Management and Sustainability

Order Description
Write a six to ten page proposal to the CEO and board of directors of a company of your choice. Take the role of a senior management consultant who has been hired to
craft a new sustainability initiative for the firm.
Your proposal must be to the point, easy to understand, powerful, and very insightful. Your firm has been paid a significant amount for your services, you cannot tell
the company things they already know, nor propose risky or irresponsible actions. Focus your advice on a single sustainability initiative you think the firm should
implement and back it with a strong and convincing analysis.
To do this, you need to understand the company, its customers, its competitive environment, its corporate culture, its strengths, its weaknesses, and marry all this
coherently to an emerging opportunity, market trend or looming threat related to sustainability. Your proposal could include (but is not limited to) any of the
following:
? Entering a new product category
? Creating a new product or market category
? Acquisitions, divestitures, joint ventures, partnerships
? Buying, creating, or testing new distribution channels
? Buying, creating, or testing new supply chains
? Strengthening operations through outsourcing, process reengineering, changing the organizational structure
? Forward or backward integration, diversification
? Initiatives to change or enhance corporate culture
? HR, organizational culture change initiatives & programs
Use business-appropriate language and structure.
Formatting & submission
The proposal must be double-spaced, with 1 inch margins and 12-point type.
10 pages maximum
Include all charts/graphs in the body of the text
Due date: Submitted via e-mail as a Microsoft Word document by May 12th, 2017.
References
Citations are not strictly necessary. Use them primarily to show where your data comes from; the ideas should be your own. In the text, include the citations in an
endnote format to keep the text clean. The format of the references themselves is open, but make sure to not only include a link.
Managing for Sustainability MGMT 39100
Evaluation
I will grade your proposal based on the answers to the following questions:
? Do you demonstrate a good understanding of the firm and its industry?
? Do you provide a strong recommendation that reflects a deep understanding of the core concepts of sustainability?
? Do you support your recommendation with a strong rationale, appropriate evidence, and convincing data analysis?
? Is the analysis supported with appropriate data?
? Is the proposal well written? Is it well structured? Is it easy to understand? Free of grammatical and spelling mistakes?
? If I were the CEO, would I follow this advice? Has the case been made for the proposal?
? Is the proposal unique? Does it add value? Does it propose something management has already considered or is very obvious?
Assignment rules
? You may refer to any material you like, including your own class analyses
? You may discuss your proposal and gather input from other people
? You may not recycle, reuse, copy or base your proposal on one made by someone else (an analyst for example)
? Your proposal must be original, created and written entirely by yourself
WRITING TIPS
Use the pyramid structure – Use the same report-writing principles that McKinsey consultants do: The Minto Pyramid Principle. Aim to effectively communicate a single
idea to your audience – boil everything down to one clear recommendation. For example, “the company has four problems that need to be addressed” is not a clear
expression of an idea; it does not provide a revealing insight. “The major organizational problem we face is the inability to delegate authority”, on the other hand,
is a clear statement of an idea.
Then, organize your thoughts, analyses, and evidence in a pyramid structure that supports the main idea (the tip of the pyramid). Break the body of data into smaller,
manageable chunks and gather the information beneath the single idea that the introduction articulates by grouping supporting arguments and information in ways that
expand upon the idea in the level above (this is the pyramid of ideas). Each set or level of information should answer a question raised in the level above it. Make
sure to not be linear – writing form beginning to end – or use a list of topics as your guide.
If you have a “shopping list” of ideas you want to write about, first diagram the relationship between the ideas and form the pyramid of ideas. So, for example,
instead using a
Managing for Sustainability MGMT 39100
shopping list of food items in random order (e.g. milk, bread, apples, cheese, strawberries, yoghurt, tomatoes), first group them by food type (e.g. dairy, fruit,
vegetables).
Focus on the introduction – Following Minto’s principles, you should write the introduction first, and thus determine the tip of the pyramid. The introduction should
include a statement of the problem and its solution; a story in abbreviated form. Consider the introduction an executive summary – whoever reads it knows the substance
of the full report.
How exactly do you start an introduction? Start off by making a simple, summary statement of fact about the subject that your reader will agree with. Be concrete,
anchor your reader in a specific time and place to establish the base for your story to come. Example, “Ithaca College is considering opening a satellite campus in
Washington D.C. to support students in the Politics and Government programs.” Your introduction should be as long as needed to ensure that you and your reader are
standing in the same place before your take her by the hand and lead her through your reasoning.
Structure the memo – With the pyramid principles in mind, start with an outline; determine which ideas you want to get across, and in which order. Nest minor ideas
under higher-level ones; play around with idea order and magnitude until you converge on a coherent “story” or analysis. The classic story arc or “problem setting-
analysis-conclusion” sequence are good underlying structures to consider. Start strong (pique your readers’ interest) and finish strong – make sure readers remember
your main points and decide to take action. Make sure each paragraph has a central idea and that all sentences build on it.
Use a cover letter – Put all the niceties and credentials (the reasons why someone should read your memo) in the cover letter. Use the letter to sell yourself and make
the case for the value and relevance of your recommendation. Use the same guidelines you would use for the cover letter for a job application. Google formats and
further recommendations.