Monday, January 31, 2011

CSR: GE

Recently I read an article entitled as "CSR Doesn't Pay" written by David Vogel, a professor from University of California's Haas School of Business. In this article he wrote about CSR and how executive should behave because of it. That is to say, there are equal companies who are successful, and who are not successful, despite having slow/high CSR, so executives should strive to be more CSR but should not expect to become more successful than their competitors and should not expect there less responsible competitors to be punished. One reason which is attributed to this trend is simply the customers who care about CSR are greatly outweighed by the ones who don't.

I believe this is true. The way I see it, the biggest change will only occur when a significant portion of GE's customer push Congress for better CSR rewards and harsher punishments for companies which do not meet the minimum standard.

The reason I chose this article is because he gave a few examples of companies with high CSR and low. On such company was GE which is praised for having environmentally safe products and better energy efficient products as well.


GE's values and actions are as follows:
Passionate
Curious
Resourceful
Accountable
Teamwork
Committed
Open
Energizing
Imagine
Build
Solve
Lead

I think who ever created these values and actions are intelligent. They chose commendable words that makes GE appear like an incredible company. I see the last four words as the most important because they seem to inspire the most innovation. Enstien once said that innovation and imagination is more important than knowledge. Thus I attribute these values to America since we are the leading innovators of the world. So more or less, when GE emphasizes on these values I feel a strong connection to the company, not only because the values and actions are very real, but because they also represent how I want America to be represented.

1 comment:

  1. I think Corporate Social Responsibility is something all businesses should be aware of and try to emphasize in their actions because of the benefits associated with doing so, not only for the public at large, but for the company itself. If a socially responsible company makes a mistake-as long as the mistake is not irreparable or devastating-I think the general public is more likely to look favorably upon the business because of its dedication to society. A further benefit for a socially responsible company is the publicity it receives from doing various philanthropic services. If a consumer recognizes a company's name because she's read about its green initiative, she is more likely to purchase its products.

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