Candy Corner And Corporate Social Responsibility

There have been many an article written about how Corporate Social Responsibility can have a positive effect on employee engagement and productivity levels. And, implementing such schemes also attract the best talent, so it’s no wonder many organisations take this responsibility seriously.

But actually, Corporate Social Responsibilities can be much more far-reaching than the organisation itself, as my daughter has recently discovered.

As part of her BTEC Business Studies Diploma, the class were set a task, and the degree of success counts towards their grades – important to get it right, right?

The class split up into groups and had to come up with a business idea, a service, a product, come up with a name for the business, pitch for investment and devise a business plan to get the business off the ground.

My daughter and her friends overheard another group deciding that they were going to run a lunchtime movie session in the main hall, and quickly latched onto the idea of selling sweets to the movie goers!

Now for investment. £4 came from the tutor, as she thought their quickness to ride on the back of another business and have a ‘Candy Corner’ in the cinema with customers already in situ, was genius.

But they needed more money to buy the sweets and sweety bags. So my daughter decided to visit all the local shops and supermarkets in our town, explaining what she and her friends had to do and asking for donations.

Each day she went out, looking for investment, believing that surely, one local business would help – 4 days this went on, with no luck.

Then out of the blue, the day before their business had to open, she got a call asking if she would like to go back to the shop the next day, with a supporting letter from the school, as they had a donation they would like to put forward to help with Candy Corner.

Out of all the shops in our town, it was Marks and Spencer’s who wanted to help. My daughter was stunned, so was I. They kindly donated loads of sweets, all M&S products as well, as a way of supporting their venture.

I would like to think a corporation of that size has a Corporate Social Responsibility scheme, and that the decision to what is contributed is left for local branches to make.

Anyway, as a result, the business made a profit of about £35 which they donated to a local charity, and my daughter received a letter of praise from the school for her efforts in securing investment for the business as well as a certificate to bolster her CV.

And, what’s more, is mine and my daughters’ view of M&S has changed, they are not just a faceless, all out profit making organisation. They’ve shown they care about the people in the community they serve, supported them, helped towards educating the local kids. Their generosity benefited people two-fold as well. The kids in their education, and the charity who ended up with the small profit.

Well done M&S!

We at The Survey Initiative are passionate about what we do, and it is clear M&S are too. If you would like any information or help with any aspect of employee research, and ways to boost engagement and productivity levels, then why not give us a call on +44 (0)1255 870735 or contact us via our website, we’re waiting to hear from you.