I am opposed to the ‘one for one’ business model because I think it is an unethical action. There are both positive and negative aspects of this ‘one for one’ model. But I feel that the negative aspects completely overtake the positive aspects. Charity and the act of helping others is a great action, but involving this into the business market is unethical.
The major people and groups that would be affected by the adoption of this model are: the main business adopting it, the local businesses, the poor people, the market in general. Lets see how the model would affect everyone. Adopting this model would definitely benefit Toms shoes by positive marketing as, with a desire to indirectly help the poor, people would tend to buy shoes from Toms. But at the same time, it would increase its costs of production and in turn lower its profits. It is essential for a business to lower its costs of production therefore I feel adopting the model would only provide short term benefits to the business and would just increase the total costs of production which makes it an infeasible option.
By providing products like shoes, eyeglasses, clothes, etc. to the poor, the problem of poverty cannot be solved. If the poor people are provided with many products, they would become dependent on such businesses which would act as a disincentive for them to work, which again makes the option infeasible. There are other ways in which poverty can be solved such as opening up hospitals, orphanages and other services.
Also, the local businesses who target lower classes of people would experience a downfall as the products they supply would be given out for free by businesses adopting the ‘one for one’ model. For instance, if people are getting free shoes from Toms then why would anyone pay to buy shoes from local businesses. This is unethical as it the bigger businesses would be disturbing the market completely for its competitors. These reasons make me inclined towards the model ‘None For One’.
Image Source: http://www.entrepreneurshiplife.com
