Axe, the brand of male grooming products company, is a good example on contributing to peace. On the year 2014, Axe had held a case campaign called "Make Love Not War". Axe tried to use this campaign to encourage and educate young people to make efforts to resolve world peace issues.
As a man products leading company, Axe has a lot of fans around the world. Axe used its influencing power to make people realize the peace issue and encourage its fans to contribute to this issue. I think Axe's action was very meaningful.
Accountability is really a good point, Michaela. Companies which claim themselves as peace contributors might not be a peace supporter at all. Many companies claim this just because of their own interests and profits. Companies should show more evidences to convince people that they are actually caring about the peace issues.
I agree with Keyin, as one company could even change the whole environment. I also like the idea that improving the diversity and work equity environment is the most efficient way for people to do to improve peace. As the diversity and work equity issues are arising concerns, though many companies claim that they are open to diversity, their actions are actually against their claims. I hope companies could actually take some time to think about the issues and make actions instead of just saying it.
I believe that the idea of diversity within an organization is the biggest way that firms can contribute to peace. So much violence and hate that exists in the world today is rooted in fear and lack of understanding of one another. As business leads globalization, individuals who are fearful stick to their cultural comfort zones and adopt a xenophobic "us vs. them" mentality. Businesses are on the front lines of globalization, and can lead the push for peace by showing all of the good that can spring forth from diversity. By co-mingling people of all backgrounds through the pre-established structure of a business, the understanding that is fostered can then organically trickle into everyday life outside of work, and turn the employees of diverse organizations into ambassadors for peace in their own communities.
Paula Gutierrez Perez said:
Thinking on the trends that are right now, I think business can contribute to peace in a lot of different ways. I think using marketing and social media to promote peace to people and share different positive and peaceful advertising campaigns will be a really good idea. Then, companies should start giving incentives and rewards to intercultural practices and activities, BMW is doing this right now. Lastly, I would say that increasing the diversity in the company will be a good idea to start promoting peace.
Patagonia implemented a "Product Lifecycle Initiative" strategy to encourage to reduce, repair, reuse and recycle their outdoor apparel products. They even offer free repair services in the cities through moving trucks. This strategy put company in a risk of losing sales and incurred a huge cost which challenges the marketing principle of maximizing consumer repeat purchases. Its business model is based on the philosophy that calls for making minimum environmental impacts. On the demand side, Patagonia created a social and psychological factor through advertising that includes educational messages, environmental grants, donations, campaigns and green benefits. This help it become a company which trust cares for the environment and also influence and lead the consumers to contribute to peace.
I was born and raised in Indonesia before pursuing my degree at Kelley School of Business at Indiana University. Business in Indonesia is very competitive, one step behind your competitors and you are done in no time. Law and regulations are not reinforced strong enough while lots of opportunities have not exploited yet. This situation becomes a race between companies to gather resources and sell as many items as possible regardless the method used. Ethical principles have been forgotten and companies have only one purpose which is to maximize profit. However, I remember one company that is always giving back to the community due to corporate culture and corporate mission statement, its name is Sido Muncul which operates in pharmaceutical industry.It has a commitment to support low-income people by holding various events such as giving scholarships, building new houses for the victims of natural disasters, providing free health care, and distributing free foods. Sido Muncul's primary target consumers are actually low-income people who need herbal drugs with low prices. The company realized their business is growing become of its consumers and so it is a company responsibility to help a community to be a better place for living.
Through this example, I believe that peace can be maintained by fulfilling human basic needs in this modern era like education, health care, safety, food, house, and suitable. Business has greatly contributed to health care as one of the benefits of employments, thus, why we do not try to expand the benefits to education and houses? I understand this method is a huge expense for a company but if business, government, and civil society work together, it is definitely possible. The challenge is regulations, agreements, and commitments are must be followed by every party and so a win-win situation achieved.
Businesses can promote peace by simply responding to customers' ethical demands. After the release of Blackfish, a documentary concerning the captivity of killer whales at SeaWorld, the theme park has been under attacks from activists and attendance has dropped significantly as consumers concern the morality of orca shows. In March 2015, SeaWorld has finally announced their decision to stop breeding orcas. Despite the late action, consumers welcomed and applauded the park's action. By simply responding to consumer demand and stopping the unethical captive breeding program, SeaWorld has reduced conflicts, hostility and concerns regarding animal rights in our society, and thereby successfully promoted peace.
The #icebucketchallenge is an interesting example of building awareness around a cause because it was a trend that was powered by the interest of the consumers. Businesses need to be conscious of what causes have the greatest impact on their stakeholders, not just picking a cause to support to build the reputation as a general activist. When the cause echoes the company's core values, it provides an opportunity to increase awareness about the peaceful issue, but also the business.
Christina Kaminsky said:
I like that you brought up social media as a way of promoting peace and sharing peaceful advertisements. The first example that came to my mind was when people raised money and awareness for the ALS Association by participating in the ‘#icebucketchallenge’. This challenge entailed filming yourself dumping a bucket of ice water over your head while encouraging your viewers to donate; at the end of the video you also selected a couple friends to complete the challenge as well. According to Business Insider, this 2014 campaign raised $220 million. Although this wasn’t a traditional advertisement on Facebook, I think it’s still important to note people on Facebook like hearing about such campaigns and will participate.
Paula Gutierrez Perez said:
Thinking on the trends that are right now, I think business can contribute to peace in a lot of different ways. I think using marketing and social media to promote peace to people and share different positive and peaceful advertising campaigns will be a really good idea. Then, companies should start giving incentives and rewards to intercultural practices and activities, BMW is doing this right now. Lastly, I would say that increasing the diversity in the company will be a good idea to start promoting peace.
I agree with what Keyin said regarding promoting equality and diversity in the workforce as one way companies can promote peace. For example, a certain company (I will leave names out) in the music industry was having an issue retaining women employees. Top management made the assumption that the issue was with the lack of interest women have in music, guitars, etc. However, the real issue was the lack of diversity in management: it was made up entirely of Caucasian males who had been at the company for many years. This gave the impression to women and other minorities that it wasn't in their cards to move up in the company, thus giving them no motivation to remain working there.
Keyin Chen said:
Business can contribute to peace in many different ways, either explicitly or implicitly. Thinking about current trends, I believe one of the most effective ways for the company to contribute to peace is to encourage workforce diversity and promote equality in the workplace. To give an example, if a company protects and promotes gender equity within the firm, it will create a great corporate culture and inspire its employees to treat others equally with respect. It may also encourage and urge other firms in the society to do so. In this way, the company that advocates diversity and equality will foster peace and stability within the entity, and even in the whole society as well.
Your story is true in that regard, however, sometimes people demand something without thinking further consequences and running away from their responsibilities. As I remember, the Harambe Case is quite similar. Indeed, it is wrong to shoot the gorilla but the circumstances at that time might lead to the cost of a human life. Then, if we could saved Harambe and sacrificed the child, who wanted to be responsible for that? people who thought Harambe should be alive? I doubt it. There was just going to be another huge controversial like now. Either way, there is no absolute right answer, the choice was limited to save either one of them. I think that what people need is more important than what they want and sometimes people even do not know what they really need. Thus, this is the crucial time for leaders who have the credibility to step up and determine the needs. Peace can be enforced by gathering relevant leaders and creating the guidelines for business to support peace by helping people fulfill their needs.
Ken Li said:
Businesses can promote peace by simply responding to customers' ethical demands. After the release of Blackfish, a documentary concerning the captivity of killer whales at SeaWorld, the theme park has been under attacks from activists and attendance has dropped significantly as consumers concern the morality of orca shows. In March 2015, SeaWorld has finally announced their decision to stop breeding orcas. Despite the late action, consumers welcomed and applauded the park's action. By simply responding to consumer demand and stopping the unethical captive breeding program, SeaWorld has reduced conflicts, hostility and concerns regarding animal rights in our society, and thereby successfully promoted peace.
Zhenyuan, great example you mentioned here. I don't see many companies adopt the 4R (reduce, repair, reuse, recycle) principle. I think offering free repair is a huge step to encourage people to reduce waste. I agree with you Patagonia is protecting the environment at its own cost. And I think the company should be recognized and rewarded with its ethical behavior.
Zhenyuan Xia said:
Patagonia implemented a "Product Lifecycle Initiative" strategy to encourage to reduce, repair, reuse and recycle their outdoor apparel products. They even offer free repair services in the cities through moving trucks. This strategy put company in a risk of losing sales and incurred a huge cost which challenges the marketing principle of maximizing consumer repeat purchases. Its business model is based on the philosophy that calls for making minimum environmental impacts. On the demand side, Patagonia created a social and psychological factor through advertising that includes educational messages, environmental grants, donations, campaigns and green benefits. This help it become a company which trust cares for the environment and also influence and lead the consumers to contribute to peace.
Qiming, the Apple and FBI example you mentioned here is great to debate on. I think Apple is standing from customers' perspective and is trying to make customer feel safe about Apple protecting their privacy. However, in serious situations like this, which could impact national security, I think government should enforce laws to give right to company to disclose customers' information. So companies like Apple can do the right thing legally without facing social dilemma.
Qiming Liu said:
One recent example is the Apply versus FBI on the encryption issue about a potential terrorist's iPhone. Since Apple actually refused to do so and this would impact the other innocent people life, we need to be aware the conflicts between company values and social welfares. Apple did not prepare better solutions for a situation like this in advance and may be not fully aware how their products will impact the world peace in this way.
Charity is a common way to relieve the poor people so that their life are secure and there are fewer attacks because of income gap. Alternatively, media company could leverage their huge audience to post more initiatives that promotes world peace, for example, on the World Peace Day. In this way, people will see the information repetitively and take more actions following the campaigns.
I think a channel for discussion in terms of current social issues related to world peace needs to be extended to more companies. With more conference, business and governmental organizations will be able to understand each other’s problems better. In addition, they could utilize their resources in a better place. But before these communications, there are common grounds necessary to be established to improve the quality of communication and make sure both party are heading to the right direction. That is mutual respect, patience and attitude to seek for solutions and other important things.
There are many different ways for companies to contribute to peace. I feel like business do not need to purposely seeking peace. Peace is strongly related to ethics. Such ethics as gender equity, property and contract rights, and corruption play big roles in peace building. If a company can have a good control of these issues and each employee in the company is satisfied with the outcome of these issues, then there will be less conflicts occured in that company. Thus it own the peace. My personal opinion is that more satisfactions toward moral issues lead to more peace.
I agree with your statement, it is correlated with real trust, how the company keeps its promise of their contracts, regulations, and corporate cultures to the employees. By maintaining fairness and truth in the company, employees will be satisfied which lead to more peace. Instead of jumping to the creation of new regulations, guidelines, and acts, we have to guarantee first that the existing standards have been fulfilled. If we failed to do so, then there are no benefits to add more regulations, guidelines, and acts since they will be violated too.
Xiao Chen said:
There are many different ways for companies to contribute to peace. I feel like business do not need to purposely seeking peace. Peace is strongly related to ethics. Such ethics as gender equity, property and contract rights, and corruption play big roles in peace building. If a company can have a good control of these issues and each employee in the company is satisfied with the outcome of these issues, then there will be less conflicts occured in that company. Thus it own the peace. My personal opinion is that more satisfactions toward moral issues lead to more peace.
When it comes to business, government and and society working together in pursuit of peace, a strong starting place is deciding what a society's definition on peace is. Obviously people will look towards the government, as well as others notable figures in the community, to set the rules of what is allowed. It's up for the community to then accept those rules, or reject them by offering their own views on peace. Because these rule are usually set when a community is built, incoming businesses are supposed to come in and conform to those rule. As a few people mentioned in their comments, companies such as TOMS come into communities and exceed the expectations of "following the rules". However, I don't believe it is a business duty to enhance it's community because that isn't their primary reason for existence. I do believe though that business should get involved in their communities to understand what the community's beliefs are on a range of topics, including peace. Once these three pillars are established, they should interact as a system of checks and balances. Whenever one party acts, the other parties should share their opinions on the situation. Peace holds a different definition for each person, but if and when governments, businesses and societies are all acting within the best interests of each other, peace is sure to follow.
I also agree that companies can make an effort to create peace within their organization as well as in the community they operate in. An example of this that I was impressed by was a bold move made by Wieden + Kennedy, an advertising agency based in Portland, Oregon. During the summer when the conflict between police officers and African-American civilians turned violent, W + K took over its homepage with a note written by one of its own employees to help colleagues better understand the very real, human faces of the #BlackLivesMatter movement. The statement did not only show support for its own employee's voices, but also started the conversation among other agencies and companies in general.
Moises Diaz said:
That's a great point Keyin! Creating a strong corporate culture of diversity and equality is a must for many corporations nowadays but I believe that what is still lacking in many is actually honoring their mission statement and instead of just having it written down, they also have to encourage it everyday and enforce them. Sometimes it's very easy to say you are doing something but honoring your word becomes hard with rules and internal hierarchies. Companies that can successfully do this, they will impact their communities in a positively way.
Keyin Chen said:
Business can contribute to peace in many different ways, either explicitly or implicitly. Thinking about current trends, I believe one of the most effective ways for the company to contribute to peace is to encourage workforce diversity and promote equality in the workplace. To give an example, if a company protects and promotes gender equity within the firm, it will create a great corporate culture and inspire its employees to treat others equally with respect. It may also encourage and urge other firms in the society to do so. In this way, the company that advocates diversity and equality will foster peace and stability within the entity, and even in the whole society as well.
In regards to question three, I think it is important to have open communication between each player in the economy, the consumer, the business, and the government. Each entity needs to not only speak up about what issues and topics are important to them, but also be open to hearing what the others’ have to say. It is often easy to get caught up in what works best in your self-interest, but opening the barriers of communication to start those important conversations can lead to significant improvements that could benefit everyone involved.
That’s a very good point! I agree with you that open communication between different stakeholders is critical to the pursuit of peace. By listening to others’ point of view, you will have a better sense of what role to play in the peace building process, and how to create and maintain peace that will benefit everyone. For instance, the government can take action to build peace by enacting rules and regulations; the business can contribute to peace by conducting itself in a fair and just manner. It’s important for each player to know his role and work well with other players together to pursue peace.
Lauren Kaindl said:
In regards to question three, I think it is important to have open communication between each player in the economy, the consumer, the business, and the government. Each entity needs to not only speak up about what issues and topics are important to them, but also be open to hearing what the others' have to say. It is often easy to get caught up in what works best in your self-interest, but opening the barriers of communication to start those important conversations can lead to significant improvements that could benefit everyone involved.
I was surprised how business could related to the peace in the first place. but after further thinking, I realized there are a lot of ethics inside of business, and how you follow those ethics indirectly or directly influence the peace. how do we define peace, in my understanding, I think peace is everywhere. It could be as small as the relationship between you and your friends, or it could be as big as the diplomatic relations. so it is not surprising to see that, the peace will be destroyed if two countries are doing business based on sensitive principles, sometimes it might invoke wars even.
And also I want to specifically talk about a movie that I watched few years ago about business and peace, it;s called blood diamond. The film talks about a precious blood diamond found in war zone, and sold for finance conflicts, how every character inside the movie is doing unethical things just to get blood diamond and of course profits. There are other drama happening too. The movies shows the struggle between governments, loyalists and insurgent forces, also what happen to those individual characters. Because of the greed of those business man about diamond, all those died people, forces and guns are apparently not something what we call peace. The ugly side of human amplified in this movie. when I watched this movie back then, I was shocked how a product could be sold with all the bitter stories behind it.