Assignment
Project Scope:
You and your fellow team members are purchasing employees at ABC Company, a mid-size product manufacturer located in Kitchener Ontario with customers across Canada and around the globe. You have recently returned from a three (3) day business conference on Corporate Social Responsibility, (CSR), where the main theme centered on global customer's interest in the CSR platforms of the companies, they purchase product from, (I.E. their suppliers). More specifically, the conference focus was on how the purchasing function needs to be a key contributor and supporterofthe CSR mandate.
You are aware that ABC Company is in the process of developing new CSR initiatives, but none of you have been activelyinvolved in the project at this point. In your weekly meeting with your boss, the Chief Operating Officer (COO), you discuss the variousconcepts recently introduced to you at the conference and ask for the purchasing team to become more activelyinvolved in the development of ABC Company's CSR initiatives going forward.
The COO is of course tremendously impressedwith your initiative and your commitment to this project and asks you to prepare a report capturing your insights. The report must include a benchmarking comparison with a well-known, publicly held manufacturer (I.E. the company your team has chosen). Your summary report and presentation of findings will make the case as to why the purchasing function should always be a partof the CSR planning process.
Key areas of your benchmarking research and analyze may include:
Section I
i. Research & identify the published corporate social responsibility values of your chosen organization and identify the role you believe the purchasing team plays in each of those values.
ii. Research & identify any known contradictions to those published values.
iii. Does the organizations overall vision and published mission statement correlate to the CSR values? Why or why not.
iv. Discuss if the organization has an ethical statement or mandate for their employees and/or for their suppliers. If so, how well does it correlate with the published ethical purchasing guidelines from well-knownpurchasing associations?
Section II
i. Discuss BOTH the benefits and drawbacks that the organization's CSR initiatives may have on their purchasing department in terms of supplier screening, strategic sourcing and maintaining ethical standards.
ii. What are the major external "STEEPLE" forces that will impact the purchasing department's sourcing activities, as they relate to the company's CSR values.
iii. Based on your benchmarking findings, discuss why you believe the purchasing department should always be a part of developing a company's CSR values and platforms.
iv. How should sustainability impact the sourcing decision and a Buyers weight criteria? What are some methods organizations can introduce to measure CSR in their supply chains?