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Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Proposal for Nike (Corporate Social Responsibility)





Executive Summary
To: Board of directors
This proposal reflects on the long term strategy recommended for Nike in order to improve the corporate social responsibility and a short term strategy plan for the improvement needed for Nike. The long term strategy plan would targets on the child labour of Nike face today. The consultation team has come out the program call “Human Relief Aid (HRA)” to solve child labour and benefit to the stakeholder. Nike will request student to designed t-shirt which meanwhile developed their own creativity. These designed t-shirt will sell to the public and 30% of the t-shirt income will put aside to reduce child labour. To sustain HRA, consultation team has come out with 2 years program in which; in the final year, consumers can claim a gift for recognition by supporting this program. Although this particular plan will still face some challenges but still the benefit of implementing this program will still easily overcome the situation and also the challenges faced. On the other hand, Nike would also gain a good reputation for providing aid to the communities globally. Lastly, it is recommended that this particular proposal would take in consideration for Nike for a long and short term of strategy for social improvement. √

1. Introduction

In today context, many organisations must do a lot of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Nike is one of the biggest outlets and distributors in the world. (Encyclopedia Britannica n.d.) Nike has done CSR in the society. However, Nike also commits errors such as exploiting their workers in Indonesia. (Global Exchange 2007) In addition, Nike has also recruited children to work in Pakistan with low wages. (TED Case Studies n.d.) This report is focusing on how child labour will be solved. Action plan will be provided to describe what this program is, challenges of implementation will be provided to describe the difficulties of executing this program. Benefit of the child labour and the company will also be listed out as well in conclusion.√

2. Child Labour

Child labour is defined as children who are under fifteen years of age are made to do physically or mentally harmful work, which will disrupt the education and social development of the society. (Khanam 2008) In this society, child labours are getting serious, so this report is to create a program and help child labour.√

3. Action Plan

3.1 Phase 1 – Establishment of this program

Consultation team has come out with a 2-years program called “Human Relief Aid (HRA)” This program will benefit the children worldwide such as Pakistan, Mexico etc. This program involves an international competition which holds worldwide children (between 10 – 16 years old) to design and create a slogan on special shirts and shorts. Selected top 20 of the shirts will be sold in worldwide. Prizes will be provided to the group who win. There are many varieties of t-shirt so consultation team has intended to narrow down to e-business that getting involved with the search engines (Google, etc) and those famous networking websites (Facebook, Twitter, etc) to get HRA a hit in these websites. The goodwill of those companies involved will be mentioned and reasonable advertisement fee will be given to them, thus the types of company mentioned will be motivated to participate. Also, pre-order of clothes can be found those websites and also Nike’s official website. Slogan such as “Stop Child Labour” and Nike motto “Just do it” will be added on the T-shirt to increase the reputation of organisation. The products are environmental friendly materials such as “organic cotton which is normally used by NIKE”. (Consider your choices, Consider ur impact 2010) Attractive prizes can be given out to the top 20 groups whose shirts and shorts are being selected to the participant. Selected shirts will then be sold in Nike outlets and 30% of the sales of those goods will go to worldwide child labour to help to create schools to alleviate the child labour problem such as giving them study in school for free and providing them necessity item. Moreover, this will also provide a well-trained lecturer, and also renovating their school to become a better environment. The other 70% of the sales will become the income of their company.  √
3.2 Phase 2 – Implementation of community development projects
This program enables the children to have their childhood life. This cotton is usually very well to wear and feel very comfort. Organic cottons are easier for worker to pick as we know that organic cotton do not contain chemical product, so it would not cause harm to the worker. Organic cotton is an environmental friendly item. (Dunn 2007) Last but not least, part of this 30% income can also improve their infrastructure. It can be used to upgrade the school conditions (eg. Library, canteen, etc). Therefore, children can make improvement on their studies, as “children are our future asset”. (Lewis 2006) This may not only benefit for the child labour but also to the workers who pick the cotton, environment, child labour and children who design the shirt. Thus, this 30% income from the t-shirt can be improved on their education and better health in the future.√

3.3 Phase 3 – Accountability

This program is implemented not only to improve the reputation on the company but also to make the society aware and increase their loyalty. In order to improve this, Nike should hold some of the press conference and news, etc. This is because each media will effect each demographic. (Katz 2007) In a press conference, CEO will apologise for the mistake they did and promise the society that it will have a successful program and sign agreement with Pakistan government such that the offenders will be punished and fine if they repeat the mistake. Also, Nike can hold talks in the heart of the working place in worldwide nations to inform about the objective behind designing the shirt. Therefore, this will gain the loyalty of the society by processing those words the CEO said in the conference.

3.4 Phase 4 – Sustainability Planning

Nike is a company that contain about “15 billion dollars” of capital. (Zaccheoyorka 2010) Thus, This serves as an opportunity for the children that wish to discover and develop their talents. Prizes will be provided to the group who win so more and more children or even parents that want their children to emerge their talent to attract them to join. Nike will be more then willingly to continue this program as this will not only help out the child labour but also gain 70% of income of the sales. Nike will hold competition on designing t-shirt on the first year and shorts the second year. After the second year, customer can claim a prize for supporting this program by producing the receipts of the 2 products purchase in each year. Thus, this can be sustain in long term(.) 

3.5 Phase 5 – Outcome Evaluation

This outcome will increase the society loyalty towards the Nike responsibility by redemption of their mistake and also gives the benefit to the child labour in the world.

4. Challenges of implementation
Due to the barriers of establishment of this program, challenges of implementation will definitely happen. Those challenges are as shown below.
4.1 Lack of participant
Many students reject this competition because due to difficulties such as education pressure. Some parents will think that academic subjects are more important than this competition because of the requirements for further studies in today’s world is becoming more difficult.√
4.2 Others activity has already been plan and process
Schools have already plan to give their students activity to join and some activity cost money, this will become a troublesome to make the school cancel the activity and add in this activity on it.(expression)
4.3 Child labour wages is lower than that of normal employee
Indeed, Nike is a rich company with a huge sum of capital. In business terms “who doesn’t want a minimum cost to create a maximise profit?” (Garnett, et al. 2009) Research found out that worker minimum wages 2000Rs a month in Pakistan. (Candland 2007) Mexico minimum wages is about 1598 pesos per month which is quite a high sum. (Daily Minimum wages 2009)  Thus, suddenly change in 1-2 years might not be successful.√

5. Benefit in solving Child Labour

The benefits in solving the Child Labour are important as children are our asset in future. Thus, there are some benefits as shown below.

5.1 Retrieve back their childhood life

Children should not work, since they have their freedom and the person who should work is people who can enter workforce legally. (Gennard 2002) It is an essential for a child to have a proper childhood life as it is harmful to physical and mental development for the children if they start working since young.

5.2 Increase their knowledge to upgrade themselves in future

In this modern era, qualification in academic is important as it enables them to get a better job in future. (Bynner 1998) Thus, Nike has spent 30% of the income for the children to study instead of working. √

6. Benefit to Nike

This program will increase customer loyalty and by let society know on press conference that Nike apologise in conference and to release all child labour employed by them. HRA will increase company reputation by press conference which is apologise and publish this news in various media such as newspaper, internet, etc. Nike’s sustainability will increase because this will not only benefit the children, but also the company. Other organisation will be willing to co-operate with Nike as they have confidence in Nike. This program will not do any harm to the employees who are in the field. Moreover, Nike can counter the bad publicity through CSR. With CSR, the media will be focusing more how Nike has done in order to save the world or amend the mistakes they had made.

7. Conclusion

In conclusion, child labour is a vital social problem in today’s society. Through this program, it helps to develop those children in world-wide especially in poverty countries. Although there will be some obstacles faced, but it will help children in this society will have a better childhood life. Moreover, this may also help stakeholder such as person who disabled, workers, students, aquatic life and environment. This shows that business organisation is not only focus on profitability but also perform the CSR towards society. √√ (word count)


References list


Bynner, John. 1998 "Education for what?" Education + Training 40, no. 1: 3.
Candland, Christopher. 2007. Labor, democratization and development in India and Pakistan. Canada: Routledge.
Consider your choices, Consider ur impact. 2010. http://www.nikebiz.com/responsibility/considered_design/environmentally_preferred.html (accessed May 7, 2010).
Daily Minimum wages. January 1, 2009. http://www.mexicanlaws.com/STPS/minimum_wages_2009.htm (accessed May 9, 2010).
Dunn, Collin. Organic cotton: For Clothing Baby, Bedding and more. August 23, 2007. http://www.treehugger.com/files/2007/08/green-basics-organic-cotton.php?page=2 (accessed May 9, 2010).
Encyclopedia Britannica. n.d.  http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/415193/Nike-Inc (accessed May 7, 2010).
Garnett, Anne, Philip Lewis, Glenn Hubbard, and Tony O'Brien. 2009. MICROECONOMICS. New South Wales: Pearson.
Gennard, John.  2002. "Employee relations public policy developments, 1997-2001: A break with the past?" Employee Relations 24, no. 6: 594.
Global Exchange. October 28, 2007. http://www.globalexchange.org/campaigns/sweatshops/nike/faq.html (accessed May 7, 2010).
Katz, Helen. 2007. The Media Handbook: A complete guide to advertising media selection, planning, research and buying. New Jersey: Lawrence Elrbaum Associates.
Khanam, Rasheda. 2008. "Child Labour and School Attendence: Evidence from Bangladesh." International Journal of Social Economics 35, no. 1/2 : 90.
Lewis, Jane. 2006. Children, Changing Families and welfare states. Massachusets: Edward Elgar Publishing Limited.
TED Case Studies. n.d.  http://www1.american.edu/ted/nike.htm (accessed May 7, 2010).
Zaccheoyorka. wholesale nike shoes female and male training. April 16, 2010. http://zaccheoyorka.commoncircle.net/2010/04/16/wholesale-nike-shoes-female-and-male-training/ (accessed May 7, 2010).




Appendix
History & Background of Nike
Michael Jordan/Joshua Massel/Creative Commons Attribution ShareAlike 2.0
Nike is the world leader in athletic shoes. The company rose quickly from small-time sales at track meets to a major publicly-traded Fortune 500 company. Throughout its history and background, Nike has utilized strong advertising campaigns to separate itself from its competition. Two of the most memorable marketing campaigns, "Just Do It" and the Air Jordan brand, cemented Nike as one of the most popular shoe brands in the world.

     Origins

1.      Nike began its history as Blue Ribbon Sports in 1964 at the University of Oregon. Track star Philip Knight and his coach Bill Bowerman distributed Japanese Onitsuka Tiger shoes at track meets.

Retail

2.      The first retail location for the company opened in 1966 in Santa Monica, California. As the relationship between Blue Ribbon Sports and Onitsuka Tiger ended in 1971, the company launched its own line known simply as "Nike."

Significance

3.      Nike successfully garnered 50 percent of the market share within the United States by 1980, the same year the company went public.

Significance

4.      The advertising firm in charge of Nike, Wieden+Kennedy, coined one of the most famous phrases in marketing history in 1988. The "Just Do It" was named one of the top five slogans of all time by a 1999 article in "Advertising Age." √

Famous Ties

5.      In 1984, Nike's sales were in decline. In response, the company hired rookie basketball player Michael Jordan to be the company spokesman. The $2.5 million deal for five years resulted in the creation of one of the most popular lines of shoes ever made. √

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