Run Enron

Enron was a well-known company in the 1900s. In fact, it was even named as “America’s Most Innovative Company” numerous times back then. However, due to a certain scandal, the company just fell apart, bringing majority of its stakeholders down with them.

Courtesy of Google Images

Enron’s downfall was mostly due to the greed and corruption of its higher ups. All they thought of was to increase their money without thinking of what may happen to the future of the company. They altered their financial statements making others believe that they were actually still performing well, but in fact, their debts were already exceeding their assets which wasn’t really good. Their devious plan actually worked but it didn’t last long. So when the time came when they got busted, numerous stakeholders got affected including their employees and other large companies.

Their desire to attain more money through defrauding left a negative impact to their stakeholders and the company itself and sadly, this craving still exists in most businesses today. To solve this problem, we as future business leaders, should not focus too much on profit. We should learn how to manage our businesses well and remember that there are other stakeholders involved whenever we make certain decisions. So whenever we plan on making business decisions, we also have to think about the other parties involved.

UNIQLO

Photo courtesy of Google.com

I used to think that CSR was only practiced by a few businesses but it turns out, there are actually numerous companies who practice this, both inside and outside the country. One company I would like to advertise would be the well-known Japanese clothing enterprise, Uniqlo.

Uniqlo offers a lot of CSR Programs as of the moment. One of these would be the "All-Product Recycling Initiative" wherein the company would accept shirt donations previously purchased by their old customers for the purpose of sorting and delivering to the people in need throughout the world.

Photo courtesy of Uniqlo.com

Another program they focused on was the formation of social businesses to help alleviate poverty, with support from the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh. This initiative seems really promising for I believe that those in need may be given jobs and may provide for themselves as time passes by.

Finally, their major project would have to be Clothes For Smiles, a CSR initiative which aims to bring smiles to children's faces and giving them tools for a brighter future. Together with professional tennis player Novak Djokovic and UNICEF, the company provided a $10 million fund so that the children who would be the recipients of the benefits could follow their dreams in the future.

To learn more about their CSR initiatives, you could visit the official Uniqlo website:
http://www.uniqlo.com/ph/corp/csr.html