NIKE, INC Corporate responsibility
Since its the first accusations of unfair labor and human rights practices in its contract factories, Nike has gone to great lengths to show the world its committment to improving the quality of life for its workers. One needs only visit the website, http://nikeinc.com/pages/responsibility, to get a more in-depth understanding of the strides the company has taken to improve its supply-chain relationship. Transparency has become a critical component to Nike's overall strategic plan, as its executives understand the importance of public support to allow it remain as the industry that gets more competitive each year.
According to the responsibility page, http://nikeinc.com/pages/manufacturing:
"Our greatest responsibility as a global company is to play a role in bringing about positive, systemic change for workers within our supply chain and in the industry. When we look at our overall impact on the world, the needs of nearly 1 million workers in Nike’s contract supply chain overshadows any other group. We also know the size and scale of the combined manufacturing operations has a considerable environmental impact.
We've run the course – from establishing Codes of Conduct that cover worker protections as well as environmental impacts – to pulling together an internal team to enforce it, to working with external bodies to monitor factories and engaging with stakeholders. What we've learned, after nearly a decade, is that monitoring alone hasn’t solved the problems. And many of the problems are recurring in the industry.
Our focus now is on getting to the root of the problems, evaluating our supplier and manufacturing relationships, and finding new ways to define and share responsibility. We're looking end-to-end, from the first phase of our product creation process to the impacts of our decisions on the lives of workers in the factories that bring our product to life."
Although the company continues to face scrutiny from human-rights organizations, it is difficult to argue that Nike has not made a concerted effort to improve its global image. A strong example of its commitment can found at http://nikeinc.com/news/nike-partners-with-llamasoft-for-sustainable-supply-chain-innovation and www.NIKEbetterworld.com. These two sites allow intersted parties to learn more about how Nike has partnered to improve its supply chain. If one needs further documentation on what the company is doing to enhance all phases of its operations, he or she can go to http://www.nikeresponsibility.com/report/ for a full synopsis of Nike's efforts to carry out its mandate of supply chain process improvement.
Given the in-depth nature of this report, it is hard to argue that the company is "walking the talk." Nike, along with many other global companies, have realized the importance of sustainability and included it the overall strategic business plan: "Our vision is to build a sustainable business and create value for Nike and our stakeholders by decoupling profitable growth from constrained resources."
According to the responsibility page, http://nikeinc.com/pages/manufacturing:
"Our greatest responsibility as a global company is to play a role in bringing about positive, systemic change for workers within our supply chain and in the industry. When we look at our overall impact on the world, the needs of nearly 1 million workers in Nike’s contract supply chain overshadows any other group. We also know the size and scale of the combined manufacturing operations has a considerable environmental impact.
We've run the course – from establishing Codes of Conduct that cover worker protections as well as environmental impacts – to pulling together an internal team to enforce it, to working with external bodies to monitor factories and engaging with stakeholders. What we've learned, after nearly a decade, is that monitoring alone hasn’t solved the problems. And many of the problems are recurring in the industry.
Our focus now is on getting to the root of the problems, evaluating our supplier and manufacturing relationships, and finding new ways to define and share responsibility. We're looking end-to-end, from the first phase of our product creation process to the impacts of our decisions on the lives of workers in the factories that bring our product to life."
Although the company continues to face scrutiny from human-rights organizations, it is difficult to argue that Nike has not made a concerted effort to improve its global image. A strong example of its commitment can found at http://nikeinc.com/news/nike-partners-with-llamasoft-for-sustainable-supply-chain-innovation and www.NIKEbetterworld.com. These two sites allow intersted parties to learn more about how Nike has partnered to improve its supply chain. If one needs further documentation on what the company is doing to enhance all phases of its operations, he or she can go to http://www.nikeresponsibility.com/report/ for a full synopsis of Nike's efforts to carry out its mandate of supply chain process improvement.
Given the in-depth nature of this report, it is hard to argue that the company is "walking the talk." Nike, along with many other global companies, have realized the importance of sustainability and included it the overall strategic business plan: "Our vision is to build a sustainable business and create value for Nike and our stakeholders by decoupling profitable growth from constrained resources."