SoleRebels making the most of corporate social responsibility
Toms BOGO social movement
Social enterprises, Toms and SoleRebels, use “shoe power” to make the world a better place. Two companies share similar visions and missions — selling stylish and comfortable shoes in order to help the poor. While Toms adopts simple “Buy-One, Give-One” strategy, SoleRebels put more emphasis on creating shared values during the process of shoe-making.
Result-oriented v.s. Process-focused
Company’s objectives determine its business model. Blake Mycoskie built Toms after he witnessed many kids were shoeless thus weren’t allowed to go to school in Argentina. BOGO model was simple and efficient to achieve the goals of providing kids free shoes, since one purchase means one donation. On the other hand, Bethlehem Tilahun Alemu started SoleRebels with the aim of offering job opportunities to local artisans who had nowhere to apply their skills. In this regard, the business cared more about how its workers got paid and whether the cultural heritage were well kept in the manufacturing process. Paying workers three times more than the average wage in Ethiopia and covering healthcare and education fees for the workers1 were the best practice. As well, it created shared values along manufacturing by using recycled tires, which reduces ecological footprint to a large extent.
Differences regarding long-term effects
As Kelsey Timmerman (the New York Times Bestselling author of Where Am I Wearing?) discusses in his personal blog2, the differences between Toms and SoleRebels’s strategies come down to the “give a fish or teach how to fish” discussion. Timmerman argues that you give a kid shoes, they wear out or grow out of them, but if you give the kid’s parents a job, the whole family will always have shoes.
I find the analogy quite interesting and precise. In my opinion, Toms has good intention, but it doesn’t help fight poverty in the long run. The poor lack not only shoes/money but also the “infrastructure to create wealth”. Toms is socially conscious and creating a positive impact, but the impact is rather temporary. As we discussed in Comm 101 class, social enterprises are businesses that trade to tackle social problems3. SoleRebels’s model provides solutions to poverty: it gives local workers a fair pay, teaches them manufacturing skills and sends their children to school, all of which have long-lasting effects.
If you do something, do it correctly. If social enterprises decide to help, then they should use the resources most efficiently and make real changes.
Works Cited