Read the Nike Case and answer the question given below -

Backstory: Stung by a campaign against its labor practices in the 1990s, Nike embarked on a long process to ultimately reinvent its operations and meet broad sustainability metrics by 2020. Challenge: Can you move beyond compliance and capitalize on sustainability by integrating it into the fabric of a company from design and manufacturing to the supply chain?

Key moves: Nike began taking a deep look at its operations in the early 1990s, after it faced a firestorm of criticism over labor practices at its Asian suppliers. The early efforts were siphoned to a team focused on compliance and social responsibility.

A turning point came when the team began to ask about the long-term implications of the company’s product design and manufacturing decisions. Where did the product materials come from? Were they toxic What happened at the end of a product’s life? Looking into manufacturing, they found it took three shoes’ worth of material to produce just two one shoe, in effect, ended up as waste, at a cost of $700 million a year. As a result, the goal of zero waste got the attention of senior managers. It became one of several long-term goals to reach by 2020  along with zero toxic materials, closed loop systems and sustainable growth and profitability. Nike also created an in- house index to measure product design against these goals.

The company brought partners into the process, like Dow Chemical, DuPont and BASF, because it knew it could not achieve its goals without working within the supply chain.

Then it began reinventing the design process. If the athletic shoe were streamlined to cut waste and material by reducing the number of components, production efficiencies could offset the cost of more sustainable materials.

Impact: Nike began implementing zero waste and streamlined production around its Considered line of athletic footwear and apparel. That leading-edge line now comprises 15% of its products. The company aims to convert all athletic shoes to its Considered Design standards by 2011, all clothing by 2015, and all equipment like balls, gloves and backpacks by 2020. Under the new design and production methods, these products reduce waste by up to 67%, cut energy use by 37% and slash solvent use by 80% compared with other Nike products.

Based on the Nike Case answer the following questions

1. What is Business Ethics? Explain briefly the Three schools of thought about the extent to which ethical standards apply across countries and cultures exist? Which of these school(s) of thoughts do you think Nike belongs to? Justify your answer using information given in the case study.

2. What do you understand by the terms Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Citizenship and Corporate Sustainability? Also explain how are these terms related to each other and how are they different from one another.

3. In your opinion, how did Nike display Corporate Social Responsibility, Corporate Citizenship Behavior and Corporate Sustainability? Explain using information given in the case study 

4. What are the three key actions for building an organization capable of good strategy execution? Which of these actions was initiated by Nike, as is evident from the case, in your opinion? 

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 Ethics Ethics or moral philosophy is the branch of philosophy that involves systematizing defending and recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct The term ethics derives from the Ancient Gree... View the full answer