Business Strategies

The writing test for Professional English consists of a written advice for a specific existing company (in this case H&M) regarding the implementation of SDG’s in the company’s business strategy. For this assignment you have to use four mandatory sources (see attached files): – The SDG Compass Guide – The book Business and sustainable development goals by Rob van Tulder – The company’s most recent annual report (this gives an insight into how the company currently addresses sustainability issues) – Text A: Sustainable development goals for people and planet In addition to the mandatory sources mentioned above, you can add more sources you found yourself. Collect relevant literature/articles you have to use for your advice. How ethical is H&M?  How sustainable is the H&M Conscious collection? Try to find more information about that. In the SDG Compass Guide, five steps for implementing sustainability in a business’s strategy are explained. Four of these five steps form the framework of your advice; what the general contents of each step are, is briefly summarized below. 1) Understanding SDG’s: provide a theoretical framework in which you explain what SDG’s are, why they were introduced and how they are connected to CSR. Also, you have to discuss relevant research on this subject. 2) Setting priorities: discuss the company’s value chain and identify in which area or areas specific sustainability goals could have the most impact. Make sure to substantiate your choices, at least referring to the theoretical framework. 3) Setting goals: discuss relevant goals for the company to set and substantiate your claims with relevant arguments. 4) Integrating SDG’s: propose a way for the company to integrate the recommended SDG’s into its core business, as explained in the SDG Compass Guide. In addition to these four steps, add an appropriate introduction and conclusion (a call for action) to your advice. Also, make sure you refer to the sources you used, using the APA style in the text and reference list. Finally, make sure to start your advice with an executive summary. Additional requirements – Think of a main research question you are going to answer with your advice (and sub-questions). All research questions should be: Focused on a single problem or issue Researchable using primary and/or secondary sources Feasible to answer within the timeframe and practical constraints Specific enough to answer thoroughly Complex enough to develop the answer over the space of a paper – Your advice consists of a minimum of 2500 and a maximum of 4000 words, not counting the executive summary and reference list. – You have to paraphrase information from the sources you used. Please take the professional context into account. – Please make sure to acquaint yourself with the rubrics. The rubrics are not only meant to assess your writing skills by the time you will have handed in your final result, they also provide guidance during the writing process. See attached files for the rubrics. – Pay attention to the lay-out!