CS Business Integration Plan: Diagnosis & Intervention

Executive Summary/or Abstract (1 page max): Provide a brief, succinct statement of the issue, the methods of your data collection, and your key findings, conclusions, and recommendations. A good executive summary provides a clear synopsis of your recommendations and includes a very brief statement on methodology used to justify your conclusions. The executive summary condenses the entire report into a mini version for those who will not read the full report. Hint: Write this last. Develop and share an overarching question, or set of 3 questions, which your team will then answer in the Conclusion (keep the audience intrigued…). Examples of overarching questions can include:

What motivated the firm to implement sustainability strategies and programs?

How do firms in this industry and sector accomplish this?

What were the reported barriers to integration? What drove the integration?

Table of Contents

Overview of Target Organization (1-2 pages): What is the nature of the business or service provided by the organization? What is its history and mission? Does the firm/organization have a diversity and inclusion program in place? Is gender equity being addressed? What is the female manager count? How many women have a seat on the corporate board?

Organizational Diagnosis and Analysis (4-6 pages): Provide data to document your analysis of where your organization is in terms of Benn et al.’s sustainability phases. Describe data obtained from company CSR/CS/Sustainability reports, interviews with management or other key stakeholders, and descriptions of the organization as described in the press. Include any survey or checklists that you use to assess the level of sustainability progress. Use appendices if it makes sense. Include an analysis of the results of your diagnosis. Model your project write-up after a good consulting report, that is, one that would include graphs, charts, visuals, statistics, etc. that allow the reader to grasp the key findings quickly. Try to find ways to summarize the significant findings from your data analysis (e.g., interviews, surveys) in a compelling way.

CS Integration: Recommendation(s) and Organizational Change Plan (4-6 pages): Based on your analysis, what course of action does your group recommend that the organization take? What and who will need to change? What is your recommended implementation plan (timing, targets, tactics)? Is this a major change from the current ways of working? Are you recommending incremental changes or transformational changes? These will be your CS applications from Benn et al (2019). What recommendations do you offer to raise its gender equality, ethics and inclusive programs? Who (female) do you recommend to be on their corporate board?

You will need to also draw from Spector’s (2013) theories of organizational change and ‘theory to practice’ narratives to support your actual change in business model for the firm. How would you guide the organization through the change process? Which model of change or transformation would best help the organization’s (or sub-unit’s) movement toward sustainability?

Be sure to use this plan to create a roadmap for change. This roadmap should include a visual depiction of the plan that you can share with the people who will be involved in making the change happen. Include a discussion of the forces that may contribute to the organization’s evolutionary (incremental) and/or revolutionary (transformational) path of change, as well as the forces that may work against the change (e.g., What are the barriers? Where do you expect resistance to change? How do youplan to deal with it?). Be sure to include recommendations for making the change “stick.”

Conclusion and Next Steps (1-2 pages): Answer your overarching question (s) from your executive summary/abstract. Also, what do you foresee as the next steps the organization will need to make to move this project forward in the short term? What about the long term? What will be the major challenges and opportunities moving forward? What are the managerial implications for integrating/not going forward with your proposal?