De Beers - Blood Diamonds Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

De Beers - Blood Diamonds - Essay Example After creation of social legislation in 1970s, employees, environment, and consumers are recognised as legitimate stakeholders of companies and every decision of the company must incorporate them. For instance, a firm involved in building a school for its workers children will be undertaking its social responsibility. In another case, by innovating in new ways of manufacturing its products that are friendlier to the environment, a company will also be undertaking its social responsibility as it maximises its profits. This paper discusses De beer-Black Diamonds company’s ways of undertaking its social responsibilities. Carroll Model Early theologians tried to define company social responsibility. For instance, J.M Clark emphasized the importance of transparency in business dealings and emphasized that men must take responsibility of their own actions whether the law recognised it or not (CSR Quest, 2012, P.1). In 1960, Keith Davis suggested that, â€Å"social responsibility re fers to businesses decisions and actions taken for reasons at least partially beyond the firm’s direct economic or technical interest† (CBE, 1991, P.1). Carroll Model is similar to the suggestions of these two theologians. He conceived CSR as divided into four obligatory parts namely, economic, legal, ethical, and discretionary. The major responsibility that shareholders vests on the company managers is to increase the economic value of their assets. Therefore, businesses must work hard to earn profits to keep the company going. In all its undertakings, the company must do so in accordance to the laws of the land. The third responsibility is for corporate companies to do what is right, just, fair, and avoid harm to employees and the neighbourhoods. Lastly, a corporate company is expected to contribute its resources towards improving the life of the surrounding community (Slide share, 2009, P.1). For instance, at the place of mining, there is no good Medicare for the min ers. A mining company may build a hospital or a community clinic where its workers can access medical services. Background Information of the Company De Beers is an international company that operates mines in South Africa, Tanzania, Botswana, Canada, and Namibia. It dominates the Diamond world in open-pit mining, underground, large-scale alluvial and deep-sea mining. It has existed for more than 100 years now and has spent lots of money to advertise the diamond products it produces as a symbol of love, purity, and beauty. De Beers acquired its monopolistic powers before the twentieth century via buying individual diamond dealers and spoiled the market for those who could not join in. However, this monopoly ended in 2000 after Russian entry in the market. De Beers Company employs about 20,000 employees around the world. It sells the rough diamonds through Diamond Trading Company and $5.9bn sales were recorded in 2007. The company sells its finished jewels through a joint venture wit h French Luxury Goods Products Today the company is acquiring a new name â€Å"Blood diamonds† or â€Å"conflict diamonds† since the African nation that hold most of its mining grounds want to reclaim their lands. There are so many disputes and blood shed over the mining grounds and it is believed that the weapon used in these fights comes from the west. According to Durham, â€Å"

Auto Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1250 words

Auto - Term Paper Example The â€Å"Big Three† of the auto industry are known as Ford, Chevy and Chrysler. The Big Three are shadowed by smaller auto companies such as Toyota and Nissan. These auto companies together make up the auto industry. The auto industry is one of the largest job providers since it provides over one million jobs in the United States. In November of 2010 the auto industry provided over 700,000 jobs (Linebaugh2010). It takes a strong industry to be able to provide that many jobs. An industry of that size is dependent on being organized in a manner that allows managers and CEO’s the resources needed to make strong business decisions. Events Leading Up To a Struggling Auto Industry Many factors played a role in allowing the auto industry to decline into its current position. In 2008 gas prices jumped to over $4.00 a gallon for most of the United States (U.S. Bureau of Labor and Statistics2011). The rise in gas prices nearly halted the production of vehicles that got terrible gas mileage. Many Diesels, SUV’s and large Trucks were no longer popular. Many just could not afford to use the vehicles because of the price of gas. Smaller options better on gas mileage were a new trend. Since the vehicles were not being sold, there was less of a need to manufacture the vehicles. Less manufacturing meant for less income and decisions to slow and shut down many manufacturing facilities. Globalization has allowed the auto industry to target markets throughout the whole world and not just the United States. The auto industry was more focused on setting up manufacturing facilities in other parts of the world and somewhat neglecting issues that were happening in their home country. Many are upset about allowing jobs to go oversees and will not even buy new vehicles from the auto makers. Decisions made to globalize the auto industry have put a damper on U.S. sales, jobs and reputation. This type of damage takes a lot of re organizing in order to return to a happy medium where business can boom and customers are satisfied. Current Situation of the Auto Industry, What went wrong? The current situation of the auto industry is somewhat of a mess. Stocks for the auto industry have declined, auto makers have filed bankruptcy and production has been drastically reduced. Chrysler which is one of the big three auto makers filed for bankruptcy in April of 2009 (Isodore2009). This bankruptcy was a final attempt to try and save the auto maker. Even after receiving a large bail out from the government, Chrysler was still unable to clear its deficit. Chrysler is not the only company caught up the mess of the auto industry. Bad manufacturing by Toyota has caused for those in authority positions to be forced to rethink ethical decisions about the quality of vehicles manufactured. Toyota had over 100 issues of vehicles causing accidents by the gas pedals getting stuck. This type of problem has reduced sales and could have been prevented by being better orga nized in Toyotas safety department. It is apparent that being better organized and prepared for rising gas prices and a decline in sales could have stopped the hurt of the situation that the auto makers are currently in. Being better prepared could have reduced the need for a government bailout. It would have been in the auto maker’s best interest to address the issue at the first sight of declining sales rather than pretending as if the fallout was not going to happen. Prevention would have lessened the impact on the rest