Response to Q.1a
The proliferation of glossy and unrealistic CSR reports as well as inaccurate CSR ratings and rankings has contributed to the failure of companies to understand the responsibility. By giving in to pressure groups among the stakeholders, the companies further deepen the divide between actual responsibility and unrealistic short term action. Moreover, by basing their CSR actions on the views of the outsiders, they are doing injustice to their own capabilities in terms of helping the society .
The companies have so far focused on the relationship between business and society as that of tension rather than interdependence. Companies have in general failed to comprehend the long term effects of their actions on the society as opposed to the short term effects.
Response to Q.1b
As a framework for integrating business and society in a way such that it creates shared value, Firstly the company needs to Root in a brief understanding of the relationship and interdependence between society and business. The company must weave in a social perspective into its competitive and strategic framework to gain competitive edge in a meaningful manner. They must identify the competitive context of their overall CSR and seek it within the strategic business context. The competitive context must be divided into four broad areas and seen as opportunities for CSR .
Firstly the quality and quantity of business inputs available such has human resources or transportation. Secondly, the rules and incentives for competition must be established. Thirdly, the size and nature of local demand must be gauged and fourth the local availability of the supporting industries must be ensured .
The Second step is to choose the appropriate social issues to address. The issues may be classified as generic issues, value chain impacts and social dimensions of competitive context. When a social issue is relevant to many companies, it can be addressed in a cooperative manner .
The third step is to choose a corporate social agenda by looking ahead of the community expectations and attain both social and economic benefits at the same time. It moves ahead from just minimizing harm to arriving at ways to implement the corporate strategy. The way to go about it is to make the CSR both responsive inclusive of being good citizens and mitigating adverse effects of business actions; as well as strategic, which is attained by moving towards inclusion of innovations and efforts to improve both society as well as company’s own competitiveness .
Further, Fourth step is to integrate both the inside out and outside in approaches. What this means is to connect the value chain and the competitive context of the corporate strategy such that they complement each other, wherein making value chain innovations to affect the competitive context is termed as inside out and improvising the competitive context of business decisions to improve the quality of value chain is outside in approach. There are certain potential points of intersection between the two approaches which need to be identified and connected for a more coherent efficient CSR approach .
The final step is to create a social dimension to the value proposition of the business. The business strategy in terms of the value it promises to deliver must be revised to incorporate a social dimension to it. This must happen in such a manner that this becomes a source of competitive advantage for the company .
Response to Q2.a
CSR based initiative known as Omtanke which means caring for the guest as well as for the environment has been rooted in the company’s overall strategy. This is consistent with the CSR framework by Porter and Kramer. The program is central to the business model of the company. The rules and incentives for competition have been set forth by means of making the social responsibility rather than brand management as the way to position itself for Scandic and is a holistic driver of business decision making. This is consistent with the second step of the framework .
Scandic evaluated the size and nature of the local demand for each of its initiatives did its best to implement them and thus received the best CSR award at 2007 MKG Hospitality awards . This was consistent with the third component for integration of business and CSR framework by Porter and Kramer. The local availability of the supporting industries for each its initiatives such as the fund raising or health awareness programs or accessibility programs required services and equipment that was locally available. The issues chosen by Scandic were valuable and relevant. The company looked beyond the immediate community expectations and designed an agenda aimed at achieving both social and business benefits. This is supported by its efforts to achieve economic sustainability which highlights the operational efficiency and salesmanship, while ecological sustainability highlights includes reducing the environmental footprint of itself and its channel partners and offering a healthy lifestyle to employees and guests. The programs were aimed at achieving win-win outcomes for both business and society. Finally, the CSR efforts by Scandic aimed at creating a social dimension to the business by making Omtanke the focal point of its operational strategy .
Response to Q2.b
Insofar as rooting the understanding and identification of the relationship and interdependence between society and business is concerned, Scandic has successfully integrated its CSR activities. Further, the local demand conditions have been adequately assessed and incorporated in the CSR initiatives of Scandic. Scandic has given ample thought to the fact that local availability of the products and services or the industries producing them as part of the CSR is ensured. However, as far as high quality inputs are concerned, the initiatives by Scandic do not in most cases require specialized inputs except in initiatives pertaining to health and well-being as well as reduction of environmental output and also improving the environmental footprint of self and associated organization. The context for the strategy and rivalry of the firm has been introduced and established well by defining the strategic objectives in terms of both social and economic benefits.
Response to Q2.c
The strength of the Omtanke program lies in the fact that it is based on an interdependence of the society and business. Also, it has been rooted well in the overall awareness of the employees and management of the organization. The Omtanke program has touched upon some very serious social and environmental issues and implemented the programs successfully. It creates inside out as well as outside in linkages between the value chain of the organization and its external business environment.
The Omtanke program specifically lacks in two areas. Firstly, it seems it can improve upon the Context for the firm strategy and rivalry as it has introduced the programs in a manner which has very little scope for the competitors to emulate or compete with. As it requires an extreme amount of commitment and allocation of resources, the competition might find it difficult to identify the ways and means to compete with such a brand image .
Secondly, the identification of the related and supporting industries could have been better and the company could have tried and identified the best industries that could provide the best environmental fit by evaluating or scanning firms for social as well economic fit .
Response to Q3
The company chosen for suggestions on CSR implementation is Marriott. The CSR program of Marriott at present consists of running a responsible business, reaching outdoors to support the environment. It runs initiatives which include supporting on-going programs and activities with external ownership and responsibility. It runs small programs such as Hotel water management initiative and hiring more female managers.
Evidently there is great scope for improvement here. Firstly, there needs to be an overall coherent CSR policy. Secondly a strategic decision making mechanism to ensure integration of its business with the CSR objectives is required. Thirdly, since the problem here is the approach and not the programs themselves, it needs to identify the utility of its CSR initiatives to the society at large. Even if small, the programs need to make meaningful impact on society. Fourthly, Marriott seems to be focusing on supporting more of on-going and externally sourced and owned programs and this is hardly enough to create competitive edge by virtue of CSR as a tool . Thus it needs to synthesize its programs down its value chain and also integrate them with overall strategic business objectives and create a context for the competition to follow. Finally, it needs to identify social issues that can easily be served locally and are capable of being integrated with its local business operations.
Response to Q4
A Hospitality company operates in what is a fiercely price sensitive environment. This is so as the differentiating factors in terms of the infrastructure and technology are becoming more and more modular and standardized nowadays. Even the usual differentiating factor that is service is becoming more and more standardized and the skills more transferrable with increasing dependence on technology. Thus sustainable competitive edge and a value proposition must have an element that transcends the usual differentiating factors. Thus it is important for a Hospitality company to have an effective CSR program as a differentiating factor which is ingrained as a basic element in its value proposition. The fact that it needs to be readily identifiable has to do with creating a competitive context and a distinguishing and differentiating feature and communicating the differentiation to the clients and public at large .
References
Bohdanowicz, P., & Zientara, P. (2008). Corporate Social Responsibility in Hospitality: Issues and Implications. A Case Study of Scandic. Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism, 271-293.
Marriott. (2016, July 4). Corporate Responsibility. Retrieved from www.marriott.com: http://www.marriott.com/corporate-social-responsibility/corporate-responsibility.mi
Porter, M. E., & Kramer , M. E. (2006). Stragetgy and Society: The Link Between Competitve Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility. Harvard Busniess Review, 78-93.
Scandic. (2009, March 19). Facts About Scandik. Retrieved from https://www.hitpages.com: https://www.hitpages.com/doc/5497808622714880/7
