CVS announced that it will stop selling cigarettes and other related products which will reduce their sales by 2 billion dollars. This decision was supposed to be made in order to reduce the availability of cigarettes and therefore their consumption, making a great contribution to society.
We might think that this decision is for the benefit of the community only and we might assume that the company is not socially responsible since is not acting to increase its profits (according to Freedman’s definition). However, the company’s resolution is not as philanthropic as it appears. CVS is planning to provide new products and services such as smoking cessation programs and insurance plans so they will increase their revenue.
However, this innovative idea could not benefit every stockholder (financiers, employees, customers, etc.). CVS has about 26000 pharmacists and nurses that control chronicle illnesses that are related to smoking. So, if people stop smoking, they will not need the employee’s services anymore once the treatment is finished. This will possibly cause staff cutbacks and the company sooner or later will possibly go into decline. If this happened, the manager would have failed trying to find the entrance for all the stockholders.
References
Strom, Stephanie. “CVS Vows to Quit Selling Tobbaco Products.”
The New York Times 5 February 2014: 1. The New York Times. 10 September 2104 http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/06/business/cvs-plans-to-end-sales-of-tobacco-products-by-october.html?_r=0.
Zimmerli, Walther Holzinger, Markus Richter, Klaus. “The Social Responsability of Business Is to Increase Its Profits.”
Corporate Ethics and Corporate GovernanceJanuary 2007: 173-178. Proquest Ebrary. 10 September 2014 http://site.ebrary.com/lib/ubc/reader.action?docID=10187339&page=171.
Freeman, Edward. “What Is Stakeholder Theory?. ” You Tube. 01 October 2009. You Tube. 10 September 2014 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bIRUaLcvPe8.
[Graph]. (2013). Retrieved from http://www.hartinmedia.com/what-are-the-benefits-of-csr/
[Photograph]. (2010). Retrieved from http://moneysavingmom.com/2010/06/cvs-deals-for-the-week-of-june-6-13-2010.html