Have any of you guys ever did something good and beneficial and yet there is no one who acknowledges it but instead hated you for that? I believe most of you have experienced something similar or the same before.
Now let’s take a look at a company who has gone through the same thing, Chiquita Brands, one of the largest fruit suppliers in America. Despite it’s great effort on promoting a sustainable environment, it has earn itself with a minimum amount of reward. Chiquita Brands decision on investing on sustainability by avoiding the use of a certain type of fuel has angered some oil industry to the point that Chiquita Brands was being boycott by the oil industry which cost the company a large amount of fortune. Not only that, Chiquita Brands also initiates an anti-sexual harassment policy for women on it’s plantation and still hasn’t received any benefits for it. Next, Chiquita Brands was also the only one who admits that they have been paying protection fees to Colombian paramilitary forces surrounding its plantations. Thus, the lack of rewards received by Chiquita Brands after it’s efforts on doing good has caused it’s main rivals to lost it’s interest on signing a global union agreement with Chiquita Brands.
After reading the statement above, I guess it is not far-fetch to think that doing good, being socially responsible on world issues around us was actually a waste of time. But that is not the main problem here, the main problem lies on there are so many companies and organizations which are actually discouraging and interrupting other companies from doing something ethical and socially responsible to the world issues we face nowadays. This is a very frightening truth as it has showed there are so many companies out there who has no interest in being socially responsible. From my opinion, I believe every company have to practice good business ethics and let the public know exactly what are the benefits of doing it in order to earn public support which will be a very valuable asset for every company which will also help stopping other unethical companies from interrupting.
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www.economist.com/node/21551500