Essence of Corporate Social Responsibility and CSR Coursework

Essence of Corporate Social Responsibility and CSR - Coursework Example CSR can be defined a commitment made by a company towards the stakeholder to operate in an environmentally, socially and economically sustainable fashion. CSR seeks to integrate workplace culture, communities and human rights to business strategies. In the initial days the many used to treat CSR as arm chair philanthropy, however things have changed drastically. It is treated as an integral part of the overall business strategy. In order to discuss the focal points related to CSR two companies have chosen in the form of Philip Morris and Starbucks. Philip Morris is one of largest tobacco companies. It includes seven leading international brands that include Marlboro, the top most cigarette brand in the world. Starbucks one the other hand is a global coffee chain. They are based on Seattle, Washington. It is also the largest coffeehouse company. It has over twenty thousand stores and operates in over sixty countries. Starbucks shops provide a wide range of products including hot and c old coffee, pastries, snacks, etc. As it can be seen that two companies with distinct product mix and different business model has been chose. The main objective of such choice is to demonstrate the importance and benefits of CSR across various industries. Add to it must be mentioned that as per research the key focal points of CSR activities of both the companies happens to be same, at least to some extent; such as investment in foundations and communities, waste reduction, energy conservation, recycling etc. Here it is needless to say that CSR for Philip Morris is supposed to be a bit trickier as compared of Starbucks keeping the product line in mind (Urip, p. 13). Potential Benefits and Importance of CSR CSR should not be looked upon a leakage of resources. If implemented properly CSR policies can provide an array of benefits such as increase the level of customer retention, enhances relationship with customers, suppliers, stakeholders and other channel partners, differentiates t he company from that of the competitors, improves reputation, generates positive publicity and even helps the companies to get new business. This segement will be of great help to understand how CSR activities benefits Starbucks and Philip Morris to maintain better relationship with the stake holders. Stakeholders include employees, business partners, investors, local communities as well customers. It will also be helpful to analyze the alignment of CSR with the corpora objectives. It will reflect the importance of CSR keeping the overall corporate strategy in mind. Corporate objective can be defined as a realistic objective set by the company that influences key strategic decisions (Heal, p.132). Starbucks views CSR as an opportunity to give something back to the community. As a matter of fact it runs down deep to the company roots. For Starbucks CSR is an approach to fulfill the commitments made to the origins, environment, communities, and partners. Some of the approaches include investments to benefit coffee producers and their families; promoting the concept of recycling, conservation of coffee growing countries; having in store green teams. More than one billion people work at Starbucks. They are not treated as employees; rather they are treated as partners. As a matter of fact the mission statement of the company talks about the commitment to partners. As mentioned before CSR activities for Philip Morris are supposed to be a bit trickier as compared to the other. However the CSR activities of the company are nothing short of impressive. The company actively invests in art