It is apparent that Chiquita has made efforts to be socially responsible. Visible through their homepage which highlights social responsibility, sustainability, innovation, and community involvement as it key public strategies. However, cooperating with eco-warriors, social activists and unions has come to little avail for the international Banana supplier. While trying to improve their social reputation, Chiquita’s competition has been outselling their product to retailers; retailers are not recognizing Chiquita’s efforts as being beneficial to their store. Chiquita can engage in corporate social responsibility (CSR) and realize benefits, however they must re-conceive their values and what it means to be socially responsible.
Part of the problem is Chiquita was not founded on the social responsibility they promote today. They openly admitted to paying protection money to Columbian paramilitary surrounding it’s plantations; demonstrating they operated plantations that knowingly placed employees in a hostile environment. Further they were supporting a terrorist group in the process. They have recently bolted-on a reputation building strategy of becoming a more environmentally and socially friendly organization. The problem is, Chiquita is a wholesale company which relies on its retailers to buy and distribute their products. The retailers seem to take no mind in Chiquita’s green-movement efforts and continue to purchase the less eco-friendly competitor brands. Perhaps if Chiquita were to narrow their scope of how they are positively impacting their environment they would be able to draw the attention of retailers. Instead of signing agreements with social activists as an attempt to be viewed better, they could set specific goals they would like to meet throughout the organization. These goals should be directly related to their business model as opposed to after-thoughts. Doing so would give employees at all levels a goal to work towards, context in which to perceive the goals, and an overall better understanding of exactly how Chiquita can build their reputation while conducting their everyday business.
The Term Paper on State Farm Social Responsibility
Introduction As businesses worldwide continue to transition from production focuses to service mentalities, so has the zeitgeist of business operation. Profit-maximization goals are no longer predicated solely on selling more products or services; these goals are now also predicated on social responsibility, also called social awareness. In order to maintain its reputation as the premier insurance ...
In Chiquita’s efforts to be viewed as a socially responsible organization they have cast aside the needs of their stakeholders and instead focused their efforts on pleasing environmental and social activists. By agreeing to avoid Canadian oil (which is some of the cleanest oil in the world), Chiquita has strayed from it’s organizational goals to the dismay of its shareholders as well the unexpected retaliation of oil, pro-business lobbies and Canadians who rely on the oil industry for jobs and clean oil. This decision cost Chiquita millions of dollars in revenues and demonstrated not only poor judgment of top management in the company, but also a lack of respect for the ethical and environmental efforts Canada has placed in its tar sands. If Chiquita was intrinsically socially responsible from their business model to their lowest level employees they would not have made such an uninformed decision that would catch so much back-lash in their industry. Chiquita expected financial rewards through a higher reputation which they tried to achieve through winning the adoration of social lobbyists. Instead they should have looked at Comm4321 Final – Nolan Hanson
the alternatives to using Canadian oil and decided whether it fit into their business model in way that it would bring value to all of its stakeholders. It would appear by avoiding Canadian oil, Chiquita will instead support either OPEC conflict oil or an international alternative, both of which appear to be less desirable than Canadian oil which boasts an excellent ethical and environmental record(Ellerton, J. 2012).
The Business plan on Business Social Responsibilities Pollution Businesses Customers
Social responsibility is a business code of ethics which affects the behavior not only towards the environment, but also to its customers, employees, and investors. These responsibilities are not only for the corporation but also for the investors and operators. The responsibilities of any business should always consider its behavior towards society. The areas of social responsibility that are the ...
A new field of study has recently emerged know as common shared value (CSV).
CSV could help Chiquita refocus their CSR efforts in a way that would add societal, environmental, and economic value to its organization; to do so they must redefine their purpose as an organization. If you look through their site, it seems their purpose is to improve world nutrition. If they simply expanded this idea to say, improving world nutrition by globally delivering wholesome foods in an environmentally and socially sustainable manner, they would be setting a more straightforward framework of how their operations and reputation building strategies are to proceed. In doing so, they would not need to trade economic gain for CSR initiatives. Instead Chiquita would be regarded as being socially and environmentally responsible through they everyday processes of doing business.
Chiquita is intrinsically socially responsible, they bring natural, healthy foods, to people across the globe. By emphasizing their achievements in supplying healthy food, they would establish a reputation strategy that is built-in to their approach in conducting business. Bananas need hot climates to grow and are one of the most widely consumed foods in the world (Workman, 2006).
With this in mind, another option they may consider is improving their supply chain. As we know bananas are naturally packaged so there isn’t much Chiquita can do in terms of packaging reduction. They can however implement systems and potentially schools that help increase the productivity of the plantations that supply their product. By educating the workers of these plantations, not only will Chiquita realize lower production costs, they will also create economic value for these plantations as well as contribute to the betterment of the lives of the individuals who work at these plantations. This is just one example of how to create shared value that has been successfully implemented by a company similar to Chiquita, Nestle(Nestlé, 2012).
The Term Paper on Factors Influencing Older People's Food Choices
The older peoples’ food choices may be influenced by a number of Physiological, Psychological, Social and Economic factors. Lets look at some of these factors and why they affect the elderly food choices. Physiological factors: People who choose food because of physiological factors are usually because of: Hunger, Appetite or Satiety: Hunger is your body’s way of telling you that you ...
In conclusion, Chiquita has made the right decision by trying to be perceived as socially responsible, they have simply gone about it the wrong way. If they are able to refocus their strategies so that they accomplish social purposes (bringing nutritious food to consumers around the world) as a vehicle for achieving economic value, they will be able to build their reputation into their business model. When social responsibility becomes intrinsic in Chiquita’s purpose, they will no longer feel obliged to adhere to the wishes of anti-oil lobbyist groups. They can feel secure in their reputation as a healthy food provider. Once this is achieved, Chiquita can continue it’s success by improving the efficiency of their supply chain, consequentially maximizing both social and economic needs.
Works Cited
Workman, D. (2006, November 1).
Top ten banana countries. Retrieved from http://suite101.com/article/ top-ten-banana-countries-a8403 Nestlé. (2012, November 05).
Nestlé announces winner of creating shared value prize . Retrieved from http://www.nestle.com/Media/NewsAndFeatures/Pages/CSV-Prize-2012.aspx CBCNews team. (2011, December 20).
Will you boycott chiquita bananas over its oilsands stance?. Retrieved from
