A.D.D. and CSR

I cannot focus right now for the life of me. I decided to let my A.D.D. have the better of me and write a free flowing blog on CSR. I guess you could call this a down the rabbit hole look on CSR. An unguided and randomized exploration of the topic. A choose-your-own-CSR adventure.

I came across a Harvard Business School CSR program that provided an overview...

"Increasingly, senior corporate executives must find new ways to address the social, economic, and environmental effects of doing business while balancing conflicting demands on their attention, time, and resources. Emphasizing the alignment of corporate social responsibility (CSR) with business strategy in large established companies, this program helps you define priorities, integrate social responsibility throughout your business, and build social and business value. You will strengthen your ability to define and implement powerful CSR strategies that position the firm, its reputation, and its way of doing business for enduring success" 

This made me think of what companies I know who DO NOT FOLLOW THESE PRINCIPLES.

I thought of Apple and their relationship with Foxconn...the whole controversy in the Chinese factories of work conditions and much more. 

I searched for 'Apple and Foxconn' and came across an article by New York Times from January 25, 2012. The picture above caught my interest. You mean to tell me these are the working conditions of the tech giant Apple, more so their manufacturing. I mean I see Apple as...


But the reality is...

Apple has some serious gaps in their corporate social responsibility strategy (if they even have one). I haven't researched whether this has changed in the recent years, which I will for a future blog. Here is an excerpt from the NYT article that bothered me.

"More troubling, the groups say, is some suppliers’ disregard for workers’ health. Two years ago, 137 workers at an Apple supplier in eastern China were injured after they were ordered to use a poisonous chemical to clean iPhonescreens. Within seven months last year, two explosions at iPad factories, including in Chengdu, killed four people and injured 77. Before those blasts, Apple had been alerted to hazardous conditions inside the Chengdu plant, according to a Chinese group that published that warning."

All of this has me thinking about Corporate Social Responsibility. Here are a few questions I have:

1. Since Apple contracts out for manufacturing, are they still responsible (in CSR) terms for the well-being and social climate of the factory workers. OR does that fall on the shoulders of Foxconn?

2. I remember hearing about Apple moving manufacturing to the US. Is this perhaps a move  towards a more CSR-ish strategy?

I will begin to explore these questions :)