Ethical decision making for Procter And Gamble Essay

Procter & pretend (PG) is a world-wide investor, a troupe that is al g overnment agencys on top of trade and reinforcing its send call as being at the top of the pack. One example of how the alliance has used social media to reinforce its fall guy and then offer a short term income play. The creativity in market to twenty-four hours house be amazing when ane uses social networking in combination with brand aw arness. And this type of quick thinking and aw beness can install a social club apart, contributing to sales. Procter and Gamble is a great example of this. P&G has a purpose to keep current on events that materialize with the day that could hold in an impact on its brands. It looks for things that could possibly baffle a direct attitude upon loyal customers. In one instance, for example, the flow brand came to the rescue after a fiery explosion during the Dayton vitamin D cover the Speedway with 200 gallons of burning fuel. TV viewers watched track workers emp loy Tide to clean the track during a two-hour delay in the slap-up American Race. bodily Governance is the interaction of the management, shargonholders and Board of Directors to help ascertain that all investors both(prenominal) careholders and creditorsare protected against managers acting solely in their let best interest. Corporate Governance consists of laws, policies, procedures and, most importantly, practices that ensure the upbeat of the assets of the Company. Corporate Governance is at its highest levels when management acts as if they are long-run investors in the Company.The policies, procedures and practices spelled out in this section demonstrate that Procter & Gamble engineers Corporate Governance very seriously. Our management acts as long-term investors of the Company because they, equivalent most Procter & Gamble employees at all levels, are in occurrence long-term investors.Employees Are Long-Term InvestorsIn 1887, before P&G was even a publicly traded g uild, William Cooper Procter introduced a profit-sharing plat stochastic variable for employees. At the time he said, We should let the employees share in the firms earnings. That go forth give them an incentive to increase earnings. He revised that course of study in 1903 to exact the profit sharing be awarded in the form of actual P&G stock. He reasoned that as employees became stockholders, their stinting interests and those of the Company would be bound more closely together.That program console exists today with a large part of each U.S. employees retreat consisting of P&G stock. Additionally, virtually all employees declare P&G stock or stock uncorrupteds via various investment programs. Because of that fact, employees economic interests are aligned to those of the Company.Further, our Executive Share Ownership Program requires senior executives to own shares of Company stock and/or restricted stock units valued at eight times base salary for the Chief Executive ships officer, and fiver times base salary for the other senior executives. Non-employee directors must own Company stock and/or restricted stock units worth hexad times their annual cash applyer. These compensation programs help to ensure the concretion of the interests of our senior executives and directors with shareholders.A Foundation of Integrity, Control and StewardshipP&G has a well history of operating with integrity by means ofout the Companyat all levels, in all countries, both inbredly and externally. Our actions and the actions of all our employees are governed by our Purpose, set and Principles. The basis for every decision we bear at P&G can be found in our Purpose, Values and Principlesour PVPs. The clarity and constancy of the Companys PVPs is the one figure higher up all others that has driven the Companys growth over generations. Our payload to operate responsibly is reflected in the steps we have in calculate to ensure rigorous monetary go over and Corp orate Governance. We have an active, sufficient and diligent Board of Directors that meets the required standards of independence, with members who understand their intention in providing upstanding Corporate Governance. Our Audit Committee is comprised exclusively of independent directors, with significant financial knowledge and experience. The Audit Committee also meets regularly in unavowed session with the Companys independent auditors, Deloitte & Touche LLP. We maintain a strong internal control environment. Our rigorous business process controls include pen policies and procedures, segregation of duties and the careful selection and development of employees. The system is designed to ply reasonable assurance that transactions are executed as legitimate andappropriately recorded, that assets are safeguarded and that accounting records are sufficiently reliable to reserve the preparation of financial statements conforming in all material esteem with accounting principl es generally accepted in the U.S. We monitor these internal controls with an ongoing program of audit self-assessment and internal and external audits. We maintain disclosure controls and procedures designed to ensure that information required to be disclosed is recorded, processed, summarized and storey in a timely and absolute manner. Our Disclosure Committee is comprised of senior-level executives accountable for evaluating disclosure implications of significant business activities and events. We execute financial stewardship by maintaining specific programs and activities to ensure that employees understand their fiduciary responsibilities to shareholders. This ongoing effort encompasses financial discipline in strategic and daily business decisions and brings particular focus to maintaining accurate financial reporting and effective controls. In addition, our Global Leadership Council is actively involved in rigorous oversight of the business. We reinforce key employee r esponsibilities through the Companys Worldwide Business Conduct, which details managements and the Board of Directors commitment to conduct the Companys business in the flesh(predicate) matters with high respectable standards. Every employee is required to be trained on the Companys Worldwide Business Conduct Manual, and every employee is held personally accountable for compliance. Portions of the Worldwide Business Conduct Manual comprise P&Gs Code of Ethics for SEC and new York monetary fund Exchange Regulatory Purposes, as further described in the Manual.Doing Whats RightP&Gs reputation is earned by our conduct what we say, what we do, the products we make, the services we provide and the way we act and treat others. As conscientious citizens and employees, we want to do what is right. For P&G, and our global operations, this is the just now way to do business. A.2.1.5.1. External reporting on social/ethical issues 100.0% A+ The company provides comprehensive and transpare nt social/ethical reporting on a regular basis. Coverage aggroup-wide coverage (= 100% of employees arecover by reporting). Comment The company reports on social/ethical issues in its Sustainability Reports and on its corporate website as well as affiliated websites (www.scienceinthebox.com, www.pgbeautyscience.com). The company provides information on employees (diversity and health & safety data, layoffs/outplacement programs, training, working conditions), product responsibility, as well as on its community involvement and philanthropic initiatives. In addition, P&G reports on HSE non-compliance and fines. Some issues in the report are covered in-depth (e.g. community initiatives, diversity, training and consumer information). Some issues, however, are only covered in a rather general way (e.g. working conditions). apart from policies and standards, there is only little information on the companys supply chain management such(prenominal) as on supplier audits or counseling wit h regard to social issues. The companys 2007 sustainability report was prepared using the Global Reporting Initiatives reporting guidelines. No information is available whether the report has been audited by an external accountant. BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) Procter & Gamble Co. and Unilever have battled over many another(prenominal) things over the decades, from soap shares to spy scandals. only when the latest battleground may be the most surprising and challenging a race to show whos best at frugality the world. P&G Global Marketing Officer Jim StengelP&G Global Marketing Officer Jim StengelNothing indicates the outgrowth hold ethical marketing has on the industry better than the concepts growing embrace by the worlds two enlargedgest spenders. While both have been engaged in such efforts for classs, theyre talking active them, and particularly advertising them, worry never before.No less than criterion Gates recently mentioned Unilever as a top-of-mind example of a co mpany involved in sustainability efforts in a CNBC interview from the World economical Forum in Davos, Switzerland. Unilever also won top honors in global ethical-reputation rankings from PR-monitoring firm Covalence in 2007 and Columbia Universitys Botwinick Prize in business ethics, in part for such efforts as Doves Campaign for Real Beauty which aims to reach 5 million girls with egoism programs.In fact, the line between doing good and marketing has become misty enough that Doves Evolution viral video had to be yanked from a not-for-profit classification at the brave minute to qualify for last years Film Grand Prix at Cannes.The same day as Mr. Gates interview, P&G indicated it would be communicating well-nigh its sustainability efforts defined to encompass a broad range of community-betterment programs a overmuch bigger priority in 2008.P&G goes beyondIt will be hard to do more communicating than P&G already has done. At least eight P&G brands have active ad campaigns tou ting environmental or philanthropic efforts, everything from Always and Tampax encouraging efforts to keep African girls in school by providing them with free sanitary- tax shelter products to Pantene assembling locks of haircloth for cancer patients. Two of those efforts already are leading to advanced-product throwes, in the cases of Pantene and Pur water filters, the latter having switched ad agencies in part to advance its cause-related marketing.though both P&G and Unilever see prospects for substantial gains from such efforts on their bottom lines and for the communities in which they operate, both acknowledge that much of the effort is for internal consumption. Simply put, its getting impossible to attract or retain marketers without a solid reputation for ethical marketing.We are seeing, particularly with the new generation of young business muckle and young marketers, that they are only attracted to companies that fit with their own value set, said Kevin Havelock, cha irwoman of Unilever U.S. And the value set of the new generation is one that says this company must take a positive and global view on the global environment. The ethical positions we take on brands like Dove, the positions we take on not using models of surface zero across any of our brands, the positions we take in terms of adding anchor to communities these all underpin an attractiveproposition for marketers.Its a uniform story at P&G, which has had a fairly long customs of marketers leaving for philanthropic or religious pursuits.Cause-marketing efforts have a big motivational impact, said P&G Global Marketing Officer Jim Stengel. It fires the agencies up, too. It just feels like youre playing to a higher-order ideal.Telling everyone hardly neither P&G nor Unilever is just preaching to the choir anymore, or even limiting the message to its long-standing public-relations silo. Theyre increasingly incorporating their cause marketing into mainstream brand advertising and pro duct assortments.P&Gs Pur has one of the most elaborate cause-marketing efforts a $20 million program that aims to reform 2 billion liters of water in Africa and save 10,000 lives by 2012.New Age as the program may be, the ads are classic megabucks goods. The Pur water-purification packets make for an amazing product demo. Take the most turbid swamp water imaginable, mix in a sachet of Pur Purifier of Water and strain it through a cloth. Within a minute or so, it produces a ewer of perfectly clear, drinkable water.The trouble is, the people who need it most have no money. Hence it became one of the cornerstone projects in the companys global Live, Learn, Thrive philanthropic program, albeit with a commercial twist.P&G has licensed the product to Canadas Reliance Products for a U.S. launch aimed at campers and disaster-preparedness kits that broke in late February behind a feature in P&Gs March and April Brand Saver newspaper coupon inserts.Saatchi gets in the gameThough those a ds for the P&G-Reliance effort came from Quigley-Simpson, a Los Angeles direct-response agency, Purs shift to a sustainability message played a role in the shift of the brands creative account to Omnicom themes TBWA/Chiat Day, Playa Del Rey, Calif., from Publicis Groupes Saatchi & Saatchi, Los Angeles, last year.Saatchi lost Pur, but the agency has decidedly not given up on sustainability. In January, Saatchi acquired San Francisco-based consultancy Act immediately Productions, headed by former Sierra Club executive turned Wal-Mart adviser Adam Werbach, to form a Saatchi & Saatchi S (for sustainability).The growing interest in sustainability issues from P&G, Unilever, Wal-Mart and others is creating ripples of change throughout marketing services. ARS Group, which for decades has tested TV reduplicate for P&G and others in package-goods, recently formed its own fleeceable consulting unit, ARSGreen.What ARS is finding underlines the big reason that sustainability has become so popular with analytical package-goods types it works at least sometimes.Green ads in the ARS database do near as well as others on recall and persuasion, said Ashley Grace, president of ARSGreen and head of research and development for ARS Group. Doing about average is actually a testament to sustainabilitys selling power, as he sees it.Offering solutionsIn our database, about one out of 50 ads usually has a veto tone, Mr. Grace said. In the parking lot data set, its more like 75%. ARS has found for decades that negative ads which raise a problem without crack a real solution usually fare poorly in tests. But negative green ads generally do about average. And green ads that go the extra step of offering tangible solutions can sometimes score exceptionally well. Ashley Grace, president of ARSGreen and head of research and development for ARS Group Ashley Grace, president of ARSGreen and head of research and development for ARS GroupWhile many in the package-goods industry beli eve sustainability messages resonate with only about 10% to 15% of consumers, ARS research indicates such appeals can sway about two-thirds of people, including 24% in the hard-core health and sustainability segment who rate both personal and environmental health highly.To be sure, copy testing is widely loathed by advertising agencies, particularly creatives. But marketers such as P&G use the results because they correlate with sales results.Its clear that ethical marketing really can make a difference in peoples lives. For example, since P&Gs Pantene launched its Beautiful Lengths program in 2006 to solicit locks of hair to be woven into wigs for women receiving cancer treatments, it has gotten enough donations to make 3,000 wigs. Compare that to the 2,000 wigs created over 10 days by the previously quick charity in the space, Locks of Love.It doesnt hurt P&G, of course, that Oprah snipped the locks of Hilary Swank on air for one of those wigs, or that schoolgirls have organized events to collect hundreds of hair donations at once. Oh, and it dovetails nicely with the launch of Pantene Beautiful Lengths shampoo and conditioner later this year to care for those long locks.Mitigating factorsOf course, such programs only work if other factors, such as product and pricing, are also right. For example, P&G Chairman-CEO A.G. Lafley set the U.S. Pantene business as the only real problem in the companys global hair-care portfolio in a January investor conference call, but the share losses date to the brands restage last year, not to the launch of Beautiful Lengths a year earlier. Unilevers Campaign for Real Beauty, bandage very much alive, last year stopped delivering double-digit sales gains Unilever had seen the prototypal two years of the effort. Doves 2007s new-product lineup didnt go over as well as prior years (and a price hike on bar soap, not ab initio reciprocated by P&G and others, didnt help, either).By whatever key out ethical, sustainable or cau se marketing is an important secondary factor for consumers, said Unilevers Mr. Havelock. A great product at the right price is the entry point, he said. Once there, a company or a brand that has a social responsibility position or a sustainability position will then have an edge over other brands.Of course, in an age of social media, marketings good deeds seldom go entirely unpunished, and never unquestioned. Even P&Gs ads about efforts to provide free sanitary protection in Africa to help keep girls from missing school, which broke in celestial latitude from Publicis Groupes Leo Burnett Co., have prompted lengthy discussions on some blogs criticizing the motives in using giveaways to develop new markets and generating more waste as a result.When you do it in the right way, with the right tone and authenticity, consumers reward us for these programs, Mr. Stengel said, citing Pampers 20-country, multiyear effort to shake tetanus via Unicef as the P&G program that appears to have h ad the biggest positive impact on sales and brand lawfulness to date.Such programs work best when owned by the brand, which is why P&G, like Unilever, has generally avoided multi-company efforts such as the Red campaign to fight AIDS or the Susan G. Komen pink-ribbon campaign against breast cancer, instead focusing on efforts linked specifically to their own brands equity and function. It has to be right for the brands voice, said Mr. Stengel. And it has to really work for the business.