Company Overview
In modern day organisations, it is important that there is also a very strong focus on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). The CSR policy and practise of organisations have gained strong traction over the last two decades, as organisations have gained understanding that being socially responsible is one of the key and important points in their overall strategic goals. Apple Incorporation is an American multinational technical giant which has a strong presence across the globe (Singh, BJR & Kaur, 2016). The company is one of the largest players in the technology segment and has very strong presence across global markets. In the year Apple Incorporation had $229 billion in revenue and net income of $48 billion. There were some $123,000 employees working for the company at the end of year 2017 (Research-methodology, 2018). The company has come a long way from where it started in year 1976 by Steve Jobs and some of his friends out a garage. In most of the segments where the company operate in, it has strong product and segment leadership. The major line of hardware products offered by the company are iPhone smartphone, iPad in tablet market, Mac in space of personal computer, iPod in portable music segment, Apple watch in space of wearable, Apple TV in space of digital media player and MacBook in the laptop segment (Carroll, RJ, Primo, DM & Richter, 2016). The brand positioning of the company is in space of luxurious premium product, hence customer has very strong attachment to the whole set of product lines offered.
Apple Incorporation is globally famous for designing, making and production of best qualities products in most of the segments where it is present. There are some online software services in form of App Store, iTunes and iCloud services which are also offered by the company. In the smartphone market, Apple on terms of revenue is the second largest player post Samsung Incorporation of Korea (Habel, Schons, LM, Alavi, & Wieseke, 2016). The biggest USP of the company is the kind of brand Loyalty Company has been able to build up among its consumers. The focus of this paper will be on exploring the Corporate Social Responsibility side of Apple incorporation. The company is highly focussed on this objective and has done some good work in this space. One of the important considerations to work towards the CSR function of the company is to enhance its goodwill and bring forward a positive aspect about the brand (Williams, 2018). It helps in establishing the company is socially responsible brand and hence in turn helps in building sustainable future for the company (Asgary, Li, 2016).
Importance of CSR for Modern-day Organizations
Apple Incorporation has very strong focus on CSR and hence has developed strong plans and policies around this subject. For an organisation of this size it is very important that CSR practises are embedded in the policies and culture of the company so that it can function in a proper manner. The CSR policies of the company’s focus in providing secure and socially responsible environment under which the corporation can operate. It is also important to have aspects of giving it back to society in a responsible manner so that a positive environment is developed along with operations of the company. The objective of such policies developed by Apple Incorporation is to make effective plans for social and environmental welfare (Kaymak, T. & Bektas, 2017). According to various industry experts, it has been suggested that companies should have CSR agenda’s in their top strategic priorities. CSR would help in goodwill enhancement and help in building brand for future. It has been seen in the current world, which is so much socially connected it is not only profit and numbers which build future of companies. It is their willingness to give back to society, how they are perceived as brands and various other intangible factors which go in making of the brand. These factors and their impact are generally not quantifiable, but their impact is certainly important and has power to go a long way in development of sustainable corporations. Apple can also take some concrete steps by means of which they can develop the brand further. Apple incorporations should work towards socially responsible reporting, adopting GRI framework for reporting and focus on overall development of sustainable organisation. Some considerations in product pricing for certain segment is very important, considering that next set of growth for the company would only come from population which are not so privileged (Larker, Tayan, 2015).
Some of the concepts on which the CSR policies are developed are to manage reputational risk of the company, protecting and building brand equity of the corporation, effective utilization of the resources which are in disposal and framing the company is socially responsible corporation. It also helps if such image is developed in getting government approval for operations (Gereffi, Lee, 2016).
The Social equity angle which is created by such activities goes far into the whole business strategy of the company. In last 10 years Apple Incorporation has done a lot to build a very strong brand and some of it has also come by means of doing lot of work in space of CSR. Since Apple is a big company, its duties and responsibilities towards social objectives is very important (Tricker, R.B & Tricker, 2015). Some of the common risks which Apple incorporation faces if CSR activities are not in place include maintaining challenges related to labour and human rights. There have been many companies which have globally lost lot of brand equity because there has been complain and rumours about these companies being operating sweat shops in emerging or underdeveloped regions. CSR activities also involve lot of positively enforced engagement with the stakeholders, so that all of them feel involved in the whole process. It has been seen that there has been some complains about Apple Incorporation not involving with environment related concerns and socially impacted bottom work force (Chen, S., 2018). The CSR team has also seen some not so important team members and hence there have been issues in carrying out things in systematic manner. It has been said by experts that Apple incorporation has dated approach towards CSR and hence there are no holistic decisions taken by the company for the long run in space of CSR.
CSR Profile of Apple Inc.
There has been no sustainability report released by Apple Incorporation. GRI reports are released globally which ranks global corporations in space of the activities done by the company in space of CSR and governance. This kind of ranking determines the brands which are working towards long term sustainability. Apple incorporation being such a large global brand finds no place in such rankings. Apple incorporations also does not involve all other stakeholders in the process and this is the prime reason why there is no details shared about the suppliers or the supply chain of the company. The same is hidden in name of trade secrets of the corporation; however it does not augment well about the company in space of social responsibility (Tsutsui, K. & Lim, 2015).
Stakeholder theory suggests that if one company follow all view of different stakeholders in the company, then there would be no need of any other apparent policy for a particular stakeholder. In this section we will try to focus on all stakeholders of the company and explore from their perspective the kind of work done by the company in the whole CSR space. Stakeholder management in one of the most important exercise which a company does so that all stakeholders are in the right frame of mind and company is going in the right direction.
The stakeholders in turn help up framing the right strategy for CSR of the company as they are hearing things about the brand and have best interest of the company in their mind (Lampert, 2016). For an organisation of this size it is very important that CSR practises are embedded in the policies and culture of the company so that it can function in a proper manner. The CSR policies of the company’s focus in providing secure and socially responsible environment under which the corporation can operate. It is also important to have aspects of giving it back to society in a responsible manner so that a positive environment is developed along with operations of the company. The objective of such policies developed by Apple Incorporation is to make effective plans for social and environmental welfare.
Employee: These are the set of people who makes the company. As part of CSR it is important that Apple incorporation work in sync with the global best practises of labour management and implement them in their factory. The safety standards of the corporation and work environment is of utmost importance along with the minimum work hours, effective remuneration in line with the best practises globally and good strong HR practises. In short it is important that strong HR practises are executed in the organisation so that sustainable work environment is available in the company (Sodhi, 2015). Strong HR practises go a long way in building effective environment for executing strong CSR practises of the company. Apple incorporation has been facing some legal issues in space of violation of labour and human rights. These set of problems dilute the image of the company (Fisher, 2014).
Stakeholder Mapping and Perspectives
Suppliers: These are the set of people who provides the raw materials which are used by the company for product development. For socially responsible corporations like Apple, it is important that the whole value chain of the company grows along with them. If these set of people are growing and are getting right treatment, then companies tend to get whole set of advantage in their operations. Relation with suppliers is very important as it helps in building right kind of brand equity. It is very important for companies to develop partnership with suppliers and treat them in the right manner (Ali, A.J & Al-Ali, 2018).
Customers: For any company these are the set of people who are most important. The complete focus of corporations is expected to be on them and their welfare. Apple customers are generally happy bunch of people as they are treated very well by the company, however the price tag associated with the brand is huge and hence there have been concerns of the kind of responsibility Apple is delivering to its customers. The brand image created by Apple Incorporation has a belief that product offered by company is only for high class people and hence this disparity exhibited by the brand towards the customer segment is not appreciated (Backer, 2018).
It is also very important to understand that, CSR policies are also a function of the geography in which the company is operating. In some countries, Government and regulators force rules on company to do some activities in space of CSR (Apple, 2018). For example, In India operating companies in the country need to spend 2% of the whole profit earned in the region on CSR activities (Zadek, 2018).
Hence for Apple incorporation, apart from the global top level policy which defines the terms under which they operate, there are certain local adaptations which the company had to make so that they are following the law of the land and doing right work in the process. Government of UK has strong rules in space of employee policies and their welfare and hence Apple Incorporations had to make sure that employees get best of treatment in this region so that no rules are flouted. In India, new government over the years have asked companies to work with the whole supply chain and there are rules related to CSR spend, local sourcing norms which the company need to follow. Apple incorporation has not been able to open local manufacturing units in India as they are not ready to meet the sourcing norms (Graf, 2016). Since these products in India need to be imported, the prices are very high and hence they are losing with the competition. This is a perfect example of how companies lose in market share and success is limited, because of their down the line strategy in CSR space. Apple incorporation has been in constant negotiation with Indian Government to relax the local sourcing norms set by them. The local sourcing norms are in line with the Government objective to develop socially responsible corporations and also provide much needed thrust to global manufacturing industry (Day, 2014).
Recommendations for Improvement
Over the years Apple incorporation has realised the importance of CSR in their whole policy making and this is one of the reason in why such mentions are coming in Apple Keynote address over the years. There has been hint of environmental campaigns in the product launch address and Apple incorporation has subtly started working towards enhancing the brand image of the company. In its stated investor press conferences, Apple has highlighted that sustainability is a very important goal which the company wants to achieve over the years. The company has introduced strong new innovative technology by means of which they are trying to be responsible in their product units toward the environment (Gkatziaki, Papadopoulos, Diplaris & Kompatsiaris, 2017). The launch of new operating system by the company promises to be more energy efficient which is again a socially responsible decision by the company. The Apple incorporation annual reports highlight that operating systems of Apple incorporations have reduced energy usage by 57% between 2009 and 2015 (Williams, 2015).
Apple incorporations has recently also reported that they don’t use any harmful products in their product manufacturing process. This is also considered to be one good way of working in responsible manner (Lawson, 2015). Apple incorporation has also included a process to measure carbon usage while production and have efficiently reduced the usage over the years. This is also considered to be an important factor in measuring the impact on environment which company’s creating. The company has also been using soil and climate measurement tool which helps in making orderly measurement and then work on doing things efficiently. The company has also worked with employees and raise awareness within the employee force to be environmentally responsible (Flammer, Kacperczyk & A.L.E.K.S.A.N.D.R.A, 2015). They have urged employees to travel to office via carpool, bicycle and promoted usage of bio-fuel buses. This kind of focus on environment has helped corporations develop sustainable practises towards preservation of environment (Maon, Lindgreen, 2015).
In last few years, Apple incorporation has worked toward the employee engagement process and also worked on bringing salaries and offering at par with the industry standards. This had some cost impact on the company but since the margins are very high in the space which company operates it is in long term a movement towards sustainability. The company has also worked closely with employees to develop training modules and enhance their career opportunities. This in turn will help employees work closely with employer and better trust schema would be established. Some of the common risks which Apple incorporation faces if CSR activities are not in place include maintaining challenges related to labour and human rights. There have been many companies which have globally lost lot of brand equity because there has been complain and rumours about these companies being operating sweat shops in emerging or underdeveloped regions. CSR activities also involve lot of positively enforced engagement with the stakeholders, so that all of them feel involved in the whole process. It has been seen that there has been some complains about Apple Incorporation not involving with environment related concerns and socially impacted bottom work force
Conclusion
Apple Incorporation has taken up many projects in space of CSR and these programmes have gone a long way in development of the practises. All these projects fall in certain set of categories like education, vocational skill development, environment sustainability, promotion of gender equality, providing preventive healthcare solutions and imparting information about the same, funding various technology incubators and working with them as partners, relief to various communities and providing financial assistance to various NGO’s and working closely with them. Some of the key projects which company has worked upon include primary level education development in India, Supporting technology incubators in Indonesia and India, special education in Caribbean region and also in India (Carroll, Buchholtz, 2015).
In 2018, Apple has released supplier responsibility report which is first of its kind in industry. Apple incorporation in this report has highlighted how they work closely with suppliers and hence helping them in growth across the supply chain. The top down development is very important and what work Apple has done in this space is highlighted in this report. The company holds its suppliers to the highest standards and hence any work in space to impart support and information will help in meeting proper requirements. The company has also talked about environment preservation in this report and it is considered to be the central theme on which this reporting has been done. The company has also led down strong supplier code of conduct which will help them in setting proper standards and methods in which the work is done (Wheeler, 2015). As per current situation, there are some more than 3 million people in the whole supply chain who in some way or the other are impacted by the policy making at Apple Incorporation. There are some 14.7 million supplier employees who have been trained by Apple since 2007 (Lee, 2017). The company has also introduced various healthcare programs and the focus is on empowering women. The outreach program focusses on women’s as they are the ones who can have impact to more than 4 or 5 members in the family. This is the background on which Apple incorporation has started empowering women in China (Williams, 2015). The company has set a goal to bring health awareness among 1 million people by 2020 and work in congruence with them. The company has also started Supplier Employee Education development (SEED) program under which since 2008 some 3.1 million employees of suppliers have participated and around 14.7 million employees across the supply chain has been trained. There are some 12000 such employees who have also been given degree which can help them in career development and progress. They also provide various vocational and skill development training which also helps in making such people employable across the value chain (Rühmkorf, 2017).
The company has also started responsible raw material sourcing program under which responsible ways are used in sourcing minerals for production. The company mapped its whole supply chain in 2010 from manufacturing to the ultimate raw material which is sourced from a particular location. This kind of mapping helped company in identifying the kind of impact they are having on environment. Once this data was readily available, the next step was to improve upon the sourcing policy and usage policy; this will help in reduction of wastage and proper utilisation of resources at disposal (Sitnikov, Bocean, 2017).
In the long run, Apple incorporations can do a lot more towards their CSR practises. Their products are industry leaders and encouragement towards usage of the same in under privileged student community would help in developing future generations. Some considerations in product pricing for certain segment is very important, considering that next set of growth for the company would only come from population which are not so privileged. One another problem area which Apple can focus on is development of stakeholder involvement. Apple’s approach has been towards centralization of decision making and hence any result making can upset many stakeholders in the company. This kind of governance environment is not encouraged, and it is important that decision making involves more stakeholders. The company need to adopt strong triple line foundations which will help them in meeting the stakeholder requirements and will also involve them in decision making process (Ryznar, Woody, 2014). Hence for Apple incorporation, apart from the global top level policy which defines the terms under which they operate, there are certain local adaptations which the company had to make so that they are following the law of the land and doing right work in the process. Government of UK has strong rules in space of employee policies and their welfare and hence Apple Incorporations had to make sure that employees get best of treatment in this region so that no rules are flouted. In India, new government over the years have asked companies to work with the whole supply chain and there are rules related to CSR spend, local sourcing norms which the company need to follow. Apple incorporation has not been able to open local manufacturing units in India as they are not ready to meet the sourcing norms (Graf, 2016). Since these products in India need to be imported, the prices are very high and hence they are losing with the competition.
According to various industry experts, it has been suggested that companies should have CSR agenda’s in their top strategic priorities. CSR would help in goodwill enhancement and help in building brand for future. It has been seen in the current world, which is so much socially connected it is not only profit and numbers which build future of companies. It is their willingness to give back to society, how they are perceived as brands and various other intangible factors which go in making of the brand. These factors and their impact are generally not quantifiable, but their impact is certainly important and has power to go a long way in development of sustainable corporations. Apple can also take some concrete steps by means of which they can develop the brand further. Apple incorporations should work towards socially responsible reporting, adopting GRI framework for reporting and focus on overall development of sustainable organisation. Some considerations in product pricing for certain segment is very important, considering that next set of growth for the company would only come from population which are not so privileged. One another problem area which Apple can focus on is development of stakeholder involvement. Apple’s approach has been towards centralization of decision making and hence any result making can upset many stakeholders in the company. This kind of governance environment is not encouraged, and it is important that decision making involves more stakeholders. The company need to adopt strong triple line foundations which will help them in meeting the stakeholder requirements and will also involve them in decision making process.
Conclusion
In last few years, Apple incorporation has worked toward the employee engagement process and also worked on bringing salaries and offering at par with the industry standards. This had some cost impact on the company but since the margins are very high in the space which company operates it is in long term a movement towards sustainability. The company has also worked closely with employees to develop training modules and enhance their career opportunities. This in turn will help employees work closely with employer and better trust schema would be established. Some considerations in product pricing for certain segment is very important, considering that next set of growth for the company would only come from population which are not so privileged. One another problem area which Apple can focus on is development of stakeholder involvement. Apple’s approach has been towards centralization of decision making and hence any result making can upset many stakeholders in the company. This kind of governance environment is not encouraged, and it is important that decision making involves more stakeholders. Apple incorporation has also included a process to measure carbon usage while production and have efficiently reduced the usage over the years. This is also considered to be an important factor in measuring the impact on environment which company’s creating. The company has also been using soil and climate measurement tool which helps in making orderly measurement and then work on doing things efficiently.
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