Essay Question "When companies embrace a powerful CSR cause and are truly passionate about it then business success in many forms will surely follow” Discuss

Introduction

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a hot topic in recent years. Some enterprises ignore long-term development in the pursuit of shareholders' interests and pose a threat to employees, consumers and even the sustainable development of the whole country. Based on the significance and importance of corporate social responsibility and some case studies, the paper analyses that when enterprises pay more and more attention to the fulfilment of CSR, enterprises will get more commercial successes. Comment by Andrew: Fair introduction- you state your case but you could go further and state more powerfully your conviction. Comment by Andrew: essay

Corporate Social Responsibility (CRS) management philosophy originates from the west, and with the further development of market economy, classical economics was born. Classical economic theory almost equates the function of enterprises in market economy to corporate social responsibility. In the 18th and 19th century, the early development of market economy due to the unbalanced economic development, but also because of charity is a traditional virtue. So the charity is considered to be the important social responsibility of enterprises. However, in the contemporary era, the economy has developed quite a bit, and people has diminishing expectation of economic development and pursue a higher quality of life. Society has more expectations of business and corporate social responsibility has a wider content including education, public health, employment, welfare, environmental protection, resources conservation and protection, etc. Comment by Andrew: CSR Comment by Andrew: ~You don’t need this history of CSR- only answer the question set: “When companies embrace a powerful CSR cause and are truly passionate about it then business success in many forms will surely follow”. Discuss. Comment by Andrew: Think also of sources such as : HANDY “WHAT’S BUSINESS FOR”? FRIEDMAN ARTICLES Perhaps also OBLIQUITY chapter on Blackboard.

Since the 1960s, there has been a gradual increase in the advocacy and support of CSR. The main characters include American management Andrews, Peter f. Drucker, Freeman, and Blair. They support CSR's point of view and basically has the following five aspects. Firstly, the enterprise for its own long-term interests should be responsible to the society, because many problems in the society and the enterprise's own affairs have a certain relationship, enterprises should play their part to solve these problems. Secondly, an enterprise should adjust their role and assume social responsibility or may threaten its own legitimacy. Thirdly, enterprises have the managerial talent, expertise and capital to solve many social problems, and some problems eventually need to be solved by enterprises. Fourthly, enterprises should take social responsibility to avoid possible government intervention and control and reduce cost pressures. Fifthly, enterprises have a moral obligation to assume social responsibilities, and the public generally supports enterprises to be responsible to society. Comment by Andrew: There is no point writing this descriptive information, just think about the material we have covered on the module and make use of it to answer: “When companies embrace a powerful CSR cause and are truly passionate about it then business success in many forms will surely follow”. Discuss. SO in other words show how CSR can lead to business success. Obvious case-studies here include: SAFARICOM KENCO LEVIS

In the era of globalization, the challenge of running a business is getting bigger and bigger. Managers should not only achieve economic goals, but also benefit all stakeholders. In other words, managers have to make clean money not only for shareholders, but also for the benefit of the whole society. For example, a CEO maybe needs to answer the question at any time: is the company's presence beneficial to the community? Has the company improve the environment? Did the company do some things against the moral, not just to obey the law? Comment by Andrew: Poorly informed- you must show where idea are coming from. You would really do better to make use of the module reading-list and the cases and other material in Blackboard folders.

What's more, if you ignore these things, it will be harder and harder to make money. Former Hewlett-Packard CEO Carly Fiorina had failed to achieve business goals, but she said a sentence about Corporate Social Responsibility, this sentence is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people in the business world: CSR is not independent of the business objectives, is an important part of business objectives. Think about it, is there any big oil company would dare to sink an abandoned drilling rig into the ocean today?

At the same time, many studies have shown that it is not contradictory for enterprises achieve economic goals and social goals at the same time. Enterprise can get real benefits from CSR. Such as expanding sales and market share, enhance brand and influence, reduce operational costs (AD spending less because of good reputation), increase attracting talent and the ability of investors, and so on. More and more operators are beginning to believe that it is the trend of the company to run the company and meet the economic, environmental and social standards, which is the "must do" for the future enterprise. Globally, we do see that more companies to make donations, the amount of donation continues to increase, more and more companies release social responsibility report regularly. It is encouraging that many multinationals are starting to take social responsibility from their "duty" to a strategic level that supports corporate goals.

For example, Mercy Corps advocates "the world will change because of your support.” Since 1979, mercy corps has sponsored more than $1 billion in 81 countries. As an international non-profit humanitarian aid organization, mercy corps is committed to helping people in the world who are suffering, poor. As a member of the international humanitarian aid family, more than 2,100 staff members in the mercy corps are distributed in more than 35 countries are rescuing about 7 million people. Comment by Andrew: This is another example of description not answering the question, it isn’t even a business and doesn’t state how business success follows so is really of limited value. Remember the question to answer is: “When companies embrace a powerful CSR cause and are truly passionate about it then business success in many forms will surely follow”. Discuss.

In conclusion, All this seems to show that CSR is both a must and a worthwhile thing to do and it is an opportunity and a way for the enterprise to achieve its business objectives. Companies do CSR in different ways, they can support public welfare activities held by other institutions and can be directly involved in the charities and volunteer activities and can also be held in public welfare undertakings and social marketing, even implementaing independent business practices and investment. But no matter what kind of form, a shrewd entrepreneur should learn how to choice, like how to choose strategic areas which suit their own values and how to choose social activities that can support enterprise manage goals and select the theme of the most concerned by the community, customers and employees and so on. Comment by Andrew: The formative is poor. Take note and act on the advice above. USE the material on the reading-list and in folders- they will help you answer the question (and in addition of course find some additional sources). “When companies embrace a powerful CSR cause and are truly passionate about it then business success in many forms will surely follow”. Discuss.