reate an 8-10 slide PowerPoint presentation with slide notes that define a CSR issue, explain how the problem affects a local or global community as well as your chosen company, and describe possible sustainable solutions that your chosen company can support.

Introduction

In the last assessment, you brought together the knowledge you gathered earlier from your select company’s functional areas to assemble a team to solve a problem. You made a case for establishing the team.

In this final assessment, you’ll create a PowerPoint presentation to explain how a corporate social responsibility (CSR) problem affects a local or global community as well as your company, and describe possible sustainable solutions that it can support. It’s an opportunity to show your talent and bring together what you’ve learned to present to your CEO. You will apply the knowledge from the chosen company website that you have reviewed and the insights from the scenarios and the assessments you have written earlier to select an appropriate CSR issue for your company to pursue.

The pandemic and the global recession of 2020 pulled CSR into the spotlight. Issues such as hunger, underemployment, homelessness, disease mitigation, and recovery from environmental hazards often require generous financial and volunteer efforts, such that corporations find themselves contributing in various ways.

The new reality for companies to consider is that potential employees are often weighing the philanthropic and social-justice contributions of organizations as part of their application process and long-term commitment to a company. Corporations are responding to this changing environment by selecting specific issues or non-profit agencies to support, as well as including their CSR messaging as part of their overall marketing plan.

Scenario

Now that you’ve learned about the functional areas of the company through your internship and the company’s focus on teamwork and problem-solving, your manager would like you to lead an effort to select a corporate social responsibility (CSR) issue that the company can adopt and champion over time. You’ve impressed others with your work so far. This is a significant vote of confidence from your manager and an opportunity for visibility from the CEO and even external audiences.  

For this assessment, you will:

• Research the CSR efforts of your chosen company.
• Choose a specific current issue that can be addressed with sustainable solutions.
• Prepare a short presentation to leadership about the chosen issue and present some sustainable problem-solving actions that the company could take as part of a new CSR campaign. You may use the Assessment 4 Template [PPTX] to help organize your work.

Instructions

Using the template, create an 8–10 slide PowerPoint presentation with slide notes that define a corporate social responsibility issue, explain how the problem affects a local or global community, and describe possible sustainable solutions that the company can support.

1. In preparation for this assessment, review your selected company website and look for evidence of a social responsibility issue or problem that they have adopted to support in the local, national, or global community. Think about the following questions as you review the website. The interactive activity Corporate Social Responsibility can take you through these first questions and help you get a start on your assessment.

• Is the company support for the issue financial or is there also a volunteer element?
• How are employees engaged in the financial or volunteer activities? Are customers able to contribute financially and through volunteering?
• How is the solution that the company supports sustainable?
• How does the issue tie to your chosen company’s mission and vision?

Note: If you don’t find much evidence of a CSR issue on the website, you can identify one that you feel fits.

2. Select a corporate social responsibility issue to research. Possible topics include:

• Workplace diversity, hiring, and equity.
• Reducing the carbon footprint.
• Clean energy.
• Water stewardship.
• Climate change.
• Hunger.
• Digital divide.

3. Narrow the topic down to a specific CSR problem that needs to be solved. Explain how it relates to your chosen company and offer possible solutions that the company can support.

• Example:
  • Topic: Water stewardship.
  • Problem: Children’s access to clean drinking water.
  • Possible Solutions: Dig safe wells for local and international communities, support UNICEF clean water project, or contribute bottled water to FEMA for natural disasters.
  • Relates to business: Water is a key ingredient for the product, and the organization has factories in the same states where children need clean drinking water.

4. Next, research the CSR problem. Locate 3–7 reputable resources about the business problem and solutions. The resources you choose will help you to define the focus of your research and writing. Your research should also help you develop possible solutions to the problem. You can find some resources in the “First Steps” resource activity. This activity is linked in the Assessment hub page and counts toward engagement. The interactive activity QuickStart: Business Problems and CSR will also help you to review key aspects of CSR campaigns.

5. Develop a PowerPoint presentation with 8–10 slides with slide notes on the chosen corporate social responsibility topic and business problem. Organize your content so ideas flow logically with smooth transitions. Remember that the Assessment 4 Template [PPTX] is available to help you with this.

• PowerPoint presentation slides generally shouldn’t have sentences such as a white paper or memo would but instead should have bullet points that are organized and clearly convey the intent of the presentation.
• You should still follow APA rules for attributing sources that support your analysis and conclusions in the Notes section of the slides.
• Use the Notes feature of each slide to explain and expand your bullet points and reference your resources. You have the choice to submit your PowerPoint presentation with extensive notes or with notes plus narration.
• Your presentation should include one or more slides covering each of the following areas, and you can use slide titles more explicitly related to your chosen topic than are shown below.
  • Title slide.
  • Introduction (optional).
  • The Problem.
    • Define corporate social responsibility issue and the related business problem.
  • How the Problem Affects a Community and the Organization.
    • Explain how the social responsibility problem affects a local, national, or global community and relates to your chosen company
  • Advantages and Limitations of Possible Solutions.
    • Include at least three possible solutions and briefly summarize them in one slide.
    • Explain the advantages and limitations of each proposed solution for the social problem and discuss each solution’s impact on your chosen company
    • Briefly describe any general aspects of costs, efficiencies, and effectiveness.
  • Recommended Solution.
    • Recommend a solution for the social problem and explain how it aligns with your chosen company’s business, including its mission and vision.
    • Support a recommended solution to a business problem with relevant evidence and research.
  • Sustainability.
    • Explain how your recommended solution to the CSR problem will be sustainable into the future.
    • How will the increased sustainability impact profit and customer and employee satisfaction?
    • Supporting evidence (research).
  • Conclusion.
    • As a summary, justify and support your recommended solution to the CSR problem.
    • Include relevant evidence and sound reasoning.
  • References slide.

Planning

Consider the following as rough guideposts for setting aside the time you need to do your work. You’ll want to adjust these as you learn more about your own pace and working style.