Doing Good Business

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Since the motto “Doing Well By Doing Good” appeared, the number of businesses that have adopted it has increased over time. In order to tell whether this increase is substantial and significant we must first analyze the steps into which this motto has gone through. The implications it has on the market and economy as a whole will also be determinants of whether to adopt the motto or not. In the essay below we will go through the evolution of the meaning of the motto, the concept of social responsibility, the supporters’ argument and their cons. The debate is divided in two camps. The supporters of the first idea claim that by doing good business, the economy as a whole benefits without the need to donate or contribute in distinct ways to the community. The second idea is that businesses should behave in such a way to create an environment where everyone should use its power to help out the community. The very first time I read the topic of the essay, it reminded me of a movie I watched when I was around 13. “When someone does you a big favour don’t pay it back, pay it forward” is what little Trevor says in the movie “Pay it forward”. Being at the age of 13 I took it as a lesson of life and it gave me additional incentives to help who the most needed me. Most of the times I received the satisfaction of seeing a smile in the face of someone else, and half of the times I was let down realizing that I was just used by someone else. But I decided not to care; I wanted to do something that would have changed that conservative community I lived in. That is what most of the people would call “social responsibility” and what Milton Friedman would define as an individual initiative to contribute to the society. As defined by Wikiped... ... middle of paper ... ...ston Publications, August 27, 2007 (also found at http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/wp/index.htm ) Friedman, M. “A Friedman Doctrine – The Social Responsibility of Business is to increase Its Profits”, The New York Times Publications, September 13, 1970 Gates, B. “On Creative Capitalism”, World Economic Forum Realises, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ql-Mtlx31e8 NY Times. January 9, 2009 http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/06/can-business-do-well-and-do-good/ Oxford Publications. “Oxford Dictionary of English (2nd edition revised)” , 1998, ISBN 0198610572 Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_capitalism Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_responsibility Hamm, S. “Coke: On Doing Well by Doing Good“, BusinessWeek Publications, http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/blog/globespotting/archives/2009/05/coke_on_doing_w.html

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