Five Stages of Corporate Social Responsibility: Burnley Football Club - Case Study Example

Corporate Social Responsibilities Table of Contents Introduction 3 Discussion 4 Identification of the Club’s Stakeholders 4 Identification and Improvisation of Loopholes 5 Ranking of Burnley Football Club as Per Five Stages of Corporate Social Responsibility 6 CSR Vision Statement for the Burnley Football Club 9 Framing of CSR Policies 9 Conclusion 11 References 12 Introduction Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) can be described as an initiative which is undertaken by multiple organizations and business processes in the current marketing scenario. The prime objectives of companies undertaking such initiative is to demonstrate their concern regarding environment and social wellbeing. If seen from a societal perspective, companies basically draw out their operating resources from the society and the surrounding environment. So it becomes their prime concern in terms of returning some value to the society through these types of societal welfare programs. Multiple companies often take reference of these CSR activities in terms of promoting themselves (Central Coalfields Limited, n.d.). For instance, discussing the case of ‘Burnley Football Club’, this football club primitively found its existence as a rugby sporting club. However, by1882, the club switched codes and got its presently existing name. This club has successfully attained multiple major honours in the areas of organised football which began in 1888 starting with the Second Division Title in the time period of 1897-98 (Burnley Football Club, 2012). Correspondingly, the main objective of this report is to undertake a complete CSR audit on this football club. This report will also lay significant focus in terms of analysing the quality of the relationship which the club maintains with its stakeholders. Furthermore, details about any sort of loophole within the maintained relationship along with the club’s current position in terms of the five stages of the CSR will also be discussed in the report. Discussion Identification of the Club’s Stakeholders For the present scenario, the Burnley Football Club has got multiple numbers of stakeholders in terms of club employees, associated players, sponsors, investors, fan supporters and multiple more. For now the club is looking forwards towards attaining a potential investment form Moscow. The investment amount is expected to be about £40 million. Moreover, through this investment, the club plans for taking back Turf Moor which is a football stadium at Burnley, Lancashire and also it is has been the home ground of Burnley Football Club (Burnley Football Club). Apart from this, the club has also received significant amount monetary help from stakeholders who currently hold superior board positions within the club. These board members from time to time had made major contributions for the club and their names have been listed as under (Burnley Football Club, n.d.). John Banaszkiewicz (Co-Chairman) Mike Garlick (Co-Chairman) Clive Holt (Director) Barry Kilby (Director) Brian Nelson (Director) Terry Crabb (Director) Brendan Flood (Director) Lee Hoos (Chief Executive) In total, along with few other members such as ‘Mr Mike Garlick’, ‘Mr John Banaszkiewicz’, and ‘Brendan Flood’, the board retains an investment share of about 91.86% (Burnley Football Club, n.d.). Apart from these members there are multiple business processes that can be termed as potential stakeholders for this club. For instance, organizations such as ‘The Football League Limited & FL Interactive Limited’, ‘The Spyshop Group Of Companies’, ‘David Fishwick’, ‘Puma’, ‘Pillbox38 (UK) Limited’ and multiple more are potential sponsors of this Burnley Football Club (Burnley Football Club, n.d.). Regarding the maintenance of a clear and effective relationship with the stakeholders, the current period of june2013 seem to have brought significant amount of loss in terms of the club’s annual earning. In 2013, the football Club’s annual financial report projected a decline of about £7.6million which further resulted in terms of giving rise to instability between the club and its stakeholders. Moreover, the year of 2013-14 will be the last period for this club to be receiving financial support from the ‘Premier League’. This fact seems to have worsened the situation to a greater level (Geldard, 2013). However, with the constant efforts from Mr Sean Dyche (managers), the club has attained a re-entrance opportunity within the premier league. This on the contrary has significantly helped it in terms of attaining the stakeholder’s trust (Percy, 2014). Identification and Improvisation of Loopholes Often it has been seen that the Burnley Football club presented itself as a community club. That does mean that this club also considered the local community fans as part of its potential stakeholders. Adding to that, one loophole which can be identified is regarding the deteriorated condition of Burnley FC (Magee, 2005). The place has been often been witnessed to be facing issues regarding the racial riots between the British and the Asian populations. This situation might further lead in terms of deteriorating the relationship of this club and its other potential investors. As a safeguard, the Burnley football club must actively participate in multiple CSR activities with the prime intention of improvising the local community scenario (Magee, 2005). The second identified issue is also regarding a similar context. For instance, the ticketing problem faced by this team during the Burnley v Preston derby match. In this case, the game viewer experienced a lot of difficulty during a live match. However, this problem was quickly dealt off but it can be considered as one necessary point which this football club needs to keep in mind in order to prevent future consequences (Magill, 2013). Apart from these two issues there seem to occur two more problems which this football team must take care of with the intention of safeguarding its interests with its stakeholders. The first issue is regarding ensuring appreciable return to the stakeholders in terms of annual revenue earning. As discussed above, the recent annual loss of £7.6million has already brought about distrust among the stakeholders (Geldard, 2013). So it becomes the prime responsibility of the club to make up that loss within a limited duration with the intention of retraining its stakeholder’s loyalty. The final issue which this club might take into consideration is regarding the search for new investors. This football club should focus more in terms of aggressively promoting itself in the international sporting market so as to attract new investors (Burnley Football Club, n.d.). Ranking of Burnley Football Club as Per Five Stages of Corporate Social Responsibility The following five stages of CSR related activities have been represented in the form of boxes and have been presented as under. By taking into consideration of this five stage CSR model, it can be concluded that in the current scenario, the Burnley Football Club lies between the complaint and the managerial stage. This can be said based on the fact that this football club till date has not been into the areas of corporate social responsibilities and is currently planning to get involved within it by considering the development of the Burnley community as its starting point (Sky Bet, n.d.). Apart from this, the Burnley Football Club has also hired Mr Neil Hart as their new community head with the motive of carrying out their CSR initiative. This new individual was previously associated with Watford Football Club and has formulated multiple successful strategies for the Watford FC. As per Neil’s testimony, the implementation of the CSR policies on the Burnley FC will not be highly challenging since departments within this football club appeared to be already in a setup stage (Sky Bet, n.d.). Currently, the primary focus of this club is regarding conveying their CSR motto to the community schools and colleges. The team has also been looking forwards in terms of communicating with new partners with the prime intention of reinforcing their network and stakeholder support. The club has also laid its focus in terms of developing the social and economic condition of Burnley and its surrounding areas. The club intends to achieve this objective by inviting multiple new local and global business processes and organizations in terms of joining their cause regarding overall development. Adding to that, Neil Hart intends to carry out this total initiative at a slower pace with the intention of paving the right way in terms of attaining success (Sky Bet, n.d.). As a second step, this football club intends of starting up with a charity. The clubs intention to this step might be in terms of establishing a fund flow system through which they can channelize required amount of funds from the investors and sponsors to the deprived sections of the community. Through this method, the club might attain high rates of fan support. Neil Hart also projected his future plan of promoting this football club to a much higher rate based on its traditional nature. The team also have plans for utilizing the ‘Clarets squad’ which includes three major players namely ‘Danny Ings’; ‘Kieran Trippier’ and ‘Jason Shackell ’as ambassadors in terms of promoting their community upliftment initiatives (Sky Bet, n.d.; Yahoo! Sport, n.d.). CSR Vision Statement for the Burnley Football Club To be the most preferred and financially stable football club within the Burnley region and to take active participation towards restructuring a better community. We also aim towards bringing people closer through football. Framing of CSR Policies Commitment Bringing about continuous improvement in the CSR strategies Continuously encouraging new business partners for joining the development cause Acting in a socially responsible manner towards the community Bringing about continuous improvement within the club’s performance levels Promoting and making efforts in terms of effectively utilizing the available resources Purpose and Aims The CSR policy aims towards conveying a specific message to the stakeholders about the motives and steps of undertaking the CSR program. In terms of implementing this policy we will be focussing towards Being responsible Being an example for others Business Process Standard We aim towards integrating ourselves with the social issues and try understanding the loopholes We will avoid participating into unethical and illegal activities We will attempt in terms of developing our relationships with potential business partners and team fans We will continuously bring about modification within our policy structure with the aim of improvising our club efficiency Equality and Diversity Through our CSR initiatives, our aim will be in terms of eliminating the community clashes which has been observed in Burnley and bring about minimization in the racial differences between local inhabitants We will also aim towards establishing mergers with multiple domestic business bodies and making them work together in terms of developing the overall condition of the community Through our players and club promotional techniques, we will support in terms of circulating monetary help within the community with the intention of ensuring financial stability Impact on Society Through our efforts, we intend to spread the notion of football to each and every schools and colleges within the areas of Burnley and contribute in terms of the societal development Conclusion From the above discussion, it can be stated that CSR activities plays multiple vital roles in terms of developing the overall social status of an organization. Above that, taking into account of the current scenario, CSR activities will help the Burnley Football Club significantly in the long run. This can help the club in terms of attaining multiple new stakeholders. Moreover conducting CSR initiatives in terms of supporting the deteriorating condition of Burnley will also help this football club in terms of attaining high amount of brand marketing value which will gradually help the club in the long run. This will also help in terms of developing business relationship with stakeholders. However for attaining all these, the football team needs to be very specific in terms of framing its CSR policies which will be like a clear projection of the club’s motives. References Burnley Football Club, 2012. History of the Club. Burnley FC History. [Online] Available at: http://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/club/history/ [Accessed April 28, 2014]. Burnley Football Club, No Date. Board of Directors / CEO. Official Website Sponsor. [Online] Available at: http://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/club/boardroom/ [Accessed April 28, 2014]. Central Coalfields Limited, No Date. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) & CCL: A brief. A Miniratna Company, pp. 1-3. Geldard, S., 2013. Burnley FC Report Annual Loss of £7.6million. Burnley FC Reporter. [Online] Available at: http://www.asianimage.co.uk/news/10809469.Burnley_FC_report_annual_loss_of___7_6million/?action=complain&cid=12170013&ref=rc [Accessed April 28, 2014]. Magee, J., 2005. Burnley Football Club, Ethnic Diversity and the Asian Community: An Analysis of Leisure and Community Programmes and Youth Player Recruitment. International Football Institute, pp. 1-10. Magill, P., 2013. Review Ordered Into Problems At Burnley V Preston Derby Match. News. [Online] Available at: http://www.lancashiretelegraph.co.uk/news/10641526.Review_ordered_into_problems_at_Burnley_v_Preston_derby_match/?ref=rc [Accessed April 28, 2014].   Percy, J., 2014. Burnley Reward Manager Sean Dyche for Promotion to the Premier League. Upwards and Onwards: Sean Dyche Has Taken Burnley into the Premier League after a Four-Year Absence. [Online] Available at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/burnley/10781497/Burnley-reward-manager-Sean-Dyche-for-promotion-to-the-Premier-League.html [Accessed April 28, 2014]. Sky Bet, No Date. Community. Burnley Football Club. [Online] Available at: http://www.burnleyfootballclub.com/club/community/ [Accessed April 28, 2014]. Yahoo! Sport, No Date. Promoted Burnley has had three players named in the PFA Championship Team of the Year. Championship - Burnley Trio in PFA Squad. [Online] Available at: https://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/football-clarets-trio-pfa-squad-095441492--sow.html [Accessed April 28, 2014]. Read More