Professional Development

Price includes refreshments, lunch and course materials.

Level: Foundation

Key issues:

Recent research has shown the two key influencers of customer trust are customer service quality and corporate responsibility. This applies to commercial business and public service organisations. Corporate social responsibility is no longer a bolt-on, risk management activity, but rather a strategic opportunity on which to build brands and customer loyalty. Customers and investors are increasingly looking beyond an organisation’s product and services to its ethical practices, environmental and social impacts, and its relationship with its communities and employees

The purpose of this course:

How do you strategically manage the complexity of balancing social and environmental responsibility with economic objectives? How do you create business opportunity from trends in customer and investor social values? This course shows how corporate social responsibility can deliver a core strategic role through assessing trends, developing strong stakeholder relations and encouraging business innovation. Marketers and CR professionals will benefit from such a strategic vision

Who this course is for:

Marketing and CR managers and executives who are interested in the ethical aspects of business, the value of building strong stakeholder relationships and the opportunities these present for building brand reputation.

Benefits for your organisation:

Building social and environmental performance into an organisation’s core strategy, and developing strong, active stakeholder relationships improve brand value and innovation opportunity, as well as minimise risk. Understanding how to respond to social and environmental trends and prioritise stakeholder activity are key success factors for business strategies

Benefits for you as an individual:

Corporate responsibility issues are increasingly important components of business strategy. Marketers are well positioned to take a lead in the CSR agenda. As CSR has a stronger presence in the boardroom, your learning will help to position you at the strategic centre of the business. You will have techniques and tools to manage trends and broader stakeholder issues.

You will learn how to:

On completion, delegates will have a broad understanding of

• How CSR can contribute strategically to an organisation’s performance
• CSR processes and tools
• The importance of managing stakeholder relationships and how to prioritise them
• Measuring and reporting CSR performance

Your learning will enable you to review current workplace approaches, and develop a CSR strategy that strengthens business performance and brand reputation.

Course content:

What is corporate social responsibility?

CSR models and frameworks

Essentials in CSR

• Understanding the forces for change
• The importance of stakeholders
• Aligning CSR to business strategy
• A competency framework

Measurement and reporting on CSR

• Why measure and report?
• What to measure and report Constructing a CSR report
• Trends in measurement and reporting

The course is illustrated with a variety of case examples and scenario exercises through which delegates can test their learning. A range of tools are provided to support the course work.

To take away from the course:

A selection of tools and frameworks will be available for delegates to use in the workplace for strategic design of approaches. These include;

• PESTE tools to analyse triggers for change
• SWOT analysis
• Stakeholder mapping
• Reporting checklist

Professional Standards

All of our marketing courses are based on CIM's Professional Marketing Standards, ensuring that marketers at all levels of seniority gain the practical skills that employers require to improve business performance. Review our Professional Marketing Standards framework