ASSESSMENT #1 PROJECT PROPOSAL

How can Brother NZ effectively plan and manage its ability to be socially responsible?

636 Applied Management July 2012 intake Tutor: Chris Burgess By: Cui Haishan (I/D: 101732) Wang Tong (I/D: 102433) Phung Ha vu (I/D: 102385)

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1. Background of the Company 1.1 Nature of the business

"BROTHER AT YOUR SIDE" is a New Zealand company founded in 1908, Brother

has 19 production facilities and 43 sales companies operating in 41 countries throughout the world. Brother .is a leading brand manufacturing, high technology, innovative products for the print and imaging, labelling and sewing markets including laser printers and multifunctions, inkjet multi-function centres (MFCs), fax machines, labellers, label printers, and a wide range of home and industrial sewing machines. We also offer a range of cost effective lease and cost per page deals to meet the changing needs of small to medium size and corporate businesses. "BROTHER AT YOUR SIDE" is motto of a New Zealand company which locates in 52 Symonds Street in Auckland, New Zealand. 1.2 Organisational culture They are striving to provide the best service for clients in the field of computer hardware in order to become the first choice of hardware-related problem solver. They are able to deal with office automation requirements, including color, black & white printers, scanners, copiers, labeling equipment and so on and excellent after service as well.
Brother International (NZ) Limited. Owner

Shareholders

Creditors

Employees

Labour Union

Customers

Brother International (NZ) Limited Company Structure

Corporate Name Head Office Telephone Date of Incorporation Paid-in Capital Net Sales

BROTHER INDUSTRIES NZ, LTD.

52 Symonds Street in Auckland, New Zealand.

64-9-297-4312 January 15, 1934 19,209million (as of March 31, 2012) Consolidated 497,390million (fiscal year ending March 31, 2012) [ Printing & Solutions Business ] All-in-Ones, Printers, FAX Machines, Electronic Stationeries, Scanners, Typewriters [ Personal & Home Business ] Home Sewing Machines, etc.

Business Segments

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[ Machinery & Solution Business ] Industrial Sewing Machines, Machine Tools, Garment Printers [ Network & Contents Business ] Online Karaoke, Content-delivery Systems, Contents Services, etc. [ New Businesses ] Head-mounted Display, Web Conferencing, etc. Consolidated 31,314 / Non-consolidated 3,779 (as of March 31, 2012)
Corporate Profile of Brother Industries, Ltd.

Number of Employees

The Brother group delivers products and services to customers all over the world with 17 production sites (incl. five factories of Brother Industries, Ltd.) and 52 sales sites in 44 countries and regions of the world (as of July 2012).

1.3 Organizational structure (NZ) Its organizational structure is flat structure which can ensure employees feel more involved and can take on more responsibility, improve communication, cultivate workers better team spirit, less bureaucracy and easier decision making and lower costs, however, this kind of structure may bring about some risks for them, the functions of each department are not clear and limited to smaller organizations sometimes. Hence, it could be a main point to promote to get better.The goal of CSR is to embrace responsibility for the company's actions and encourage a positive impact through its activities on the environment, consumers, employees, communities, stakeholders and all other members of the public sphere who may also be considered as stakeholders (John, 2004, P.369).

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2. Problem identification with rationale 2.1 The Main research question: How can Brother NZ effectively plan and manage its ability to be socially responsible? Relevent sub-questions: (research questions) 1) What theory is available to help a business become socially responsible? 2) What can be learnt from case studies of other businesss encountering similar problems? 2.2 Reasons of selecting the main research question for study With the global financial crisis, every company encounters a big issue of development. In 1999, this company formedthe Brother Group Global Charter for workers to guide them to make daily decisions. Following on from this the Fundamental Philosophy of Brother Groups Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Management was introduced towards the end of 2006 with the intention of growing the business through the adoption of CSR Management. A distinctive team working on CSR Management was shaped with representation from Brother sales companies all over the world.The Brother realized that they should not only produce more highquality products and good after-sale service, but shoulder more social responsibility. In fact, it is also a smart strategy to develop. More and more social activities have shown themselves more, which gives publics more positive drumbeating about this company. This could be more than advertisements. New Zealand is a contributing member to this Group. It has guide many of the employees and CSR initiatives of environment which make the Brother generate as a responsible company (Author, 2011). In 2007, the Brother Group Corporate Social Responsibility Report revealed the growth of customers and encouraged every part of company should take more responsibility (Brother Group, n.d.). Nevertheless, this goal is not easy to reach. Thus, Brother studied out a Global Vision 21 which outlines how the Brother Group will develop in order to make their long-term purposes more available. Subsequently, Brother has been working on to be a world-class leading company with high profit, a good manufacturer with outstanding proprietary technologies. It seems that their motto At your side will always be aimed at by this company. Whats more, the responsibility they have taken via considering environment aspect, they have the most comprehensive and accessible recycling programme offered by any printer manufacturer in New Zealand. Brother takes responsibility for its products and guarantees the quality and environmentally friendly character of them. Moreover, their responsibility cares about employees satisfaction which reflects a commitment to delivering the highest standard of service to our customers and stakeholders. Furthermore, the benefits provide more than basic requirement of employees, such as insurance, maternity leave and health cover. For employees, they can satisfy their working live which makes them feel the sense of stability and safety, which not only promotes their efficiency of producing, but also makes contribution to create a harmonious society(Christine, V., Adam, L. &Franois, M.,2012, pp.34-60).

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Turnover (yen) Operating profit (yen) Operating margin (%)

2015 target 750 billion yen 58 billion yen 7.7%

2012 results expected 500 billion yen 37 billion yen 7.4%

"BROTHER AT YOUR SIDE" 2012-2015 Performance targets

Corporate Social Responsibility is an overall concept, including basic and high level of social responsibility. Donations or public welfare can embody corporate social responsibility, however, although the enterprise does a lot of donation for social public welfare, if it is criticized in the basic aspects of social responsibility such as poor employee benefits and not eco-friendly process of products, it can hard to say that the enterprise well fulfill the corporate social responsibility. According to the Brother Group (2012) Global Charter, Brother Group made a concept of co-existence in 1999. It decided to build a mutually beneficial relationship between stakeholder and employees. This group has a belief in protecting environment. They are looking for the recycling program to recycle their products and continually expand the program. Today, many enterprises have a misconception that increasing the welfare of workers and environmental protection will inevitably increase the cost, and then result in the decrease of the enterprise's competitiveness. Just like others enterprises, Brother Group was suffered the negative effects, such as the problem of the flow of fund and the misconception and sarcasm of competitors, when they played more attention to their staff and the environment. However, the group believed that these effects are temporary. Enterprises should not only learn how to make money, but also to learn how to spend money. It is undeniable that corporate social responsibility will eventually become an important factor of the future competition, any none business cannot be avoided. When socially responsible investment increasingly becomes an important investment criteria, the increase of protection of the environment, social responsibility, staff's treatment and harmonious labor and supplier relationships can help enterprises to improve the efficiency, stimulate the innovative spirit, then bring greatest economic benefits. Brother group (2012) believes that the satisfactions of employees are very significant because it is a fundamental component of creating work-life balance for our employees. Thus, in order to make a positive workplace, the group creates a Workplace Wellness Programs. These programs include health screening, health surveys, and fitness incentives. In addition, the group has committed to provide a cheerfully workplace. Despite of these above, the managers of Brother care to communicate with their employees. They organize regular communication sessions, and share the company information with employees (Brother Group, 2012). When it comes to the managers, Brother Group (2012) recognizes the significant of the brilliant leaders who have big influence of the development of the enterprise. Thus, the group invests much to train their abilities. In addition, Brother Group (2012) stated that they received a highly 75% of responded, which shows that their staff have a positive employees engagement.

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2.3 Research objectives Because of these above, Brother Group not only solve the time fund shortage which is caused by the investment of the improvement of employees' welfare and environmental protecting but also get good reputation. The good reputation help Brother Group get more opportunities and make more money. 3. Scope, resources and time frame 3.1 Scope of study Primary Data: Secondary Data: The books from Brother Company The website of Brother Company 3.2 Resources required to conduct this study 1) Membership card from library to borrow the books 2) Laptop for searching the Internet 3) Money for printing the information paper 3.3 Time Frame required to conduct this study Time Tasks Week 3 Everyone goes for searching the information we need Week 4 Sum up all the information together Week 5 Correct the drafted assessment

4.SWOT Analysis on Brother During this universal financial crisis, many companies and organisations have undergone bankruptcy because of a lake of customers which means profit. The same question was faced by Brother. However, they did not give up their responsibility even in its downturn. They kept investing money on charities, quality of service and even the conditions of working place. All of these played important role for their developing instantly. Their old customers are becoming loyal fans and new ones are satisfied with their products and social image. It is the structured working attitude gives them a hand to keep the development of profit and even increase. Ascent Technology is one of the most famous hardware companies in New Zealand. It is also a strong competitor of Brother. Compared with Brother, the strategy of Ascent Technology is focussing on setting competitive price and providing conscientious after-sales service. This may let Ascent Technology concentrate more product-related promotion and invest more money on technologically advanced facilities, which is a direct method to improve both the quantity and the quality of their product in order to meet customers need and decrease cost to make more profit. That is why Ascent Technology could go through the financial crisis. In contrast, Brothers social charity activity may set a good example for others; they still need to pay for that. This could be a double-edged sword which meansboth opportunity and threats. This behaviour makes Brother famous, but requires more investment at the same time. Companies purpose should be making maximize the interests, which is like Ascent Technology did. Brothers more investment on nonproducing-related aspect brings forward more income to run this company. Hence, how to keep the balance between income and outcome is a crucial question to solve. In fact, Brother has proven their theory is working in some ways. Ascent 636 Assessment #1 [Group Project Proposal Package] [15%] 6

Technologys pricing strategiesis definitely threating other competitors who are selling the same product. Lower price can always attract customers eyes. If Brother chose the same strategy to set up more connection with more customers, they may fail and lose their advantage. So it became a huge challenge for Brother, which demands them to convince people to purchase their goods by providing outstanding products and service.

5.Timetable for the assessment Week List-to-do Primary and secondary data to be collected? 1.the background of Brother industry Sources of primary and secondary data 1.Search it on Internet

How to collect?

When Who to to Collect? collect? Cui Haishan Wang Tong Phung Ha vu

Form a group and identify research focus

2.Go to Library to Nature of the check the business business research Organisational books culture Organisational structures Come up with the main research question and several Relevant subquestions

Read the Week 3 information of the focus, then sum up the key point

Identify research focus

1.read the background of Brother Company 2.Check the books which are from the Brother company Read the drafted assessment carefully

Read the Week 4 information of the focus, then sum up the key point

Cui Haishan Wang Tong Phung Ha vu

Submit drafted Assessment 1 for feed back

Put all the information we got together

Read the information of the focus, then sum up the key point

Cui Haishan Wang Tong Phung Ha vu

4 5

Submit Assessment 1

Hand over the Assessment

Week 5 Cui Haishan Wang

636 Assessment #1 [Group Project Proposal Package] [15%]

Tong Phung Ha vu 6 7 8 9 Submit drafted Assessment 2 for feedback Cui Haishan Wang Tong Phung Ha vu 10 11 12-13 Assessment 2 Cui Haishan Wang Tong Phung Ha vu 13 14 15 Submit Assessment 3 Cui Haishan Wang Tong Phung Ha vu

636 Assessment #1 [Group Project Proposal Package] [15%]

References

Brother Group, (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brother.co.nz Brother Group, (2012). Retrieved from https://www.brother.com.au/corporate-social responsibility/#engagement Christine, V., Adam, L. &Franois, M. (2012).Strategically Leveraging Corporate Social Responsibility: A corporate branding perspective. California Management Review, 54(7),34-60. DOI: 10.1525/cmr.2012.54.3.34. John, H. (2004).Investing in Corporate Social Responsibility : A Guide to Best Practice, Business Planning & the UK's Leading Companies. Kogan Page Limited.369p.

636 Assessment #1 [Group Project Proposal Package] [15%]