Corporate Social Responsibility

The task of corporate social responsibility is to prevent morally reprehensible practices, which can weaken society, damage companies and hurt employees. More and more companies have realized the relevance of moral practices in the business, even though they have not always sufficiently implemented CSR, yet. Concrete preventative measures are often labeled ‘risk management,’ a term more commonly used for avoiding financial risk and damage to a company’s reputation. Thus, companies define clear rules, so-called ‘compliance’ or ‘value-management’ systems. However, those are only one aspect of corporate social responsibility: CSR is not just about preventing ‘bad practices,’ like corruption and fraud and so on. 

There is no doubt that compliance management could be an efficient control mechanism in organizations, but companies can contribute to a good society through good business practices. CSR is about how companies make profits, not about how they spend them and it demands systemic changes in a market economy. Companies most not only become economic, but also moral actors. It requires an important and strong integrative perspective: Social and ecological criteria must be taken into consideration. We need employees of integrity at all levels of the company, and we also need organizational structures and clear rules. CSR is concerned with both individuals and institutional structure and ethics through questions of justification and implementation. 

Hire a Scrapper: Hire Me!

Why the best hire might not have the perfect resume by Regina Hartley. 

Your company is launching a search for an open position. The applications start rolling in, and the qualified candidates are identified. Now the choosing begins.

·      Person A: Ivy League, 4.0, flawless resume, great recommendations. All the right stuff.

·      Person B: State school, fair amount of job-hopping and odd jobs like cashier and singing waitress.

Both are qualified.

Who are you going to pick?

Terms to describe two distinct categories of candidates:

·      A, ‘the Silver Spoon,’ is the one who clearly had advantages and was destined for success.

·      B, ‘the Scrapper,’ is the one who had to fight against tremendous odds to get to the same point.

            A resume tells a story, and people’s experiences read like a patchwork quilt that makes us stop and fully consider them before tossing their resumes away. A series of off jobs may indicate inconsistency, lack of focus, unpredictability. Or, it may signal a committed struggle against obstacles.

At the very least, the Scrapper deserves an interview.

Getting into and graduating from an elite university takes a lot of hard work and sacrifice. But if your whole life has been engineered toward success, how will you handle the tough times?

On the flip side, what happens when your whole life is destined for failure and you actually succeed? I want to urge you to interview the Scrapper.

As I met successful business people and read profiles of high-powered leaders, I noticed some commonality. Many of them had experienced early hardships, anywhere from poverty, abandonment, death of a parent while young, to learning disabilities, alcoholism and violence. However, during studies of dysfunction, data revealed an unexpected insight: Even the worst circumstances can result in growth and transformation. A remarkable and counterintuitive phenomenon has been discovered, which scientists call Post Traumatic Growth.

Entrepreneurs who experience post-traumatic growth, view disability as a desirable difficulty, which provided them an advantage because they became better listeners and paid greater attention to detail. They don’t think they are who they are in spite of adversity, they know who they are because of adversity. They embrace their trauma and hardships as key elements of who they’ve become, and know that without those experiences, they might not have developed the muscle and grit required to become successful.

Scrappers are propelled by the belief that the only person you have full control over is yourself. When things don’t turn out well, Scrappers ask, ‘What can I do differently to create a better result?’ Scrappers have a sense of purpose that prevents them from giving up on themselves.

Moreover, Scrappers know that humor gets you through the tough times, and laughter helps you change you perspective.

And finally, there are relationships. People who overcome adversity don’t do it alone. Somewhere along the way, they find people who bring out the best in them and who are invested in their success. Having someone you can count on no matter what is essential to overcoming adversity.

Focus on the future and don’t dwell on the past.

Companies that are committed to diversity and inclusive practices tend to support Scrapers and outperform their peers.

Choose the underestimated contender whose secret weapons are passion and purpose. Hire the Scrapper.

Given the choice between a job candidate with a perfect resume and one who has fought through difficulty, human resources executive Regina Hartley always gives the "Scrapper" a chance. As someone who grew up with adversity, Hartley knows that those who flourish in the darkest of spaces are empowered with the grit to persist in an ever-changing workplace.

The Death of Packaged Food

The Death of Packaged Food

The past few decades have witnessed a growing preference for healthier products, and it is reshaping the food and beverage industry. In a severe public health fight, consumers demand natural, organic, and healthy food products, and those healthy habits are eating into the packaged foods industry.

Packaged goods companies have always played in the middle of the supermarket. The trend toward wholesome eating is shifting shoppers to the perimeter of the store, where the fruits, the vegetables and the protein sit. Consumers want to eat healthy and are shopping fresh. America’s largest packaged foods companies are running up against their shelf life.

As the demand for natural foods has grown, it is hurting packaged-goods companies that do not have a presence in the outer aisles of the store. In response, the bigger packaged-goods companies are moving their products as much as possible to the perimeter of the store by buying out smaller, natural food companies. For example, a few years ago, in a world where consumers were shunning canned soup, Campbell’s acquired Boathouse, Boathouse sells bottled juices but they actually sit in the perimeter of the store. Therefore, Campbell’s can have a presence in this hot area with consumers. The company’s management is quickly making moves to adapt to a difficult environment, and reshaping itself as consumers change their eating patterns.

While Campbell’s outlook was disappointing, surprisingly enough, Campbell’s revenue and profit both surpassed analysts’ expectations for the quarter, leading to the stock to rise on Friday, May 22, 2015. However, some of the company’s products are falling worldwide, and Campbell’s is challenged to cook up new products that will make up for the falling interest in canned soups.

The companies have faced many problems recently, including a strong dollar that has made their products more expensive, but those are temporary challenges they have overcome before. Their real problem is much tougher and permanent: eating habits are changing, and they are having a hard time keeping up. An evolution will occur both from a retail perspective in the supermarket, and also with these big legacy companies. These companies are aware that this is not a fad and rather a real shift in consumer habits, and they are going to remake their portfolios and their products.

http://www.usatoday.com/videos/money/business/2015/05/21/27703587/