Monsanto: Good for who?
Monsanto is considered one of the worst companies, in terms of ethics and community values, in the world. And to be fair, that description is probably pretty accurate. They have been known to go after, sue and threaten anyone that they suspect of infringing on its patents of genetically modified seeds. Farmers describe their tactics with words such as ‘gestapo’ and ‘mafia’.
Monsanto is one of few companies to patent seeds and has 674 biotechnology patents, more than any other company. They are extremely vigilant in protecting their patents and products and will go to extreme measures to do so. Now some may say that they should take a shared value approach and improve everyone’s quality of life. But for this company, I don’t think this would be a good idea.
Monsanto’s main selling point is being the only company with G.M. seeds, such as seeds that will resist its own herbicide, roundup. If they were to share these patents with everyone or even just one person, yes many farmers would be able to grow great plants and it would probably improve crop yields and quality, which would greatly help the community around it, but Monsanto would no longer have such a successful business as their main point of difference would become a point of parity. Therefore, having shared value will not increase the value of their company. Any shared value within the company, (ie for employees) would be beneficial, but shared value to the competition would only hurt the companies overall value.