Summative Assessment: Sustainability and Responsibility Case Study Report

You have been hired as a sustainability and responsibility consultant for a organisation of your choice (appropriate for your degree).

TIP 1: You will be well served to select a high profile organisation as this will provide you with greater information and evidence to incorporate into your report. The information that your use should not just be from the company’s perspectives. Look for what the company’s critics say about them also.

You are required to prepare a highly visual (e.g., heavy use of infographics) case study report that covers the following:

TIP 2: For style examples, please see reports from British Airways (https://www.britishairways.com/cms/global/pdfs/information/sustainability-report-2021.pdf) and Ryanair (https://corporate.ryanair.com/sustainability-report-2021/)

1.    Executive summary: A summary of the key points from report (Word guide: 200).

TIP 3: Write this last of all.

2.    Internal analysis: Using properly referenced sources, undertake an internal analysis of your client organisation to (i) identify a resource or set of resources that can provide a sustainable competitive advantage for your client organization in being a leader in corporate social responsibility and/or sustainability, identifying how the resource or set of resources are Valuable, Rare, Inimitable and Organised (VRIO) and (ii) a weakness or vulnerability that limits your client organisation’s ability to be a leader in corporate social responsibility and/or sustainability (Word guide: 800). 

TIP 4: Although your research may cover multiple resources that ultimately do not meet the VRIO criteria, only write up the VRIO analysis for the resource(s) that you decide to focus your report upon. Use a table to present your VRIO analysis.

3.    External analysis: Using properly referenced sources, undertake an external analysis of macro-environmental factors (e.g., political, economic, social, technological, legal and environmental factors) to identify potential opportunities to be more socially responsible and/or sustainable and potential threats to the ongoing sustainability and responsibility of your client organization (Word guide: 600).

TIP 5: It is not expected that you go through a complete PESTEL analysis. PESTEL should be used to facilitate environmental scanning, but (as with the VRIO write up) only write up your research into the opportunities and threats that make it into strategies.
 
4.    Aggressive strategy: Undertake matching of your previously identified resource or set of resources that can provide a sustainable competitive advantage for your client organization in being a leader in corporate social responsibility and/or sustainability and a previously identified opportunity to be more socially responsible and/or sustainable to propose an aggressive strategy to establish your client organization as a leader in corporate social responsibility and/or sustainability (Word guide: 200).

5.    Defensive strategy: Undertake converting by identifying where your client organisation is particularly vulnerable to a possible threat to being socially responsible and sustainable due to a weaknesses and propose a defensive strategy that addresses weaknesses and/or avoids a threat (Word guide: 200).

TIP 6: Rather than following a linear process, you would be well-served to undertake this assessment iteratively. In other words, have a complete picture of your report before you undertake the full write-up. This will help you to only focus on the important content, such as selecting the resources, weaknesses, opportunities and threats that make it into your strategies – ensuring that everything fits and connects before you start to write-up. 

Word limit: 2,000 words (excluding end-of-text references)