I am very interested in incorporating social responsibility and profit maximizing in business. I firmly believe that the two don’t have to be separate from one another, and that to work towards the one also means to work towards the other, which is why I enjoyed reading about CVS Caremark’s decision to stop selling tobacco through Bonnie Cheng’s blog post.

I agree that CVS’s act of responsibility (removing nicotine from the stores) is small compared to how much CVS actually makes and I agree that CVS isn’t actually losing much from “doing the right thing”- which proves that CVS in the end isn’t taking any risks out of character and morals but implementing another business strategy. While I agree with all of that, I also think that in this world that is infinitely complicated and multi-faceted, a “cloaked” business strategy that is still in line with Friedman’s idea that the only responsibility businesses have is to the shareholders, is still also an act of social responsibility that benefits both the business and the customer.

As in, businesses don’t have to lose and don’t have to work against profit (as Friedman thinks) through being socially responsible. It just takes a little bit of imagination, drive, and I guess- values, to make social responsibility work in a business.

Sources:

“CVS- ethical or merely strategic?”, https://blogs.ubc.ca/bonniecheng/

“The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits”, Friedman