Activism Campaign Appraisal - Example

Activism Campaign Appraisal Name: Course: Instructor: Institution: Date of Submission: Fossil Free Units Developing the strategy The strategy proposes encouraging universities to instigate campaigns that compel organizations to withdraw investments from fossil fuel industries and invest in environmental friendly industries. The strategy of the campaign involves setting goals, educating the targets regarding the campaign objectives, building a team for the campaign, negotiating with the target markets, using debates, winning the debate and implementing the strategy to start the campaign and win (Kaplan & Norton, 2004). Campaign outcome = the university campaigns should get the universities to divest from investing in fossil fuel companies and invest in environmental friendly campaigns. The strategy of achieving the set goal will follow the following stages Start Tactics End/Goal To start the strategy, the campaign should identify the goals. The tactics to attain this goal must be determined, including the important stakeholders in the campaign. Prior to developing the strategy map, a holder’s map to show the important stakeholders in the campaign, while explaining why some hold more power. Holders Map High Investors (Universities) Fossil Fuel companies Keep Satisfied Manage Closely Power Monitor slightly Keep Informed Campaigners Investors/ PUBLIC Low Interest High Campaigners = Universities heading the campaign (Low power and a high interest) Campaigners. = Environmental friendly Companies ((Low power and a high interest) Fossil fuel companies = High Power, high interest Investors (Universities)= High power and low interest According to the map above, different stakeholders with high and low power and high and low interest have been identified. The recognition helps identify the holders that we will keep satisfied or informed and those that require minimum or maximum monitoring. According to the above information, the stakeholders include Universities, Investors (organizations or individuals, in this campaign it’s the university), Fossil Fuel Companies, and the public in general. The Key Power Holders According to the above map is the fossil fuel companies and the investors hold the highest power. The power derives from the identification that they can influence the success or failure of the campaigns mission and vision. The investor are mainly concerned with making profits, the money decisions they make derive from the income statements they see. Thus, the fossil fuel companies can easily compel the investors that the environmental friendly companies, will not lead to the financial benefits they can provide. Thus, with such comments it will be easy to compel the companies not to invest or divest their funds to the environmental friendly companies. Consequently, the campaign has creative strategies to ensure the university divests from fossil fuel companies. Integrated Strategy Map for the Campaign Vision University to divest their funds to Environmental Friendly companies limiting the development of fossil fuel industries Mission Controlling the fossil fuel consumption by providing profitable environmental industries that the investors can invest in. Strategic Themes Lower consumption of fossil fuels Instigate diversion from fossil fuel companies by investing in eco-friendly companies Control funds, to limit development and growth of fossil fuel companies Strategic Results Lowered investments in the companies Development of profitable eco-friendly companies that attract more investors Fall of many fossil fuel companies Strategic Objectives and the Strategy Map Measures Targets Initiatives Financial Eco-friendly companies) Revenue in target markets Operating costs 12% Per year 3% per year Increase eco-friendly org. awareness Stakeholders Increase market shares Present the customer satisfaction index 5% per year Market studies to improve businesses Internal Process Measure skills/ competencies of teams 90% good report/ and improved skills Train teams on skills to achieve the set goals Internal Process Campaigners Capacity (improving) Development Plans by teams Learning index 95% in place 85% Competently trained staff Marketing to improve awareness of fossil fuel vs. eco-friendly companies and the benefit of focusing on eco-friendly companies Implementing the Divest From Fossil Fuels Campaign Plan To engage the strategy/ plan effectively as demonstrated in the research, some aspects have to be identified (Fossil Free UK 350.org, 2015). The team members of the campaigning group must identify the, vision, mission, strategic themes and results of the campaign. Once the goals are set, they need to understand the objectives of the campaign. Our main stakeholders are the investors (which is the universities), by compelling them to invest in Environmental friendly companies, rather than business that consume so much fossil fuels and negatively affect the earth. To appeal to the investors (universities), the movement will attempt a peaceful strategy of demonstrating to them through debates and petitions the negative impacts their investments have in the environment and the benefits they may provide the planet by investing in environmentally friendly industries (350 org., 2016). More importantly, it will show that by not investing in fossil fuel companies they are attaining their corporate social responsibility, since it will help stop worsening the climate change that may negatively affect all in the future. However, there is a high percentage rate that the universities will resist to divest since due to the profits expected and earned. What will be undertake to make the campaign a success include: Marketing for the green industries to ensure the revenue and profitability from the industries is attractive. Increasing the awareness of green industries by showing the negative impacts of supporting the fossil fuel companies (Fossil Free, 2016). Thus, by showing the negative side of increased fossil fuel consumption, and providing the alternatives (green industries) the stakeholders will be informed. To keep the stakeholders satisfied, and interested in investing in green markets, they will be informed of the inevitable changes in the future that will only support green industries. More importantly, the team members will have to learn and be trained on conducting the campaign, including the usage of flyers, registrations for the campaign, speeches to instigate more people to join the campaign and other activities to guarantee successful campaigning. To achieve the set goal, some of the resources the campaign must have include finances, social platforms, managerial platforms, and sufficient human capital. Finances: The finances will be attained by convincing some environmental friendly industries to finance the campaign. This may also include some alumni of the universities engaged in the campaign. Social Platform: The main social platform to be used to send the message is the universities websites, social media, University magazines, and the internet. The main physical platform of the campaign will be in the universities compounds. Human capital: It will include the environmental teams in the universities, the school teams, key activists from the universities, the community, the media and other well-wishers who have been registered. The following campaign calendar will be used to make the campaign a success. Additional changes and activities will continue to be added as the campaign goes on. Campaign Calendar Critical discussion of campaign outcomes The main goal of the campaign is to get the university to divest its investment from fossil fuel companies and invest in environmental friendly companies. The first goal of the campaign is to ensure the university divests its funds to environmental friendly organizations. The process begins after the team has already been built to begin the campaign. The team is attained by engaging the entire university students and other universities to engage in a united process of compelling the universities to divest from fossil fuel companies. The teams are developed and educated as presented on the calendar on the 6th date. The process includes educating the best activists from the universities, including engaging the diversity of students in terms of culture, and social class among others to ensure the strength of the team. Once the team members are on board, support from the community and others as presented will be attained. The support will also derive from the faculties of the universities, through petitions, debates and others (AFG Investments, 2015). During these meetings, the team members will be educated on the issue at hand. Once all this has been attained, the campaign strategy is ready for implementation. As presented in the calendar, the campaign has some creative ways of compelling the universities to divest from fossil fuel companies. For instance, by engaging the media, the campaign will be turning up the heat since; the issue will be covered by media. Everyone will be assessing to see the decisions made by the university. The campaign short term will be urging the university to say yes, to divesting their funds. Engaging the media will put the university in the centre of everything, forcing it to make haste decisions (Armitage & Scholey, 2007). The organized sit-ins by the campaign team will be for pressuring the university’s board of trustees to make a quick decision. The sitting will let the board of members identify the seriousness of the issue. On the stipulation, they do not agree to the terms of the campaign team, the team will present signed forms by the entire student body of a walk out. The walk out will be supporting that they will not study under finances paid to support the destruction of the planet. That is; their school fees are key to supporting the investments of the university, thus, they should be given a say in where the funds will be invested. Consequently, the campaign will win since the university and the board of trustees cannot manage to let the students walk out. There is a high possibility that the competing universities will give in to such demands. Thus, the university will have to divest its funds to an environmental friendly company. Conclusions Climate change is a major issue in the world today, yet people seem oblivious to the changes happening and their roles in triggering and hastening the changes. Consumption of fossil fuels is the key in triggering the climate changes, yet as the danger becomes imminent, the more fossil fuels are burned. As a concerned environmental team, the change of freezing the fossil fuel companies had to begin at home. Thus, the university had to begin the change, and hope someday, we can make other investors divest from fossil fuel companies. The campaign is a challenging activity to undertake. In some days, the campaigners win while in others they lose. Those with competitive advantages have the power to make the changes. Forcing companies to divest their funds from fossil fuel companies is a successful way on guarantying the consumption of fossil fuel is controlled and limited. The more people investing in the fossil fuel companies, the more fossil fuels are burned. Thus, to manage the environmental issue of climate change triggered by consumption of fossil fuels would be to divest into green industries. Global universities are perceived as a symbol of wisdom, and thus should be the key instigators of divesting from fossil fuels. Reference List 350 org., 2016. Fossil Free: A Campus Guide to Fossil Fuel Divestment. Fossil Free Booklet, pp. 1-39. AFG Investments, 2015. Fossil Fuel Divestment - A Solution Based Approach. AFG Market Insight, pp. 1-7. Armitage, M. H. & Scholey, C., 2007. Using Strategy Maps to Drive Performance. Management Strategy Measurement: Management Acounting Guideline, pp. 1-43. Fossil Free UK 350.org, 2015. Knowledge and Power Fossil Fuel Universities. People and Planet: Knowledge and Power, Volume www.platformlondon.org/p-publications/unis, pp. 5-47. Fossil Free, 2016. Fossil Free: Divest from Fossil Fuels. [Online] Available at: http://gofossilfree.org/ [Accessed 5 10 2016]. Kaplan, R. P. & Norton, D. P., 2004. Strategy Maps, Converting intangible assets into tangible outcomes. USA: Harvard Business School Publishing. Read More