We’ve learnt in class that when a business has corporate social responsibility, it adopts a certain set of values involving initiatives or practices that hold a benefit towards society. This could be done through addressing economic or social issues, and legislative issues perhaps such as labour laws.
I was inspired to learn more about CSR because of Grace’s post about Starbucks’ corporate social responsibility initiative. From her post, I can definitely agree that CSR can be used as a powerful marketing tool which can enhance a brand’s image greatly however, I hold a more skeptical view of major corporations and their CSR initiatives. Personally, I wouldn’t view Starbucks as any different after learning about their initiatives because I know that my purchase is not directly going to fund their CSR.
After reading her post, I looked up other companies who are actively participating in their CSR initiatives. A company that I came across was TOMS. One of the company’s CSR initiative is the “one for one concept” where the company promises to donate a pair of shoes to a child in need whenever they sell a pair of shoes. This has not only helped the impoverished children but the brand has also created over 700 jobs; with an equal ratio of male to female employees, in the regions where they donate their shoes.
From my point of view, the whole initiative just seems too good to be true. Having studied Economics and Global Development for the past 2 years, I highly question the effectiveness of the company’s initiative as I believe that it might actually have a negative impact the development of the impoverished nations.
By providing large amounts of aid to the countries, TOMS is simply hindering development and making the countries reliant on aid. The company claims to provide employment to the local community by setting up factories in developing nations however, that could easily be used as an excuse for the company to exploit the natural resources used and also to take advantage of lower wage systems. Furthermore, by producing in the developing nations, the local markets would be disrupted – local shoemakers would be replaced by a large Western corporation; which is TOMS.
We as consumers have to be thorough in our research before purchasing a product because we have the choice to choose between putting our money into something that will have a positive impact on the community or giving our money to major transnational corporations at the expense of local corporations.
Word Count: 414
Sources:
C.W. “Putting the Boot in Development.” The Economist. 27 October. 2014 <http://www.economist.com/blogs/freeexchange/2014/10/economics-toms-shoes>
TOM’s production. <http://www.toms.com/production>
TOM’s One for One Campaign. <http://www.toms.fr/gift-of-shoes/>