There are a number of recent news items about China worth pointing out as they relate to the upcoming China trip (for my MBA class) and are also representative of the host of current China topics. Here’s a quick list of a few that I think are worthwhile:

• China Pledges to U.S. to Open Markets, Enforce Rules
• China to Increase Copyright Enforcement
• Trade Gap With China Widens to £1bn a Month (with the UK)
• It’s Catch 22: World Sees China as Threat & Opportunity
• Mercury Emissions From China Coal-Fired Plants Reach US
• China, US to Step Up Exchanges Between Military Academies
• China 2006 GDP Seen Up Around 9 pct
• Report Ties 38 Deaths in China to Swine
• Boeing Shares Rally on China Order Optimism
• China Shakes World Economy, Rattling Boeing, VW, ThyssenKrupp

TAGS: China | Trade | Business | News

I stumbled across another interesting site thanks to recent comments and wanted to forward it on. McDonald’s has added a CSR blog to their overall corporate social responsibility initiative, and it looks both interesting and informative. After spending some time catching up from the first post, I can easily say that I have learned quite a few new facts about McDonald’s. The most revealing is the extent of their current CSR efforts, of which I had been unaware until this point.

Bob Langert, Senior Director of McDonald’s Social Responsibility division, authors the blog and seems to respond to comments in a consistently transparent manner. He’s asking some thought provoking questions too. Here’s an interesting prompt from one of his early posts:

“At McDonald’s, we don’t grow, raise or produce food, crops or animals. We’re simply a food retail company. But we do purchase a lot and so have influence on our suppliers. We try to use this influence responsibly.

“In a nutshell, our approach is to work collaboratively with our suppliers so they can meet our expectations and advance our priorities. What’s your view of this approach? For example, should we set across-the-board targets and goals for suppliers, rather than work with them to develop individual targets and goals? What should our priorities be for promoting social responsibility in our supply chain?”

I’ve mentioned a few times in various blog posts the power large corporations have to potentially promote positive change. Langert’s questions, however, introduce an additional level of subtlety to the equation. Should CSR efforts by large corporations be broad and forceful in an effort to exact the quickest and most visible change, or should they be more measured and customized, taking longer but succeeding with greater long-term accuracy?

TAGS: CSR | Corporate Social Responsibility | McDonald’s

Thanks to a heads up from a site visitor in the comments on one of my earlier posts, I learned about a new documentary film that sounds quite interesting called Black Gold. I did a bit of searching and found a good article that gives an overview of the film: Movie Makes Viewers Think Twice About Coffee. Here’s an interesting clip from the article:

“‘Black Gold’ follows coffee’s complex journey from poor farmers in Ethiopia to elitist baristas in the European Union and the United States, ultimately reminding us of the great chasm between our mouths and the sources of our food.

“As we watch commodity traders in New York and London setting coffee prices amidst harsh images of hungry Ethiopian children at therapeutic feeding centers, we see how coffee touches us all.”

If you have seen Black Gold, I’d be interested to hear what you think. I’ll be sure to record my thoughts as soon as I have a chance to see it myself!

TAGS: Coffee | Fair Trade | Ethiopia | Starbucks

Even though the marketing execs note that they could see it coming, the result is pretty ironic.

…Well, I don’t know if you can really call them “competition” per se, but Wal*Mart is making an effort to help out the little guy: Wal-Mart Offers Aid to Rivals [New York Times].

I thought this article was a great follow-on to my last post as on the one hand, it acknowledges that Wal*Mart does heavily impact small businesses in the store’s local area, and on the other hand, shows that Wal*Mart is making some kind of effort to have a positive impact.

“The giant discount retailer, under increasing assault by critics, announced a wide-ranging effort yesterday to support small businesses near its new urban stores, including the hardware stores, dress shops and bakeries with which it competes.

“Wal-Mart said it would offer those businesses financial grants, training on how to survive with Wal-Mart in town and even free advertising within a Wal-Mart store.”

Lest we think Wal*Mart is making a complete transformation, the article promptly smacks some sense into readers:

“Wal-Mart acknowledged the program was not entirely altruistic. The company is trying to open 50 stores in urban neighborhoods in the next two years, and the aid to small businesses could help build support in cities like Los Angeles and New York where it has met strong resistance.

“…At the same time, Wal-Mart will invest $500,000 in local chambers of commerce, to be used for small-business Web sites and business improvement seminars. “This is a commitment to reach beyond our stores,” Mr. Scott said.

He said Wal-Mart would not lose money on the program because urban stores were expected to attract more shoppers — and profits — than suburban and rural outlets.”

…and then we are presented with two conflicting studies which continue the good/evil debate:

“A study conducted by several economists, and presented at a conference held by Wal-Mart last fall, found that after the company’s arrival in a county, total earnings for workers, retail and nonretail, fell 2.5 percent to 4.8 percent. One reason for the decline is that Wal-Mart pressures its suppliers to cut their costs and that may lead to lower wages for the workers of suppliers.

“A different study, conducted by an economic research firm hired by Wal-Mart, found the retailer’s pricing strategy had made industries more productive, creating hundreds of thousands of jobs and increasing net consumer purchasing power by $118 billion last year, or about $401 for every American.”

The saga continues.

[Update]: It seems Chris MacDonald (The Business Ethics Blog) and I saw the same topic this morning. He makes a great point at the end of his post so be sure to check it out as well.

TAGS: Wal*Mart | Wal-Mart | Ethics | CSR

Chris MacDonald from The Business Ethics Blog indicated an interest in hearing my response to the various points he cited in his March 28, 2006 post, Saying Nice Things About Wal-Mart. Having made an initial post of my own regarding how Wal*Mart’s hands may be tied in attempting to offer its employees full health care coverage, I noted in the comments that I would be happy to counter each of the items Chris highlighted.

Once I started I realized that I had a bit more to say than would be reasonable to squish into a blog post. As such, I included my response in the attached PDF:

• Response to: “Saying Nice Things About Wal-Mart” [PDF]

As always, I welcome and look forward to your comments.

TAGS: Wal*Mart | Wal-Mart | Ethics | Business Strategy