportunity!: Seven steps to make
corporate social responsibility work for your business. Routledge.
Gupta, A., Briscoe, F. and Hambrick, D. C., 2017. Red, blue, and purple firms:
Organizational political ideology and corporate social responsibility. Strategic
Management Journal. 38(5). pp.1018-1040.
Hong, B., Li, Z. and Minor, D., 2016. Corporate governance and executive compensation for
corporate social responsibility. Journal of Business Ethics. 136(1). pp.199-213.
Liang, H. and Renneboog, L., 2017. On the foundations of corporate social
responsibility. The Journal of Finance. 72(2). pp.853-910.
Moon, J. and Knudsen, J. S., 2018, July. Corporate social responsibility and government.
In Academy of Management Proceedings (Vol. 2018, No. 1, p. 12777). Briarcliff
Manor, NY 10510: Academy of Management.
Rodriguez-Fernandez, M., 2016. Social responsibility and financial performance: The role of
good corporate governance. BRQ Business Research Quarterly.19(2). pp.137-151.
Schrempf-Stirling, J., Palazzo, G. and Phillips, R. A., 2016. Historic corporate social
responsibility. Academy of Management Review. 41(4). pp.700-719.