The Indian-based ITC Ltd
The case study discusses the Indian-based ITC Ltd. The corporation has made investments across the Indian economy, but it is the biggest player in the country's cigarette market. The management of the company considered diversifying investments into a variety of industries, including hotels, agribusiness, including tobacco farming, food packaging, lifestyle products, personal care products, the education sector, stationery products, paperboard, and even packaging, among many other areas. The business has formed subsidiaries and branches in a variety of other commercial sectors, including information technology. The company has consistently attempted to consider the desires and wants of all the stakeholders and also serve the community as a socially-responsible organization. According to the Chairman's address on July 27, 2007, there was urgent and vital need for the company to render corporate social responsibility activities to the community. This article addresses the analysis of social responsibility, ethical decision-making, critique the organization and revised strategy plan concerning the company.
Analysis of Social Responsibility
The company's strategy plan called 'The Triple Bottom Line approach' addresses three main segments namely environmental, economic, and social capital and is aimed at creating impeccable multipliers that would push towards national advancement, sustainability, and inclusiveness. The company does not comply with the present acceptable standards and norms relative to social responsibility. Such norms outline that present CSR policies should inspire the company to create positive effects on the surroundings and consider stakeholders which are yet to be achieved by the company's strategic plan. The stakeholders include product consumers, company employees, shareholders, communities at which the company is located and many other issues.
The risks of the company's strategy plan gaps in social responsibility to internal stakeholders and external stakeholders
The article notes that 8.8% of cumulative worldwide deaths and 4.2% of global disabilities were due to the tobacco product. It also notes that over a half of world cigarette smokers live in 15 countries of which India is one of them. The risks of company's strategy plan gaps in social responsibility to internal stakeholders and external stakeholders are the loss of income (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2013). Predictable positive impacts to the external stakeholders are mainly on the company's contribution to the environment, economy, and social capital while negative impacts are deaths and disabilities to consumers. Internal stakeholder's positive influences are profits and billions of income. ITC Ltd is in a controversial industry that causes more harm than good in the community. The company's evolution of strategy planning relating to social responsibility exceptional to this organization was due to existent fears of closure as the society has adopted critical fight for the companies that harm society (Ahner, 2007). The company is not consistent with social responsibility as contrasted to its industry due to many harms it creates while purporting to allure people support with CSR.
Ethical Decision-Making
ITC Ltd decision-making processes considered its contribution to the environment, economy, and social capital thus contributing in helping the government. The decision-making processes have good consideration for ethics; it leaves gaps to the management to decide on the new course of implementing the decision. It is ethical for the community to focus on building the environment, economy, and social capital. Ethics influences organizational decision-making directly and may lead to the success or failure of the decision made (Flynn, 2008). Unethical organizational decision-making gets opposition from the society and leads to resistance. The decision-making process gaps in the organization's strategy plan is a potential risk to the internal stakeholders (mainly employees, management and shareholder) in that they risk losing their investments and income if the company wounds up to achieve chairman's aspirations. The same gap is also a potential risk external stakeholders such as the government that heavily depends on the company for huge tax income and other contributions to the economy (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2013).
Critique the Organization
The appropriate components for a strategic CSR plan for ITC Ltd entail stopping the deaths and disabilities caused by the cigarette business and paying for the damages from the CSR or even winding up. The comparison of the components chosen about the ITC Ltd with other organizations with other strategic components is that correct decision ethics plays a bigger role in the success of a company (Flynn, 2008). Organizations internal influences the adoption of strategy plan's compliance that would continue to creating income and support existence of the company, but the external influences from the society demands winding up of the company. The potential risk of the current strategy plan is that it may lead to winding up of the company. The risk applies to all organizations in the same tobacco industry and therefore is common to ITC Ltd (Schwartz, 2017).
Revised Strategy Plan
My revised strategy plan for ITC Ltd would aim at reorganizing and enhancement of diversification efforts. Diversification will gradually prepare the company for wind up or reorganization and re-planning to enable manufacturing of socially accepted products. Diversification, re-organization, and re-planning will reduce the intensity of the potential risks on both external and internal stakeholders (Ferrell, Fraedrich & Ferrell, 2013). Tobacco business faces strong campaign globally, and no company can win the onslaught regardless of the strategy designed. The process of creating the revised strategic plan was devised on the consideration that external stakeholders play the most powerful role in the success of the company (Flynn, 2008). External influences such as governments may forgo the merits achieved from the tobacco industry and ultimately create policies that lead to the closure of the company as life and health of people is more essential than revenues accrued from the business. I also respected the requirement of ethics which demands that it is wrong to sell harmful products to the people.
References
Ahner, E. C. (2007). Business ethics. New York: Orbis.
Ferrell, O. C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L. (2013). Business ethics: Ethical decision making and cases. Mason, OH: South-Western/Cengage Learning.
Flynn, G. (2008). Leadership and business ethics. Dordrecht: Springer.
Schwartz, Mark S. (2017). Business Ethics: An Ethical Decision-making Approach. Blackwell Pub.
