COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS 100 ASSESSMENT 2 Student Name: A. Student Student Number: 12345678 Student’s Email Address: [email protected] Tutor’s Name: Hannah Vickers Tutorial Day and Time: Friday, 8.00am Name of Company: Honda Motor Title: Local Network Submission Semester/ Campus Details: (Word Count: 1189/1320) Global compact Submission Striving-to-be-a-company-society-wants-to-exist A.Student Chief-Executive-Officer Honda-Motor-Company 04-10-2014 Contents Our-Commitment 4 Human-Rights (Benefits-and-Challenges) 5 Environmental-Initiatives (Benefits-and-Challenges) 6 Implications-for-Stakeholders 7 References 8 At Honda, we have always understood that our achievement is not determined solely by the vehicles we produce, but also by the sustainability efforts we make to benefit society. Ever since its early stage, Honda has embraced its obligations as a corporate citizen and strived to return to society. Our responsibilities to various stakeholders have guided us for over half a century (Honda 2014), and ensured that our business practices have a positive impact on society. In the past few years Honda has been committed to incorporating CSR into core strategy and reflecting them in day-to-day operations, thus improving corporate social performance especially in terms of human rights and environmental protection. In the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project)’s report of Global 500 companies, we were selected as one of twelve international leaders for environmental performance (CDP 2013). The abundant experience in protecting the environment and human rights ensures Honda to contribute significantly towards building a sustainable society by sharing with other companies both our acclaimed practices and our lessons learned. This submission, therefore, contains our representative practices, valuable lessons and sound recommendations with an overall evaluation for better complying with the following UNGC Principles: Principle 1: "Businesses should support and respect the protection of internationally proclaimed human rights." Principle 8: "Businesses should undertake initiatives to promote greater environmental responsibility." For employees, we have established the Business Ethics Improvement Proposal Line to facilitate employees to discuss and address their issues regarding fairness and working conditions, and launched the Women Career Support Program (Coffin 2003). For customers, Honda has “Orange Dealers”, who provide special-needs vehicles, barrier-free showrooms and restrooms suitable for wheelchair users (Honda 2014). Consequently, we are proud to see that our internal ethical activities improve employee welfare and operating efficiency, and the external human rights initiatives in turn encourage the workforce to develop. Admittedly, despite these achievements our stand was challenged in 2010 when a string of strikes broke out in China’s plants due to our neglect of the changing expectations of workers (see Chinese Honda Strike a Wake-up Call for Japan). We solved this issue by communicating actively with workers and heeding similar situations in other regions. From this incident we have learned lessons that with higher occupational expectations of the new generation of workers in developing countries, Honda, as a multinational company, must anticipate the change in social values and respond by fully comprehending these concerns and then addressing them with speed. Therefore, we propose the following recommendation in keeping with principle 1: Recommendation 1: Establish regional human rights review programs to anticipate and understand social changes, identify local human rights problems between companies and stakeholders, and hold periodical roundtable meetings of all regional program managers to share and develop. BENEFITS: It will significantly reduce the neglect of changing concerns and expectations of stakeholders and address relevant human rights issues before conflicts happen. It will improve and speed up corporate social responsiveness as the company now has a better understanding of social expectations. It will prevent huge reputational and financial losses by identifying issues in advance and learning from other regions where the company also operates. It will decrease business criticism, increase respect and positive publicity, and thus increase market share and employee retentions. CHALLENGES: The program may become ineffective as it is still under management control, but the management is becoming increasingly keen on corporate social responsibility as they know how this will benefit the company. With ethical awareness widely raised in society, companies cannot risk their own future. Expenses will be incurred, such as investigation and labour costs, but offset by the benefits the program offers including the prevention of costly conflicts. As an automobile manufacturer, we have always understood that Honda has greater responsibility for protecting the environment and nurturing the next generation. Since 2000, we have conducted a program named “Hello Woods” to hold forums about forest rejuvenation (Honda 2014). Our support of the environment is included in the environmental performance report available on the Honda website. We are also very proud of the introduction of water-based paint at Honda Asian plants. In Asia, which lacks regulations forbidding solvent-based paint whose emissions cause acid rain and destroy forests, very few car manufacturers use water-based paint due to its higher cost. (Stewart 2014). Honda of Japan stressed these problems and encouraged workers to work with technical teams. As a result, we realise that water-based paint covers more efficiently than solvent-based paint, and by using less paint we can cut down the cost and introduce water-based paint successfully. Surprisingly, it was some direct workers who first found this result. Importantly, we’ve learnt that we can never ignore the influence of employees on improving environmental performance. Their attitudes are critical to successfully implement environmental policies, and because of their close relationship with production, they can make very useful suggestions on our environmental improvements. Based on this review, we recommend the following practice to achieve compliance to principle 8: Recommendation 2: Track and record environmental impact at important stages of the value chain, communicate the periodic results to related employees, and reward employees who give constructive proposals. BENEFITS: This will relate companies’ environmental impact directly to their business activities and thus confirm acceptable behaviour and performance of both companies and employees. This will facilitate employees to fully understand how their roles influence the environment and encourage them to participate in environmental responsiveness, collectively contributing to environmental sustainability. By monitoring environmental impact on each stage of the value chain, companies can effectively reduce their environmental footprints and thus uphold their social contract. Encouraging employees to participate will inspire their creativity and initiative, resulting in cost saving for the company. CHALLENGES: There may be employees who still choose to be indifferent, but building a culture where the majority has a positive attitude towards sustainability will motivate them to exert themselves. IMPLICATIONS: Honda will be able to anticipate changes in social values, respond with speed and flexibility, and prevent huge reputational and financial losses. We can provide environmentally sustainable businesses, meeting our social contract and gaining customer loyalty. Customers, as core stakeholders, will enjoy ethical purchase in a circumstance without discrimination and environmental hazards. Employees, as primary stakeholders, will have their rights better protected, their voices easily heard and their potentials better fulfilled. Suppliers have to become more environmentally friendly as companies will review their impact through the whole value chain, which thereby improves performance of the supply chain. Communities will get improved. Special interest groups, as secondary stakeholders, will relieve their concerns. RISKS: Shareholders may face a short-term earnings reduction due to costs of these practices, but will benefit in a long term as the company improves its reputation and customer loyalty. Whether respecting fundamental human rights or minimizing the environmental impact of our international operations, Honda seeks to be a responsible company. Through sharing our recommendations with Honda management, we wish to make a joint effort for a sustainable society where every stakeholder can enjoy life. A. Student Director-of-Honda-Motor References: Carbon Disclosure Project. 2014. CDP Global 500 Climate Change report 2013. Accessed 4 October 2014. https://www.cdp.net/enUS/Results/Pages/leadership-index.aspx Coffin, Bill. 2003. "Ethics and Compliance at Honda of America." Risk Management 50 (12):12-16. Honda Worldwide. 2014. Honda CSR Report 2014. Accessed 4 October 2014. http://world.honda.com/CSR/index.html Stewart, John. 2014. “How Waterborne Paint Is Changing the Automotive Industry.” Specialty Equipment Market Association. http://www.sema.org/sema-enews/2012/14/how-waterborne-paint-is-changing-the-auto-industry Tabuchi, Hiroko. 2010. "Chinese Honda strike a wake-up call for Japan." The New York Times:B1. United Nations Global Compact. 2014. Accessed 4 October 2014. http://www.unglobalcompact.org/index.htm.