Sustainability

Milton Friedman’s statement is completely old-fashioned. Friedman said it many years ago and until the eighties this was an idea shared by most economists and businessmen. Since then, things havechanged and so have the economic theories. First of all, people have realized that shareholders are as important in a company as stakeholders. Secondly, to be a successful company these days it isessential to be aware of the importance of corporate responsibility. Finally, if the world where we live and its people are not respected by a company, this company will not be accepted in this world.In the first place, stakeholders include employers, employees, clients, suppliers and shareholders, among others; this means that the power now is not only of the owners of the company, they are notthe ones who play the most important role, as it used to be in the industrial revolution, for example. Nowadays, workers are also very important. If an employee doesn’t feel comfortable and accepted inthe company he might move to another one with a better working environment. So companies need to treat well the employees in order to ensure this doesn’t happen.

In the second place, corporateresponsibility is not an option today. In the future, only companies that make sustainability will achieve competitive advantage. The focal point of all business activities is the customer and thesatisfaction of its needs. So, if nowadays, few people accept a company which is damaging the environment, companies need to treat the environment well. However, there are still some companies that aredamaging our world but the consumers are not aware of it. These types of companies are probably going to drop soon: when the world heard what are they doing. This is what happened to Nike some years agowhen it was known that they were exploiting children in developing countries.

In the third and last place, people are very sensitive to the environment so companies are under pressure from...