We've included some sample project ideas below. We encourage users to mix-and-match components from various departments for the best cross functional project experience. In all cases, we customize the projects based on company goals and student learning objectives.

Define Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy

1. Does the company currently engage in CSR?
2. How well does the company’s CSR Strategy intertwine with the company’s core competencies, offerings, and business mission?
3. Is the CSR strategy being effectively communicated throughout the marketing, HR, and PR departments?
4. Does management seem to be aware of the overall CSR strategy?

Team Buy-in Assessment and Engagement Strategy

1. How well does the average team member know about the company’s CSR initiatives? To what extent are they involved in the company’s CSR strategy?
2. How can this be improved?
3. What metrics are used to measure success? What alternative metrics should be included to enhance the feedback loop strategy on CSR?

External Partners Assessment

1. Who is the company helping with regards to their CSR strategy? Who are the end user beneficiaries of the host company’s CSR initiatives?
2. What third party partners are involved in helping reach this group?
3. Are there others out there that could also be helpful?
4. How mission-aligned are these third parties with your CSR goals and overall company mission?
5. How can you profile and evaluate the relationships built through CSR initiatives? How does this set the tone for future endeavors? Are there key criteria for evaluating third parties with regards to CSR initiatives?

CSR Impact Assessment

1. How does the company currently measure reach, impact, and value of CSR initiatives?
2. Is the company fully capturing this value? If not, how can they improve the overall process of measuring impact and results?
3. How should the company report and communicate their impact both internally and externally?

We've included some sample project ideas below. We encourage users to mix-and-match components from various departments for the best cross functional project experience. In all cases, we customize the projects based on company goals and student learning objectives.

• Company Talent Skills Mapping

• 1. Get up-to-speed on the business model and organizational chart.
  2. How does the company manage talent? What’s the on-boarding process? How well is the company able to retain talent?
  3. How satisfied are employees with the current organizational structure?
  4. What crucial skills are required for each department/function? How do these departments link with other departments? Do they lend/share skills in between parts of the organization? Can this be done more efficiently or effectively?

• Organizational Vision, Values, and Goals Temperature Check

• 1. Get up-to-speed on the current business model and organizational structure.
  2. Does the company seem to have a clear organizational vision, mission, and goals? How does this differ when speaking to folks in different departments that are at different levels within the organization?
  3. How does the organization come up with the vision, values, and goals? How does management share this vision with the rest of the organization? Is this an effective process?
  4. Is there a way to measure progress when it comes to adoption of organizational vision, mission, and values?

• Talent Management Troubleshooting

  1. Get up-to-speed on the current business model and organizational structure.
  2. Interview key stakeholders and learn more about strengths and weaknesses of the current organizational set-up. Be sure to assess whether the organization has addressed any of these challenges previously.
  3. Synthesize data and distill challenges to 2-3 concrete challenge statements that need to be addressed by management. Why do you feel these are the most important based on your research?
  4. How can the organization address these challenges? Are there specific tools or tactics that might be able to help?

• Talent Optimization

  1. Get up-to-speed on the current business model and organizational structure. Where is the company most productive? Where is the company struggling?
  2. What are the main challenges that exist for struggling parts of the business? How far are they from meeting expectations?
  3. What is the final level of output that is needed?
  4. Map the output gaps.
  5. Map the inputs and processes that will be needed to achieve the desired outcomes.

• Recruiting Process Assessment

• 1. How does the company recruit talent?
  2. What process does the company use to funnel talent into the business?
  3. What tools are most/least effective? How much does the company pay for those tools? Can you measure the ROI?
  4. What tools could the company be using more efficiently? Are there other tools or best practices that you’d recommend the company adopts? How would this impact the current process? How much would it cost and how would you measure the impact?

• Training & Development Program Creation

• 1. Get up-to-speed on the current business model and organizational structure and identify a key function that has room for improvement in terms of process and/or technology.
  2. Get up-to-speed on the company’s current training and development tools and tactics.
  3. How does the department need to be trained? Can you repurpose some of the existing tools or structure for the training or will you need new materials?
  4. How will you measure success of your training?

We've included some sample project ideas below. We encourage users to mix-and-match components from various departments for the best cross functional project experience. In all cases, we customize the projects based on company goals and student learning objectives.

Legal & Regulatory Assessment

1. What laws and regulations impact the company? (Consider: Industry, product, customer, suppliers on state/local/federal level)
2. How confident is the company’s management when it comes to navigating these laws, regulations and future changes?
3. Is the company compliant? What process is used to check on compliance? Can the process be mapped or organized more efficiently?
4. What sources can be used to keep these regulatory maps organized and up-to-date in the future?

Impact of Future Regulations on the Business

1. What laws are on the horizon that would impact the company?
2. What is the likelihood that these regulations will be enacted?
3. How will they impact the company? What can the company do proactively to manage these changes in regulatory expectations?

Influence on Impending Regulations (Lobbying)

1. Does the company try to impact regulation? If not, should they be?
2. What key regulations are the most pressing to consider lobbying? What events, conferences, and key stakeholders are involved in passing regulations?
3. How costly and/or potentially impactful would lobbying be for the company?

We've included some sample project ideas below. We encourage users to mix-and-match components from various departments for the best cross functional project experience. In all cases, we customize the projects based on company goals and student learning objectives.

• Analyze and Suggest Improvements for Internal Communication and Tools

  1. Investigate current ways the company’s team is communicating internally. How active is the company from a communication standpoint? What suite of tools are they using? How well are these tools integrated with one another? Consider: calendar, chat, email, and project management at the very minimum.
  2. Does the team seem to be using all of the same tools and doing so effectively? How do these tools compare to similar tools on the market? How do these tools affect productivity and employee satisfaction? Note: This assignment requires interviews and surveys of significant internal stakeholders at the company.
  3. Is there a cheat sheet when it comes to communication and project management at the company? If so, review the manual and provide recommendations on updates based on what you’ve learned from the company personnel. If not, produce a rough draft of the manual or cheat sheet and review it with your project managers.
  4. Provide the company with a proposal including the analysis of the status quo of communication in the company and thoroughly examine recommendations for future improvement.

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  Automation Assessment & Recommendations

  1. What suite of tools is the company currently using? How well are these tools integrated with one another?
  2. How can the company be better automating certain processes to improve productivity?
  3. Find 2-3 areas that could use automation.
  4. Select one area of potential automation to focus on. Build automation or suggest step-by-step process of how automation can accomplish the desired business objective. How would this automation save money and/or time for the business?

Cross Functional Departmental Cooperation Assessment & Recommendations

1. What are the different functional areas?
2. How do they interact with each other?
3. What improvements could you recommend to improve internal interdepartmental communication? Think standing meetings, internal newsletters, new checklists, and other mechanisms that might help improve cross functional department collaborations.