Katellyn Ahuatl
MAR 100
Fall 2022

A company I would like to focus on for this assignment would be Apple Inc. Reason being is because I feel like I’m such a tech nerd. I’m fascinated on how technology can rapidly change and well personally this is perfect for me to see what goes behind such a big company like Apple. I actually find myself owning a lot of Apple’s products which makes me interact and stay up to date with their technology and products on a daily basis. Just like any other company there’s always much more than what Apple markets on the big screens.
Let’s dig a bit more deep, Apple Inc. is an American multinational technology company specializing in consumer electronics, software and online services. Apple is a customer driven company so essentially it’s all the customers and the primary goal is to keep them coming back to them instead of them going to their rival companies. Apple products are made by millions of people in over 50 countries. The company takes pride when it comes to sourcing and recycling, they apply the highest standards to ensure that every person in our supply chain is valued, respected, and safe. Apple has zero tolerance for forced labor or human rights violations of any kind
As stated in on the Apple website, their business practices are as following:
Honesty—Demonstrate honesty and high ethical standards in all business dealings.
Respect—Treat customers, partners, suppliers, employees, and others with respect and courtesy.
Confidentiality—Protect Apple’s confidential information and the information of our customers, partners, suppliers, and
employees.
Compliance—Ensure that business decisions comply with applicable laws and regulations.
Apple as a company takes innovation on how their products impact their environment which is why Apple suppliers are committed to using renewable energy for their production. The operations are all carbon neutral.Their goal is to reach carbon neutrality worldwide. To do this, we’re committed to transitioning our entire supply chain to renewable energy.
A large company like Apple can’t function without employees and we all know the importance of the role they play to keep the company going Apple has an excessive health and safety risks ve led to a widespread sense of unsafe working conditions among workers

The brand that I chose to talk about is Shein. This is a Chinese online fast fashion retailer founded in 2008. I personally enjoy buying things from this brand because it’s an online clothing company that includes a wide variety of styles for all body types at low prices. Nowadays, this brand has reached incredible recognition and it’s at its peak of success among the new generation. This is not surprising if we take into consideration the fact that it targets young people that, attracted by the fast fashion trends that this brand promotes, plus the low prices, will buy a bunch of clothing articles and make videos to show their audience on social media. Ultimately, helping the brand as a marketing strategy. These are a few of the reasons why it is so lovable and well known, however, in recent years, the company has found itself in the middle of several controversies including trademark disputes, tax evasion, human rights violations, and health and safety concerns.

Just like any other brand, Shein tries to maintain an impeccable image of ethical responsibility with their customers, employees and the environment. “Shein is fully committed to Fair Labor practices, environmental impact mitigation, and charitable cases.” — Shein. Ideally, they would’ve become the world’s largest fashion retailer while making moral decisions, however, not only is this hard to believe for brands that, like this one, are worth billions, but it has been proven that Shein is, indeed, very unethical.

Every time you open Shein’s website you notice how the page portraits the clothing of the season, the things that are on trend and even the micro trends that grow old faster. It’s incredible the amount of new designs and massive quantities of clothes that they are able to stock every week. But, this process has been possible thanks to stealing designs from other designers and forcing their workers to spend an insane amount of hours to get the minimum pay. That’s how they get to sell their clothes at such ridiculously low prices.

Another big negative for Shein it’s the low care they give for the environment. The mass production of clothing that goes out of fashion quickly is making people change their entire wardrobes in a matter of weeks. This impacts the environment because all of this clothing that goes to waste is going to be around on the planet for longer than us.

I believe that this company can make changes to align their goals towards the right direction. They could focus their brand in more durable and good quality pieces of clothing as well as change the benefits and treatment they give for their workers. It would make things a little more expensive, but caring about the ethics of being responsible with society is the key to creating a strong, long lasting company. Their quick reach to success in their shady ways could be their downfall at some point.

The Company that came into my mind is H&M. That company is based on Stockholm I love this brand a lot as the clothes that they make are reasonable and are great to wear and they have so much variety to choose from I like their styles and their designs a lot as it have every seasons of clothes to wear and on reasonable prices too.

Three times the share of recycled materials used in garments from 5.8% to 17.9%, they have also reduced the plastic packaging by 27.8%, 98% of the suppliers have H&M group as the fair business partner 180 millions of SEK have spent in community investment initiatives. They used the recycling materials to turns the waste into fashion.

H&M group is a great place to work they have lots of perks and benefits if you work like good wages and competitive benefits, vacation paid off, holiday bonuses and great team place to work there. They promote empowering women in the workplaces that they have power off, and they invest in the planet in different ways like cutting the usage of the plastic packaging and uses of the digital payments so that people can uses the digital payments more and H&M fulfill all of those promises that they made and the mission they take to fulfil them energy conservation, sustainable supply chains and the stores that they uses for business, reducing carbon footprint and they participate in the community services also by promoting their future visions towards how to shape the company and their future about reducing the carbon footprint.

The company came into my mind is SpaceX, founded by Elon Musk. I interacted with it regularly to the extent that I followed and commented on its Official Account on Twitter, because I dream of someday working there.

SpaceX should be considered high socially responsible and pursuing a big goal of making humanity “multi-planetary”. The first step is to make  rockets affordable and reusable. In terms of philanthropy, SpaceX’s satellite provided Ukraine free internet during wartime. The small, easy-to-use satellite dishes made by Musk’s private rocket company SpaceX have been universally hailed as a game-changing source of communication for Ukraine’s military, allowing it to fight and stay online even as cellular phone and internet networks have been destroyed in its war with Russia. SpaceX is one of the few companies that fulfill all those missions: philanthropy, energy conservation, sustainable supply chains, reducing carbon footprint(reusability of rockets), fair trade, community service, volunteerism.

Ivan Ramos

3M is an American company operating in many fields of industry, worker safety, health care, and consumer goods. Most of us know them for producing face masks and respirator filters that we use to protect us from the Covid-19 virus. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, 3M joined forces with organizations like Ford Motors Company and GE HealthCare to produce medical equipment and protective gear for medical workers. That includes life saving essentials such as face masks, face shields, respirators and ventilators. These tools greatly helped in the effort to protect people globally during an international emergency. I interacted with this brand regularly during my travels abroad and during my daily commutes because I wanted to use a product that I can rely on and trust. Later on I realized that 3M was much more than a company that produces masks.

3M has been around for more than a century. They started as a local mining and manufacturing company in Minnesota. Now they are known by many, since their products and services improve the lives of people around the world. They have a presence in many industries like Industrial and Transportation, Display and Graphics, Consumer, Safety, and Security, Electronic and Communications. 3M helps customers and communities to face challenges by coming up with ways to turn waste into nutrients, providing clean water for people, improving healthcare and changing the way we use energy for the better. We all know that climate change is an important topic affecting our generation. 3M keeps communities powered with low carbon energy in a way that is sustainable and safe for the planet by making it easier to connect renewable energy to the main power grid. They also are positively affecting the way we use transportation. 3M has developed a lithium salt battery technology for electric cars, reducing our dependence on fossil fuels. They even developed a special glass for cars to make them stronger and lighter which saves people money and reduces greenhouse gas emissions. Their innovations led them to create a smart transportation system for dense cities in Asia. Along with reflective sheets so drivers can see road signs sooner and more clearly. Health and safety is also at the top 3M’s ethical principles. They apply their expertise to improve the taste and purity of water by removing odors and contaminants by reducing inorganic particles, bacteria and viruses from the water. This is especially helpful in developing communities where food insecurities exist.

Employees at 3M say the company is a great place to work because they feel 3M invests in the work culture and the people that works for them which leads to positive values and productivity. They see that the company aligns with their purpose of making the world a better place to live by supporting personal and community development, which makes corporate social responsibly a top priority for them. Their core values of respect for social and physical environment, relationship with their customers and the community affect how they do business and their long term decision making. For more than a hundred years 3M has been improving daily life globally and reshaping the way we live through engineering, science, innovation and sustainability.

Chelisa Ramsahai

Week B Assignment

The fast-food company that I enjoy and will be discussing is Chick-fil-a. This company is known for having one of the best customer service ratings because their employees go above and beyond in making sure their customers are satisfied. The company in return offers its employees many benefits such as giving out scholarships for studying, helping them to one day become franchise owners, and having good leaders for them to follow.

Chick-fil-a helps their communities in many ways. They often donate to many good causes, and they have donated 5 million dollars to 34 non-profit organizations through the Chick-fil-a true inspiration award program and 75 thousand dollars to the journey to dream program which helps teens that are homeless or have experienced physical abuse, drug abuse, or even deportation. These donations have helped many people within different communities and even save some.

The company also tries to be energy conservative through its sustainable design, back in 2019 the company started a program whereby they reduce their construction waste when building their new franchises. Construction waste was piling up in landfills, unable to be reused, with projections showing the global volume of annual construction waste to reach 2.2 billion tons by 2025. With more than 100 new restaurants planned for the next year, Chick-fil-A wanted to be part of the solution. So, they followed a process called “Lean Construction” and by doing so they saw a 50% reduction in construction waste which was beneficial for our planet. This also helped in reducing carbon footprint.

Chick-fil-a cares for its customers so they always try to get the best quality goods to make its delicious meals. They stand by the saying “Food is essential to life, therefore make it good”. They get their goods from supporting local suppliers and local farms which also brings jobs to these communities. Even though they take a hands-on approach when it comes to verifying their food suppliers making sure the quality and safety standards are met.

Overall chick-fil-a is a well-diverse organization that follows the values that they are here to serve, they believe in working together, they are purpose-driven, and they pursue what’s next. They do not have a lot to work on in making their franchise a better one as they are already doing a good job. However, I feel that since the covid-19 pandemic Chick-fil-a has not been 100% in customer service and customer accommodations since they had to change accommodations during the pandemic and since then they have not switched back. They need to take customers into consideration and have more eating space so that customers can sit and enjoy their meals. They could also be more energy efficient by using solar panels for electricity instead of using the typical power grid.

Chick-fil-a should also now have a more vigorous workplace health and safety plan in all employees should follow in making sure the surroundings are always clean and customers are safe in a purified area. Other than that, I think Chick-fil-a is a successful organization that has employees with good ethics, it’s an environmentally friendly organization, and benefits the communities they serve in more than one way.

I will gain an in-depth look at Dyson and their principles of social responsibility and ethical business. James Dyson is recognized as the world’s most creative entrepreneur and businessman, and an icon in high-end engineering and design. He has been innovating products since he was 23 years old. A leader who can continue to inspire innovation must have a firm belief in innovation.

Grasping innovation from the blank spot in the market Dyson has long determined that his goal is to develop products that are both trendy and in line with market demand, and completely improve the existing products on the market. He’s focused on redesigning everyday products that manufacturers have neglected to improve and that have afflicted users, especially household appliances that have a broad potential user base. He was never afraid to take risks. Dyson is well aware that innovation entails taking risks. He was never afraid to do unusual things. He deeply understands that the value of failure lies in learning from failure. He relentlessly pursued improvements to the product, constantly introducing more advanced versions. You must have heard the story of Sir James Dyson, who nearly went bankrupt in five years, and finally invented the world’s first bagless vacuum cleaner after trying 5,127 prototypes. Since then, the Dyson business has grown bigger and bigger, and its product categories have expanded from the original vacuum cleaner to bladeless fans, hand dryers, washing machines and, more recently, the successful hair dryer dysonsupersonic. For decades he has focused on revolutionizing household appliances and profoundly changing the market. His most famous product is the bagless vacuum cleaner, which has long become a legend in the business world.

Full control of the production process. For leaders to encourage innovation, they must make the work environment and operating mechanisms serve to stimulate creativity. In research, design and development, Dyson always makes decisions based on stimulating the creativity of designers, engineers and scientists. He champions good ideas and motivates researchers to think outside the box. During the research and design stages of new products, Dyson is always committed to creating the right environment to inspire innovation. He uses the experiences he has learned as a student to create a college campus-like environment. This model has been used as an example by today’s digital technology companies. Dyson said, “Everything, including the labs, is open. Everyone knows what everyone else is doing, resulting in a lot of creative interaction and inspiration. The values ​​of the business and Dyson’s own philosophy are Consistent: Don’t imitate others, don’t be afraid to be different, have the courage to doubt everything. This is a theme that runs through the Dyson business.

Because I have Dyson’s hair dryers, vacuum cleaners and energy-saving lamps in my house, I agree with his products and design concepts, that is, to challenge myself bravely and create new products for us to use.Then I hope to create products that save resources.

Nabeel Mohammad 

The company I chose is Nike. Nike was founded in 1964 and its original name was Blue Ribbon Sports. The company became Nike in 1971 and became popular in that year. They sponsor athletes and sports teams all around the world. It is one of the largest companies that a lot of people wear today. It makes footwear, clothes, accessories, etc.. In 2021 the company announced to sell refurbished sneakers at a lower price. Nike uses some, but not all eco-friendly materials that includes recycled cotton and polyester. Also has water reduction in their supply chain. 

Nike will only improve its sustainable practices with the goal of decreasing their carbon footprint by 2025. Additionally, Nike wants to eliminate hazardous chemicals by 2025. Nike’s social responsibility is to provide a healthy and tolerant work environment for all their employees. They have created a Nike foundation that gives back to the community in order to inspire global development and growth. Their corporate governance consider the company’s commitment to track the policy and decision making both at the executive and directors level. Nike helps fight hunger by sponsoring more than 190 families. With the company’s food service department they have donated 1.2 tons of food to Oregon Food Bank’s homeless programs.

Nike has many factories all around the world. They have about 600 factories located in 46 countries. Nike offers employees work 8-9 hours and get two 15 minute breaks and 1 hour long lunch break. Employees get paid $15 an hour at a starting wage. They get paid time off and discounts. Nike aims to provide safe and healthy workplaces, over 10,000 employees are happy.

A Lot of warehouses do not have air conditioning. I would suggest that they need to provide employees with a healthy environment so they can work comfortably.

A brand I would like to discuss is Amazon. I personally work at Amazon part time so I would like to describe my personal experience there. Workers at Amazon have lots of safety precautions while working in a warehouse. Workers are also given a $100 credit for a pair of boots on their website which has a steel toe so that if something heavy were to fall on their legs, it would protect their feet from any harm. The managers always perform safety checks before workers are allowed to work, to ensure that nobody gets hurt by the fault of Amazon. Workers are given very safe training as whenever an employee is hired, they are supervised for their first couple of days until they finish their training. 

Amazon also gives a lot of incentives for workers, for example, things such as a $100 bonus if you had reported a covid-19 vaccine. When people are working during the holiday season, a lot of opportunities pop up for people such as being able to get more shifts or bonuses on top of the shift(s) you already have.  Amazon recently has endured pressure from labor unions, for better pay as inflation is on the rise and so is the cost of basic necessities. In Nyc pay has risen from 2-5 dollars which is very good for public relations and for workers, as other businesses such as Mcdonald’s or Burger King still offer $15 as their pay which is not really liveable anymore in a place like Nyc. I have received a pay raise from 16.25 to 18.30 which I am really happy about.

Amazon’s policies for customers are very lenient, as they value customer satisfaction even if it comes at a loss of profit. If you receive a product that you purchased on Amazon and used it, you can return it for a full refund, many businesses today will not refund your money if you open and use the product. This is very good for customer relationships as you can buy practically anything and then return it if you don’t like it, as other competitors do not have such a policy. Amazon also will price match other competitors, so if it shows that Amazon has higher pricing then you can contact support and show proof that it is offered at a lower price at another competitor and they will give you the price that they have.

If you decide to bank with amazon, their credit card offer is very good and also a business tactic. Credit card holders can receive 5% back on any purchase that is on Amazon and Whole foods (Which Amazon owns) but only receive 1% on any other purchase. This heavily incentives for people to shop only at Amazon, because of the benefits that you can receive vs the ones you get on other purchases. Many credit cards only have 3-4% but a majority of the time is only on certain sections such as things like gas or dining which you will not see using very often compared to something like buying groceries or ordering house items to your house.

I feel like Amazon should take more of a bigger social outreach as many people do not hear about the positives that amazon offers for their workers, which is mostly hidden from the public and only known to workers. Amazon sometimes does things such as raffles where workers are given a chance to win a prize, it can consist of money, TVs or video game consoles. In my station personally, during the Christmas season, they gave us workers a raffle to win a Ps5 and a Nintendo switch, which I feel shows Amazon does care for workers as it is a very big reward sometimes compared to other big businesses that don’t do raffles at all.