The Economist’s article, When the Jobs Inspector Calls, discusses and analyzes the struggles of companies who aim to be socially responsible. Many companies find it difficult to maintain a clean and ethical working environment in their factories including safety, wages, working hours, and underage labour due to the managements that handle their outsourced factories.

One interesting point that caught my eye was the influence of societal pressure on big brands to ensure that their products are created under socially responsible conditions. If media catches wind of a company not holding up to these standards, these businesses will see a huge fall in sales and stock prices, which can be detrimental to the company unless a large change is made. For example, the article mentions how Nike used to receive bad press during the 1990s, but now is a strong advocator for fair working practices. According to Milton Friedman, sometimes it is the lack of socially responsibility causes short-sighted business decisions that may affect their company later on. As an example of how social responsibility has paid off in the long-run, Nike has stated that their new approach of sustaining good labour and maintaining proper working conditions have actually raised their profits. So perhaps it was beneficial for Nike to receive widespread criticism that forced them to significantly alter their production and managerial process.

Another interesting point to note which ties in with Ed Freedman’s stakeholder theory is that for significant and long-term improvement to happen, there must be collaboration between a company and its suppliers. This is similar to what Freedman stated where in order to be a successful manager or entrepreneur, one has to figure out how the interests of stakeholders including customers,  suppliers, employees, communities, financiers, shareholders, etc. come together.