Details of Corporate Social Responsibility initiatives
Etisalat Company has a presence in over 15 countries with a customer base of 125 million and a market value of about 23 billion. It operates under different brand names such as Mobily, Canar, Zantel, Thuraya, and Excelcomindo. The company makes contributions to a number of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) initiatives. In 2012, the company was involved in more than 35 community initiatives in the form of donations and funding of health, education, community, and charitable events. It has been at the forefront of using green technologies. The main goal of the company is to provide environmentally friendly solutions that aim at minimizing carbon emissions and energy consumption. The company initiated a CSR center in Nigeria.
The company initiated Adopt – A – School campaign. It is a private sponsorship program that supports schools in developing infrastructure, training teachers, offering financial support to students, and leadership training. Under this initiative, the company adopted 5 schools. In addition, the company initiated Careers Days and Camp Fire Nights. The aim of this initiative is to guide and support youth in their career life. In addition, the company has also initiated the Career Counseling Program. This initiative is run by employees of the organization. In this initiative, the staff members offer motivational talks on career development to students in various schools. They target the youth.
The company came up with a Fight Malaria Initiative to engage the community in combating malaria. Further, it came up with an initiative to combat malnutrition and ensure safe delivery for women. The entity also sponsored the Nigerian Idol which is a reality show in Nigeria. It also came up with a recycling initiative for women to recycle materials to produce environmentally friendly bags. It also introduced the ‘save water save life’ initiative In Egypt. This initiative provides clean water to the communities. Finally, the company organized various sporting initiatives such as cricket besides scholarship schemes. It is evident that in all the countries where the company has an outlet, there are CSR initiatives undertaken by Etisalat.
How the initiatives are being implemented
Etisalat relies on the partnership with various organizations to execute CRS initiatives. For instance, the company entered into a partnership with the United Nations Global Compact to introduce modern CSR such as cause-based CSR. The company takes part in the humanitarian and sustainable development of various communities. The company also entered into a partnership with institutions such as the Lagos Business School of the Pan African University to disseminate knowledge in the Etisalat CSR center. Further, the company collaborated with football clubs such as FC Barcelona to reward customers by watching FCB match in Spain.
The company also entered into a partnership with the governments and other state corporations to implement various initiatives such as the development of primary and secondary schools, provision of clean water to communities, provision of career counseling, and guidance counseling to youth among others. In addition, the company involves the staff members in the corporate social responsibility initiatives. For instance, staff members offer free career counseling to students in primary and secondary schools. Besides, the company engages the community in executing some initiatives. Examples of such initiatives are malaria, recycling wastes, and malnutrition campaigns. The community was expected to carry out some tasks to ensure the success of the initiatives. This promoted entertainment of the viewers.
Finally, the company collaborated with companies in the same industry, such as Qualcomm, to implement a number of initiatives such as health campaigns. Therefore, it is evident that the CSR initiatives organized by the company are successful because they engage the community and other interested parties in the implementation process.
Advantages of the initiatives for the organization and its stakeholders
Etisalat benefits immensely from various CSR initiatives. First, the initiatives have greatly increased the presence of the company in various regions including East Africa. This has enabled the company to grow rapidly. Secondly, CSR has enabled the company to grow the customer base rapidly and enhance customer loyalty. For instance, in regions such as Nigeria where Etisalat carried out several CSR initiatives the company has a large market share of up to 99%. Corporate Social Responsibility gives customers confidence in the company’s products because customers often want to be identified with the products of a company that cares about their other needs. Further, CSR has improved the relationship between the company, suppliers, and customers. Further, engagement of employees in the CSR initiatives has enabled the company to attract and retain experienced and qualified personnel, because the staff members feel that they are a part of the organization and the community where they come from. The CSR initiatives are undertaken by the company to improve the competitive advantage and reputation of the company in the region. This enables it to gain a large market share. In summary, an organization gains immensely from the CSR initiatives as they improve the profitability of the organization and increase the customer base.
Heavy involvement in Corporate Social Responsibility activities has been always a major concern for shareholders because they view it as a conflict of interest. Shareholders’ goal is to get a lot of returns in the form of dividends and the market price of the shares. Despite this conflict of interest, the shareholders also gain from CSR initiatives through the increased returns. Moreover, due to positive publicity and reputation, the market value of shares is likely to go up hence increased returns.
Advantages and disadvantages of the suppliers’ ethics test to Apple Organization
In the Apple organization, the management is keen on ensuring that its suppliers meet the standards outlined in the Suppliers Code of Conduct. This practice has a number of benefits for the organization. First, it ensures that the company receives quality goods since the supply chain is monitored and managed at all levels. A company that meets the outlined code of conduct is likely to produce quality goods. This in turn leads to the quality output of the organization as the aspects of efficiency and optimal operations will form the basis of production within acceptable factors of production. Also, vetting enables the company to comply with various regulatory requirements that ensure that the company and its clients are protected at legal and ethical levels. When suppliers are vetted against the prescribed code of conduct, the organization ensures that the suppliers comply with the regulatory requirements. This helps the organization to meet the regulatory requirements.
Vetting of suppliers helps the organization not to be involved in any fraudulent activity because vetting eliminates the possibility of engaging a supplier involved in deceptive activities. This minimizes fraudulent activities in the country that are likely to affect the business and entire supply chain negatively. Vetting of suppliers improves the employees’ welfare because instances of violation of employees’ welfare and remuneration are reported to the relevant authority in its proactive review channel. This improves customer loyalty to the organization’s products as they are assured of quality and safety issues. It also improves the reputation of the organization.
Moreover, vetting of suppliers enables the Apple organization to minimize risks that arise from dealing with suppliers such as incompetency, fraud, unreliability, poor quality, and unprofessionalism. The organization is able to shift risks and costs arising from losses from substandard goods supplied in scenarios where management makes representations on areas concerning the quality of the product. This reduces administrative costs while increasing the chances of the company’s profitability as the operations become streamlined. In addition, the organization is able to manage its supply chain efficiently. This improves efficiency in the production and procurement process in the organization. Finally, the vetting of suppliers improves transparency in the selection process of suppliers on a competitive basis.
There are a number of drawbacks of the vetting process to the organization. First, the process is very costly, that is why an organization cannot carry out frequent or widespread vetting of suppliers. The cost of vetting is shifted to the consumers through increased prices of the goods to recover the costs incurred by the vetting organization. Secondly, vetting increases bureaucracy in an organization. This might lead to delays in the production process as each stage requires approval before moving to another within the long chain of command. Finally, since the process of vetting is costly, an organization may narrow down its scope of operations. This compromises the quality of suppliers selected especially when the process is abused by external forces with a vested interest in the supply chain.
Generally, in the vetting process, ethics help in improving business relationships between the consumers and producers. It promotes fairness to all parties in a business since it dictates the accepted code of business interaction at all stages. Besides, it helps in improving the quality of goods and services provided to consumers through quality assurance vetting.