Question

Define corporate social responsibility (CSR) in your own words.

Find a current event in the past 1-2 years in which a business either went above & beyond to demonstrate CSR, OR sorely failed to demonstrate CSR. Provide the name of the company & the good or bad deed. Do your findings change the way you will support the company in the future?

Answer 1

Corporate social responsibility helps companies to be accountable for society or surrounding; it is a self regulating business model of the companies. Company can contribute in CSR activity according to their choice and it help companies to gain the goodwill and competitive advantage. As we can understand by its name that the social responsibility of the corporate. According to the Companies Act, 2013, section 135, companies (CSR) rules, 2014 and schedule VII, it is mandatory for companies to invest 2% of their annual profit on CSR activity. As we all know that companies are doing harm to our environment and society by doing pollution, wastage, etc. so it is the responsibility of them that they provide some benefits to the society as well. Generally companies do corporate social responsibility activities to increase the goodwill or reputation of the company in the eyes of customers, and it will result into gaining competitive advantage.

Some companies which are doing CSR activities are as follows:-

1. Johnson & Johnson- they have focused on reducing their impact on the planet, provide safe water to communities around the world, reduce pollution, provide alternative to electricity.
2. Google- took environment friendly initiatives, renewable energy projects.
3. Ford Motor Company- use Eco-Boost engine to increase fuel efficiency, plan to introduce electrified vehicles.
4. Netflix and Spotify- offer benefits to employees like 52 weeks of paid paternal leave.
5. TOMS- donate a pair of shoes for every pair they sell to children in need, provide prescription glasses, medical treatment, and provide safe drinking water.

Tata Motors CSR activities 2017-18

1. Breaking the gender stereotypes- girls trained (in Automobile sector) at Little Flower institute in Kerala.
2. Tata Samarth Scholarship- the objective of this programme is to support bright young budding engineers from economically weak and socially disadvantaged sections of the society.
3. Amrutdhara- national drinking water programme for villages where scarcity of drinking water.
4. Day care centre at Patnagar- malnourished children are monitored regularly and receive monthly medical consultancy.
5. Over 23,000 students (9^th and 10^th standard) across 155 Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation School are coached in Mathematics, Science and English.
6. Vidyadhanam scholarship program for students run in collaboration with Government of Gujarat.
7. A Hybrid energy system is installed in Bhausaheb Raut Vidyalaya, Ghotawadi, Khed to meet the electricity and water needs of the school.

Yes, the findings change the way I will support the company in future. Everyone likes to do some social work and if we are not doing it directly we can do it indirectly by buying products from the companies which do CSR activities. It will also increase the goodwill of the company.

Company whose CSR activity gone wrong-

Volkswagen

The company deliberately set out to design a means to circumvent emission control with the aim of giving the company an unfair advantage over its competitors, on the basis of its supposedly environmentally friendly cars; it was poisoning the planet. After knowing that by the authorities that it pollute the planet, they did not take correct action.

Reference-

1. Corporate social responsibility report 2018 published by Tata Motors.
2. Official website of MCA (Ministry of Corporate Affairs)
3. Article “16 Brands doing corporate social responsibility successfully” by Clodagh O’ Brien
4. Article “Volkswagen and the failure of corporate social responsibility” by Enrique Dans published in Forbes magazine.