Corporate Social Governance

Corporations are not in business to save the world. They exist to make profit

I’ve always known that great companies like Apple and Louis Vuitton for example shows success through their profit and market share. I am also a person who doesn’t use styrofoam, a vegan and a tree hugger if I may call myself but despite all that I am also a business minded person. And having my own business for profit might be its perpetual reason for existence. It’s what reality gives to business.

Milton Friedman an economist from the 1970s taught this profits first philosophy while in 1979, Quaker oats president, Mr. Kenneth Mason, declared the opposite. He further said “Friedman’s profits-are-everything philosophy is a dreary and demeaning view of the role of business and business leaders in our society (Makower, 2006).” 

The discussion in class reminded me of the times when I was little, people wear really thick jackets, there is heavy fog pass 3:00 pm and the smell of pine breeze is everywhere. But twenty years later as a result of climate change and a reaction to the daily destruction of men this isn’t the case anymore. I grew up in Baguio. Tree planting trees and tree-hugging activities were usual for the locals. But that’s no longer the case today. We rarely even experience fog but we do see smog above the clouds in the morning. I did little things for the environment through time like saving rain water for cleaning the comfort room, rolling chip wrappers and buying recycled papers instead of new ones. We are really loosing so much of what Mother Earth used to be. Greenpeace an environmental organization demands businesses to be responsible of their actions. In their article dated October 23, 2012 said that they have demanded KFC and its board for the past two years to address their supply chain on how they are destroying the forest for their garbage system. Currently the company is just starting to address the problem by their “Sustainable Sourcing and Waste Recovery Campaign” which is recently posted in their website. (http://www.yum.com/responsibility)

In the Philippines, a few banks and insurance companies are supporting the Philippine Eagle Foundation. What makes this a whole hearted initiative is that this companies do not as much advertise what they do according to the conservationist in Davao that I have spoken to.

The class session was a reality check. I almost forgot that I can put profit and accountability together. My two semesters were focused on mental notes on how I would build an empire in the future, how I would earn more, what are the best practices in the business and so on and so forth. So, I have updated my dream board posted on my wall after class, a restaurant for that matter would have a clear system of garbage disposal. That small restaurant may give unsold food to the beggars along the street even if it means we will have longer and longer lines of needy people every night which I might need to limit somehow. The cleaning products should be environmental friendly. And it would be an advantage to have spiritual sessions as simple as prayer meetings twice a month for the employees.

When it comes to big companies however, it’s actually even convenient to just support a foundation, donate a certain amount of money to a charity and have yearly tree plantings.  If I choose a different path of Organizational Development, 360 degrees CSR that would start from grass root level from production to advertisements to selling and even pricing will be implemented.

I will be reporting on Environmental CSR on November 22, 2012 in class. I do hope that my group and I be able to touch our classmates and influence them that they don’t need to be a million dollar business owner to do CSR because they can already do a little which goes a long way to help. And by that I redefine CSR as the society as a whole for taking responsibility for the effects of their actions.