Should Businesses Take the Lead in Social Responsibility
xxx company: we will donate 5% of our profit for every bag we sell to the starving children in Ethiopia . then there may be some pictures of the poor little kids looking at you with sad eyes hoping that you will help them. this is a common tactic used by companies.on the surface you will think that wow the company is so kind hearted i must buy more to help the little kids but behind the scenes, there are scheming corporate heads who just want to make use of such things to earn more profit. so should businesses take the lead in social responsibility the answer is no of course if you only consider this. however, the world is much more complicated and so is this situation. sure their reasons are wrong but they are much more effective than NGOS and governments in helping the poor and engaging the masses. furthermore since there is no use crying over spilt milk, the ones causing the most problems, businesses should take the lead to solve and prevent them . thus i believe that business should take the lead in social responsibilities.
Plutarch the legendary ancient writer who among other great leaders wrote of Cimon. In Plutarch’s words “he had all the fences on his fields taken down so that not only poor Athenians but even strangers could help themselves freely to whatever fruit was in season”. There was no hidden agenda in cimon’s actions, he purely wanted to help the less fortunate. That should be the only reason behind social responsibility. However, can this ever be the only reason to be socially responsible when it comes to profit maximising businesses? No, definitely not possible. being socially responsible has unfortunately become a excellent marketing strategy used by many companies, especially when the company pledges to give a certain amount of money for every X amount it earn, it also helps to build a good reputation for the company.Even a child can tell you that when we help someone, we should not be expecting anything in return. Yet, companies are
Plutarch the legendary ancient writer who among other great leaders wrote of Cimon. In Plutarch’s words “he had all the fences on his fields taken down so that not only poor Athenians but even strangers could help themselves freely to whatever fruit was in season”. There was no hidden agenda in cimon’s actions, he purely wanted to help the less fortunate. That should be the only reason behind social responsibility. However, can this ever be the only reason to be socially responsible when it comes to profit maximising businesses? No, definitely not possible. being socially responsible has unfortunately become a excellent marketing strategy used by many companies, especially when the company pledges to give a certain amount of money for every X amount it earn, it also helps to build a good reputation for the company.Even a child can tell you that when we help someone, we should not be expecting anything in return. Yet, companies are