Question

Benoit is opening a bed and breakfast inn in a popular beach resort town. He hopes to appeal to professional couples and retirees who want a high-end beach vacation experience but with a more home style experience – basically the experience of living in a luxurious beach house but with all the amenities of a high end hotel. Benoit’s B&B is directly on the beach and a few of the rooms have ocean views and in the evenings, from the front porch and from the beautifully landscaped back patio and pool area, the relaxing sound of the crashing of the waves can be heard. Benoit’s B&B has 15 bedrooms with private baths, a large dining area, and several stylish and comfortable lounging and reading areas on the main floor. He has two additional rooms on the main floor and one in the basement that are currently used for storage but could be developed into other amenities if the need arises. In addition to himself as owner, his staff (departments) will consist of a small kitchen staff, a cleaning crew, maintenance and lawn crew, and two managers. In order to attract the right type of clients and compete with the high-end boutique hotels, Benoit knows that he must make the experience at Benoit’s B&B an exceptional one. He has decided to implement a balanced score card to help each of the departments understand and implement his strategic plan.

Question 2

Part A:

In your own words, answer the following three questions as if the questions were asked of you by someone who knows nothing about the topic.

1. What is meant by sustainability?
2. What is corporate social responsibility reporting?
3. What are the 3 P’s and why are they sometimes referred to as the triple bottom line?

Part B:

We are currently in the middle of a global pandemic which has changed, at least temporarily, how business is conducted in most parts of the world. Write a paragraph or two to discuss how this pandemic might change a company’s approach to corporate social responsibility reporting. This should not be about the effects on one specific company rather it should be about broader implications of the pandemic impacting corporate social responsibility of corporations.

Answer 1

Part A

Sustainability refers to a balance between present and future nerds where present needs are efficiently being met without the compromisation being done in the context of future generations in meeting their needs.

Companies focus on this by doing essential deeds like cutting unnecessary costs and usage of resources. This helps keeping resources for future needs as well as making their efficient and optimal use in present.

If we discuss the corporate social responsibility reporting, it refers to the company making periodical reports to show their actions and the results of their corporate social responsibility. Thus helps to make system more transparent. Through this various stakeholders can know the activities being performed or which are going to be performed in future.

There are various steps and actions being taken by a company. The people who have their stake in the company have all the rights to know what actions are being performed in the company. Like a shareholder of a company as he has invested in the company has right to know what actions are going on and whether it is good or not. All these types of informations are being clearly presented when the CSR reporting is being done. All activities related to CSR are infront of people and stakeholders. This creates a clear picture and there can be no manipulations. Hence CSR reports are very useful.

Triple bottom line has laid some rules under framework or we can say this itself is a framework of rules which has incorporated several three dimensions related to performance. They are as social, environmental and financial. Now these three dimensions are only called the 3 P's namely people, planet and profits. This helps to maintain tain sustainability.

These 3 P's are referred to as triple bottom lines as these are the basis for a company to maintain the sustainability in an organization. Let us see why so these 3 dimensions are so much of importance :

People - Any organisation should not only care about financial or ecomic condition of the company but it is equally important to make sure that the people related to the organization like the stakeholders that include employees, stockholders and others are having a positive impact on them. This will help the company retain its position in market. Their interest should be of a great matter of fact for the organisation.

Planet - This includes the environment. Any organization should not take any such step which would be leading to make disruption in the environment and cause severe issues. Any decision taken should be in favour of the environment.

Profit - This as we all know that it is how much important fir an organization. This has always been an important goal for an organization. If company is not making profits, it can not proceed further and automatically the economy will turn slow.

Therefore we saw how these 3 P's are very important for any organization to sustain itself. This is the reason why they are referred as triple bottom line.

Part B

If we talk about the current situation, in this time of pandemic (COVID - 19)which has hit, it has created its large implications on various areas and sectors.

It has also being a reason for temporarily crashing economies. We can see many companies have to close their offices, many are urged to do work from home, and some people are even made to leave their job as the companies are facing losses.

Its a challe3to sail this time and sustain till the end of this pandemic period.

Companies as it can be seen have successfully doing their CSR responsibilities in this time. They are contributing to various funds which are in name of this pandemic specially. Employees of every organization are contributing a part of their salary which is collectively paid by the company to various funds. This way companies are successful in showing their CSR reports of their contributions towards society.

Well if we see its a good step to help those who are need in this hour of time. Infact every person who is in capable of helping the one who are suffering should come forward. This way we can fight together from the situation and reduce the situation from turning to its worse. Government is also taking steps to help the people and improve the situation.

Thus if we consider companies, this is the time to show their responsibility towards the society. This time has changed CSR's approach for companies.

In this time, their contributions are proving to be of real help. Seeing others, several other companies are also coming forward for thses contributions. Thus we can say that this tough time is being tackled and companies are also doing their best to help in amyway possible.

This has shown the real power of CSR and its real implications worldwide.