Order Description

Based on your research and the draft case that you developed and discussed with the module leader during the formative assessment, you will have to submit the final written version of your fictional non-sustainable business case.
As suggested in the Formative Assessment, you are supposed to create the overall scenario and fictional case yourself, but you are allowed to draw ideas from existing companies and real cases, accidents, incidents, etc. >>> Make sure that you include a disclaimer and clearly acknowledge the companies, articles and any other real data you used as the basis on which you developed the fictional case.
The company profile may be presented in any way you want. However, from past experience, I would suggest that you set it up ideally as the (fictional) website of the (fictional) company, as it allows you to focus on the ‘visible’ side of the company whilst presenting the good and not-so-good aspects of the organization (free website building companies as wix.com can be used). But your coursework might alternatively be set in a format similar to a Business Plan. Other formats (example: poster, brochure) are possible as well. Your call.

MAIN FOCUS OF THE ASSIGNMENT: it should be apparent that your business is run in a way which indicates that you are quite unaware of what Sustainability really means and the company is just worried about making profit whilst being compliant to the law and paying the required taxes to avoid fines or big problems. However, for the sake of this exercise, you also need to state what are the main issues driving you to go for (some) change, such as: competition, new upcoming laws or industry- specific standards or international regulations, fines or mitigation plans imposed after accident; bad
STM6A1_Change Management for Corporate Sustainability Assessment guidelines 2016-17 Spring 3

brand image; complaints from Unions; severe environmental impacts or social issues caused either directly by the company or indirectly associated with the company via Sustainability/CSR issues caused by tier-two or lower suppliers, for example.
Key points you might wish to include would be, for instance:
? Name (fictional) of the company
? Disclaimer stating that you have drawn ideas from existing companies, although any statements
you make throughout your assignment are fictional and not referring to those real companies.
? What sector/industry > main products (or services) provided
? Who launched it, why, when and where
? A timeline of its evolution and growth over time, if applicable
? How/why you came to be in your present position as owner or top decision-maker (inheritance?
merger? took over a ‘dying’ business?…)
? Overview of the organizational culture
? Organizational structure (organigram)
? Recruitment policies or trends
? Geographical locations of other branches, if applicable
? Main suppliers (tier-one, tier-2 and tier-3), as applicable
? Key competitors, locally or worldwide
? You may also wish to include a brief profile of the local external environment (natural resources,
infra-structures, local community)
? You may add just about any other/further details you might consider including, to ensure that it
really looks like a not very ethical and not very sustainability-focused company, either internally or
externally.
? At the very end of the case (for the consultant) you also have to include an indicative and ‘realistic’
budget (up to how much is the company willing to invest for now on this move towards a more
sustainability-based culture and operations of the organization). This might involve some research.
? At the end of the case (for the consultant) also include an indication of within how much time would
you like or need to have the changes take effect. Again, try to be ‘realistic’.
? And because this is a fictional case and is an academic assignment, relevant Bibliography should
also be included.
SO, to summarize:
? It is fictional, but should feel realistic.
? It should tell us “in between the lines” that it is at pre-compliance or compliance stage, and is not very willing
to invest more than need be in becoming proactively engaged on achieving a much better Sustainability and ethical profile. Make sure that you “mask” the overall less sustainable/less ethical side of the company under a fairly engaging website/presentation/poster/brochure or any other support you use to present the company. Obviously you want to pass on the message that it is a “good” and responsible company. But, in-between- the-lines (e.g. if we were to start investigating further about the company, reading about the company in the
STM6A1_Change Management for Corporate Sustainability Assessment guidelines 2016-17 Spring 4

2.
ii.
Summative Assessments (continued)
Double consultancy role-play and Consultancy Report: 60% TMM
In week 11 (live role play) and week 12 (written consultancy report in BB)
press, or reading customers’ feedback, etc.) we might find out that the company in fact has had several minor/major issues throughout the year(s) such as court trials, severe environmental issues, bad press releases, awful customers’ feedback, very high employee turnover rates, strikes, scandals associated with one or more top-leaders or major stakeholders of the company, paying mitigation or huge fines or covering up past accidents, etc.
Assessment Criteria and their indicative weighting for Summative Assessment 1
Indicative CRITERIA weighting
(in %)
Coherence and structure of the overall fictional case
10
Use of relevant sustainability, corporate responsibility and ethical 30 concepts
Demonstrated level of research (in terms of perceived use of 30 relevant maturity models, frameworks, performance indicators, and
other change management and sustainability tools)

Creativity and maturity in the development of the case knowledge, so as to build the non-sustainable “hints” throughout the fictional case in a ‘realistic’, convincing and engaging way
20
Ack
nowledgements, Disclaimer and References 10