学进去

We asked four people who graduated from the Williams Business and Accountancy School what corporate responsibility means to them.

I know that some corporations claim to be bringing huge benefits to local people, and maybe some are. However, in other cases, they’re paying low wages or undercutting small, family-run firms who can’t compete. It may not be a pretty image, but that’s the nature of capitalism. I’d like to hope I won’t end up as part of this process, but I suspect it’s inevitable. Essentially, your biggest responsibility is ultimately to return value to your stakeholders. Positive employee relations are desirable, but not actually a legal requirement in many countries.

Thanks to my sister, I’ve recently had a shift in thinking. As far as corporate responsibility is concerned, I no longer doubt it. Christina recently transferred to an overseas branch. She was surprised and delighted to discover the branch was running local programmes to improve basic literacy skills amongst employees as well as to conserve the environment. She’s now currently retraining as a teacher and moving over to that side of things. Now that I’ve seen this side of corporate responsibility, I’ve been persuaded to give it a go myself in later life, although I’ll stick to Plan A and pursue a solid career in finance for a few years first.

For me, what it comes down to is sustainability. Whatever your product, it shouldn’t have a harmful effect on the planet. Many companies make a big noise about how much cash they give away to charity, but they should make changes in the way they make their profits in the first place. Quite aside from the ethical arguments, there’s also a sound commercial reason here. These days the consumer has access to far more information than ever before thanks to the internet, so if something bad goes viral, it’ll destroy a reputation forever. Companies are well aware of that. For that reason, more are starting to face up to their responsibility—or so they claim.

In the USA, corporations often support community development projects by donating books or equipment to schools. However, this apparent altruism (利他主义) is not all it claims to be. There’s a large grey area between corporate giving and company branding. Nowadays every corporate website includes a summary of so-called ‘core values’; vague descriptions of how they’re ‘giving back’ to society. I can’t help thinking they’re unclear for a reason and that it’s all just for good PR. I’m particularly annoyed by the claims of fast-food companies. They pretend to be concerned with obesity (肥胖) levels while promoting special offers on larger portions. The hidden agenda is clearly to boost profit. It’s an insult to consumer intelligence.