Corporate Social Responsibly (CSR), the act of giving back to the society. As it sounds to most people, it is also the act of expressing good ethics; which, in the long run, is used to build the company’s image. However, the only ones that can actually succeed are the ones that consumers view as having genuine ethics instead of being a money magnet. Therefore, this brings us to the main topic: How do firms genuinely express their CSR campaigns.

Before we discuss successful CSR implementations, let’s start up with the failed CSR attempts: Failed CSR attempts are attempts that are not able to keep up with the campaign that they proposed. A very popular example is Exxon Mobil’s Green Washing. This is when Exxon Mobil advertised that they were being environmentally sustainable whilst releasing emissions more than ever (Dreams, Henn and Dreams, 2017). Once their false advertisement had been revealed, customers steer their trust away from Exxon Mobil, causing a decrease in customer base and investors.

Their attempt of misrepresenting their own company can backfire them in the future once the truth is discovered. This causes an effect even worse than not having a CSR campaign in the first place. Lawsuits may be involved since false advertisement is strictly against the law.

On the contrary, a successful CSR implementation will be when companies always commit to the scheme that they advertised. For example, General Electric (GE) fully committed to being more environmentally sustainable by inventing and selling cloud wind turbine systems (Gerenewableenergy.com, 2017). This commitment builds credibility for GE as well as introduces a new customer base for GE (Customers that prefer clean energy production).

In conclusion, firms and corporations should be cautious and anticipative in choosing a CSR campaign in order to prevent future flaws that may affect their revenue in the long run.

Biblography

 Gerenewableenergy.com. (2017). Wind Turbines | GE Renewable Energy. [online] Available at: https://www.gerenewableenergy.com/wind-energy/turbines [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].

Dreams, C., Henn, J. and Dreams (2017). ExxonMobil Takes The Olympic Gold In Deceitful Advertising. [online] Common Dreams. Available at: https://www.commondreams.org/views/2016/08/11/exxonmobil-takes-olympic-gold-deceitful-advertising [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].

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 Renewableenergyworld.com. (2017). Corporate Social Responsibility — How Renewables Have Expanded the Field. [online] Available at: http://www.renewableenergyworld.com/ugc/articles/2017/05/23/corporate-social-responsibility–how-renewables-have-expanded-the-field.html [Accessed 11 Nov. 2017].

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We do know for a fact that in order for businesses to strive, everyone in the firm must have a common goal (e.g. the value preposition). Moreover, the culture within the business also have a huge impact in the unity, performance, and image of the firm. Establishing a goal may be relatively easy as it is simply informing everyone what they are working towards. However, informing the culture (ways/methods for the the employees work or interact with other employees) to the employees may be more difficult to get everyone to adhere to the principles. This is because everyone is different, and intervening with employees on such a personal level may cause employees to be reluctant since some may be more comfortable with their own way of doing work or interacting. So, what is the best method to make all employees adhere to a corporate culture? Let me tell you:

I believe that the best tactic in establishing a corporate culture effectively is to do it implicitly. For example, General Electric (GE) has a very competitive and hardworking corporate culture due to their policy that fires the 10% lowest performing employees every year (Inc.com, 2017). As seen in this example, GE’s 10% policy puts the employee’s personal life at stake, which is the main cause of the driving force for their employees to work hard. This policy may also cause emotional effects as well such as fear, which according to one of Sun Tzu’s art of war principle, fear will cause the employees to bring out the all they can to do their work so that they don’t get fired. This is optimizing the capacity of the employee’s efficiency, thus creates efficiency, which matches directly GE’s corporate culture.

Therefore, in order to get employees working a certain way, businesses must put stakes/rewards that impact the employees on a personal level in order to generate a driving force for employees to behave/ do work a certain way.

Source:

Image source:

Krieg, S. (2017). Implementing Corporate Culture Values into the Role of Human Resources. [online] Workology. Available at: https://workology.com/implementing-corporate-culture-values-into-the-role-of-human-resources/ [Accessed 29 Oct. 2017].

One of the biggest mystery in the world of business is how do you optimize your most valuable asset, the employees, for the best outcomes. Now, optimizing people is not as easy as optimizing machines since people comes in variations of strength and opinions. This complicated nature of human is what makes it difficult for companies to unite their workforce and have them work efficiently. Therefore, understanding and taking advantage of human nature to create motivation is the best way to make use of your employees. This is where motivation theories come in: to provide psychological insight of how do employees get motivated.

Common motivation theory includes Maslow’s pyramid of hierarchy, Herzberg Hygine and motivating factors, Pink’s motivation theory etc. (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2017) Maybe you may have heard some of them before, but if you haven’t, the key thing that I want to tell you is that none of these theories are the same. Some theories may be a bit similar but some of them can also be totally contradicting. For example, Herzberg stated that people are motivated by good working environments such as good relationship with co-workers; while, Taylor stated that people are motivated purely by money (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2017) . The problem that arises is if motivation theory contradicts, then how do you know which one to use.

I believe that you have to take into account many different factors such as type of jobs, culture, and experience of employees. It depends on the instinct and experience of the manager to correctly allocate different motivational theories/strategies to different groups of employees. For example, since labor workers are there to repeat certain steps in production, a piece rate for them may be a suitable for them because there is no innovation involved in this job and they are likely to be in need of money (Smallbusiness.chron.com, 2017). On the other hand, since a website designer may need more freedom to innovate therefore, Pink’s theory of having employees under laissez faire management may be applicable in order to boost the website designer’s innovation capacity (tutor2u, 2017). if you apply the motivation strategies vice versa (of labor workers and website designers), demotivation can occur since they have different wants and working style.

I want to conclude that the key thing about motivating employees is about understanding the employee’s background. This may require a lot of experience and emotional intelligence in order to see through the employees and figure out how to get them working. Once understood, motivation theories can then be applied.

References:

tutor2u. (2017). Motivation – Pink (Three Elements of Intrinsic Motivation) | tutor2u Business. [online] Available at: https://www.tutor2u.net/business/reference/motivation-pink-three-elements-of-intrinsic-motivation [Accessed 15 Oct. 2017].

Smallbusiness.chron.com. (2017). Herzberg & Taylor’s Theories of Motivation. [online] Available at: http://smallbusiness.chron.com/herzberg-taylors-theories-motivation-704.html [Accessed 15 Oct. 2017].

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Success Labs – Baton Rouge Leadership Development Consulting. (2017). Leadership Development News Roundup: Employee Motivation Edition –. [online] Available at: https://mysuccesslab.com/leadership-development-news-roundup-employee-motivation-edition/ [Accessed 15 Oct. 2017].

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Red Bull, what comes into your mind when you hear that name? Cars? Sports? Probably yes because you often see formulae ones and sporting gears sponsored by red bull (Aaker, 2017). Ask yourself, what purpose would you drink red bull for? I assume probably to do intense activities like skiing or parkour, as shown in Red Bull commercials; sometimes, you might also just want to feel the energy flowing into you. Would you believe me if I tell you that in Thailand, where red bull is originally from, Red Bull (or Krating daeng) is popular among labor workers, especially truck drivers on night shift. Referring to the picture above, you can see how Red Bull in Thailand is distributed in a medicine bottle fashion.  The market in Thailand, in fact, does not associate red bull with sports, but with labor work. Same exact drink; two totally different perceptions. How does the market dictate branding? Let’s take a look

Thailand, a Buddhist country with reserved culture; plus, has a labor intensive economy (Taylor & Francis, 2017). Red Bull’s marketed role in Thailand is to be the energy and spirit for workers to be able to support their family (Ktd-spirit.com, 2017). This marketing scheme was effective because the concept of giving back and supporting one’s family/parents is culturally embedded in teachings to Thai people. Therefore, by utilizing the subconscious cultural logic of Thai people, it had become one of the most popular energy drink in Thailand. If you were to associate red bull with sports and cars like in the international brand image, Thai people will not relate to that sort of marketing scheme because of their reserved culture. If Thai people are really sporty and likes to adventure, then by now, the branding of Red Bull in Thailand would have already changed, but it didn’t.

On the other hand, in the international (western) market, where Red Bull made most of its fortune, the marketing scheme was adjusted to suit the adventurous and extreme culture of western people.

Therefore, as seen, having a marketing scheme that reflects the culture of the customer base is a crucial component in Red Bull’s success. This marketing phenomenon could be applied in any business; here are my two cents for marketing success:

1. The brand image must be understood throughout the corporation for all employees in every unit to work towards one common goal.
2. The business must be vigilant of the consumer behavior and culture that may change over time. It is crucial to assess the surroundings and adapt as necessary. The business should never be in standstill as success is never measured from one snapshot.

Sources:

Ktd-spirit.com. (2017). Kratingdaeng Spirit กระทิงแดง สปิริต จุดพลังใจ ขับเคลื่อนสังคมไทย. [online] Available at: http://www.ktd-spirit.com/home.php [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].

 Aaker, D. (2017). Red Bull: The Ultimate Brand Builder | Aaker on Brands. [online] Prophet Thinking. Available at: https://www.prophet.com/thinking/2013/05/140-red-bull/ [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].

 Taylor & Francis. (2017). Labor-intensive industries in middle-income countries: traps, challenges, and the local garment market in Thailand. [online] Available at: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13547860.2014.880283 [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].

Featured Image Source:

Traveldudes.org. (2017). The Original Red Bull in Thailand. [online] Available at: http://www.traveldudes.org/travel-tips/original-red-bull-thailand/62440 [Accessed 26 Sep. 2017].

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In every corporation, employees’ jobs are to perform their respective roles to strive for the success of the corporation. An interesting question to be asked is “what define the success?”  Often we hear people suggest that the success is all about delivering the maximum values to its stakeholders. To further probe – who are the stakeholders? Whose stakeholders’ interest that are relevant in this context? How Stakeholder Theory can be applied and why ethics is even relevant to the success of business corporations? Let’s examine a real example.

Uber, a very successful and innovative company achieves unbelievable growth without actually owning any cars/taxis. However, what we all initially saw was just the tip of an iceberg. Uber was very focused on delivering growth and service to its customers, but failed to recognize that its employees and business partners are important stakeholders too. Uber employees “hate their corporate culture” of competitiveness [,] peer harassment which resulted in departures of many senior managements/ employees,(Forbes.com, 2017) In a short run, Uber business may continue to grow. However, the sustainability of its business becomes questionable.

The question is thourough consideration given to these negative outcomes?  Did the corporation pay much attention to assess the impact to various stakeholders apart from their target customers? Was the ethics aspect even considered before the product was launched?

We could go on and on with similar examples that have happened with many successful companies who claimed that their goal was to maximize stakeholder value. In addition, they all are very ethical corporations. Yet, why all these are still happening?

I do agree with the stakeholder theory. However, the reality of the world can be very different when it comes to implementation. Success of a business is not just one snapshot but rather sustainable success is what really counts. The stakeholder’s interest are not always aligned. In addition, they change along with time. So how ones should deal with that?  Here are my solutions:

“Stakeholders” could be any of, or combination of, or all of the following; shareholders, business partners, suppliers, customers, social/communities, government agencies, its employees etc. So It all begins with having clear understanding of the business and defining the relevant stakeholders and their respective interests relating to such business or corporation in question.  Once this is well understood, clear communication and strong commitment throughout the organisation must be in place to set the goals that will the right balance of various stakeholders’ interests.

Lastly, it is the business’s responsibility to be vigilant of the stakeholder’s interest that may evolve overtime. Corporations shouldn’t see the world as standstill. Ones must always assess the surroundings and adapt as necessary to balance the priorities of stakeholders in order to keep the Sustainable Success.

Sources:

Stakeholdermap.com. (2017). Stakeholder Theory. [online] Available at: https://www.stakeholdermap.com/stakeholder-theory.html [Accessed 13 Sep. 2017].

Forbes.com. (2017). Forbes Welcome. [online] Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/alexkonrad/2017/04/07/uber-employees-hate-their-own-culture/#7053ac9b6f95 [Accessed 13 Sep. 2017].

Image source:

En.wikipedia.org. (2017). Stakeholder theory. [online] Available at: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_theory#/media/File:Stakeholder_(en).svg [Accessed 13 Sep. 2017].

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