Philanthropic Initiative in Sunshine Operations in China - Case Study Example

PHILANTHROPIC INITIATIVE IN SUNSHINE OPERATIONS IN CHINA al Affiliation PHILANTHROPIC INITIATIVE IN SUNSHINE OPERATIONS IN CHINA Introduction Acts of philanthropy are becoming more common within global organization as part of the corporate social responsibilities and strategies to create culturally sensitive business model. Acts of philanthropy include charity work and any form of material support to the general public. Sunshine, one of the computer hardware and service providers, is a company that embarks on ethical or philanthropy initiatives as one way of bringing their products close to the customers. Whereas philanthropic acts directly benefit the public, there is evidence that it results to consumer responsiveness and is one of the critical marketing tools of an organization. As the company launches its business strategy in countries such as China, it is apparent that cultural challenges are inevitable and the company must seek ways to create a sociable culture. Self-regulation is one of the strategies that the company can overcome the challenges that come along within such a market. This essay illustrates how Sunshine Company can focus on a philanthropic initiative and self-regulation to promote its operations within the market. Overview of the Organization Sunshine is one of the Fortune 500 companies that were founded in 1988. Over the years, the company has ventured in the design of home and office computers that have made it a popular company in the world of technology. The company also ventures in the design of high end computers that target the high profile market and production of servers, data storage devices and networking equipment. In an era of technological proliferation, the organization has benefited from rapid growth in the demand of computers, networking equipment and storage devices (Geert-hofstede.com, 2015). As a result, the company has experienced high profits from sales, making it one of the best companies in terms of technological innovation and design of efficient systems. Although the market has been competitive, the company has increased its sales through efficient market and strategic positioning. Secondly, the demand is increasing in new markets and the company has launched international strategies to target emerging markets. The company head office is based in America but the company has another branch in China that has now become a great source of its profits. As China is one of the rapidly developing economies, the demand for technological equipment and services has consistently increased. However, in the China, the company has experienced a wide range of challenges due to the cultural inclinations of the market. Culture is one of the challenges that have become more common in the international market. Culture influences the purchasing patterns of the people and the attitudes of Sunshine’s target customers (Alon, 2003). Since 1989, the company has embarked on Philanthropy as one way of creating harmony with their customers. The company has set up a Philanthropy department whose aim is to create ethical initiatives that will promote the organizations marketability. Ethical/ Philanthropic Initiative The concept of philanthropy has become increasingly important in modern organizations. Philanthropic initiatives refers to any form of actions that symbolise sacrifice by an organization with the intention of promoting life and making the quality of life better for human beings (BusinessDictionary.com, 2015). To achieve this, organization need to sacrifice their resources and time to ensure that they promote the welfare of the people. Sunshine has engaged in a number of charity works in China including donations, volunteering and raising money for health improvement. The company has used its resources in various occasions to contribute to social welfare and promote the people of China. The rationale for using Philanthropy within both domestic and international environment is to create a corporate social responsibility culture within an organization (Carroll, 2012). Companies use corporate social responsibility as one way of giving back to society for their continuous support for the organizational goals. Since Sunshine is a company that depends on the customer attitude and owes its success on customer loyalty, there is need to give back to the public as part of their strategies to establish long-term relationships with the people. From a different side, corporate social responsibility is a marketing tool that helps a company to reach out for its customers and to win their loyalty. The public is more responsive to companies that are concerned with its problems and will respond by portraying positive attitude towards such a company (Harvard Business Review, 1994). Secondly, through such actions, the company is able to roll out its manifesto to the people and interact with them freely. Therefore, the people learn the company better and hence tend to become attracted towards its stores. Therefore, Sunshine can use philanthropic acts not only to that the community but also to create company awareness. Besides, charity works are crucial in overcoming the challenges that often arise within the international environment. In countries such as China, companies have to adapt to the cultural factors of the market that influence the consumption patterns within the market. Customers tend to purchase from companies which are familiar to them (Weeden, 2011). As companies enter such markets, they have to recruit workers from different culture and target customer from diverse population. Philanthropic acts aims at winning the minds of the people, both the customers and staff, to ensure that they portray positive attitudes towards the organizational goals. From the perspective, Sunshine needs to change its strategic objectives by focussing more on philanthropic acts that will create product awareness and win the loyalty of the employees. Therefore, the charity works are two way, as they offer benefits both to the people as well as to the company that initiates them. Organizational Change To conduct philanthropic initiative will require a different approach for Sunshine, both in China and the US (Sen & Bhattacharya, 2001). One major focus of the ethical initiative will be to contribute to educational development of the youths, both able and disabled. To achieve this, the company will require funds that will be raised from the company’s income. In this light, the company will put a charity mark on its products and 2% of the sales of each product will be donated for charity. Therefore, the customer will be aware that buy purchasing the product, they will be helping Sunshine Company to engage in charity work. This targets those customers who are philanthropists and would be willing to contribute to charity by purchasing the company products in China. In both China and US, the charity department will set up funds that will be dedicated to finance primary educational facilities. For instance, the company will donate computers and books to Hope School in China as part of the charity program. Secondly, the company will hold charity shows within China and US, which will target members of public who would be interested in donating towards charity. The Charity department will mobilise all social people from all walks of life to come together with the company to support the society. Charity shows will be held across the countries, which will aim at sensitizing the people to contribute towards improvement of education. The company will target influential newspapers and magazines as well as the television media to create awareness of the program and invite various celebrities to advertise the company’s program. This will involve inviting celebrities who can offer themselves at no cost to advertise the charity program and to attract people towards this initiative (Weeden, 2011). Creating awareness will ensure that there are as many people as possible who know about Sunshine’s charity acts and who are willing to join in supporting education. Funds raised during the charity shows will aim at reducing the economic gaps that are pronounced in America and China. One target group will be the disabled children who face problems due to their poor backgrounds. As technology company, it will be more relevant to promote technology within schools for disabled. Therefore, the company will donate computers and set up internet connection within these schools. This strategy aims at empowering the disabled by supporting them to become aware of technology and to become productive citizens in future (Roberts, 2009). In addition, the company will provide employment and practice for the masses of unemployed in the society to close the unemployment problems that persist in countries such as China. The employees’ competence will be crucial in implementing the charity program for Sunshine. To ensure that employees have essential skills required for accomplishment of this program, the company will provide training on work awareness, need for dedication, team work and other professional conduct skills. The company will provide training courses to make the employee understand the value of charity, how it is accomplished and how to manage various charity events. In the short-term, the training process will involve educating the employees on the benefits of charity work (Porter & Kramer, 2006). This will cover the first one month of training, before long-term measures are engaged. The long-term process, which will take 3 months, will involve training the workers on how to cope with various challenges that arise within the implementation of the charity program. The training program will ensure that the employees are well prepared to handle the charity department activities with high degree of efficiency. Sunshine company should aim to keep their expenditures as low as possible while optimizing the benefits (McGuire, Sundgren & Schneeweis, 2011). The company will spend about £100 in rebranding its products and including a charity symbol on its products during a one month period. Next, the company will use £4000 to create online awareness to educate the public about the program. The volunteers will be provided with T-Shirts bearing the company logo and the charity event name which is expected to cost £7 each. During the charity event, a venue will be hired at a cost of about £2,000 and the decoration of the venue is expected to cost about £1,200. Each media will cost about £50 and at least five media will be present in the event. For charity work, Hope School will receive a donation of £40, 000 dollars. The computer, books and pens donations will amount to £50,000, £20,000 and £10,000 respectively. Besides, the company will incur daily advertisements cost of £300 and radio, social media and newspaper which will cost £200 each daily. Cultural Conflict and Misunderstandings Since Sunshine will conduct charity work within different countries, cultural conflict and misunderstandings are inevitable. In anticipation, the company will implement self-regulation as one way of ensuring that the company can effectively manage various challenges that may arise as Sunshine implements its charity work in different countries. Self-regulations ensure that the company’s teams are aware of the challenges and that they have the right skills to tackle the problems as they arise (Levy, 1999). Since different countries have different attitudes to charity work, there is need to prepared adequately while working with a diverse population. To achieve self-regulation, the company’s team will have a positive attitude right from the beginning towards the participating population. A positive attitude towards the people will attract them to participate actively within the event and to become active members of the program. Secondly, the teams will be formed in an approach that takes care of diversity and embraces cross-cultural integration. For instance, all teams will include people from all cultures to ensure that they reflect them same picture while handling the public. Therefore, the members of public will understand that Sunshine’s is a place for all cultures and no one is left behind in the company’s events. The staff will be trained on diversity management and the way to handle people from different cultures. Understanding the public will foster positive interaction and pave way for active participation. For instance, those who can speak the Chinese language will be allowed to take the lead in China, where majority of the population are Chinese. This will create rapport and avoid cultural misunderstandings. Effective communication of the purpose of the event will be crucial to prevent any cultural conflicts (Clausen, 2007). Communication leadership is crucial as it allows both leaders and the public to contribute in the event. The success of the organization in managing the cultural attitudes will be crucial in making the event a success. Strengths and Weaknesses The strengths of the Sunshine charity event emanates from the ability to appeal to the public through the media and to invite people from across the country. The use of internet and media advertisement is essential to capture all the populations and to bring the event to their attention. Secondly, the charity event is comprehensive contributes to company awareness, which will help in establishing long-term relationship with potential customers. However, the weaknesses of the event hail from the inability to provide a rationale for selecting the beneficiaries of the charity event (Muirhead & Conference Board, 2006). Selecting the beneficiaries in a random manner may attract opposition as the company may appear biased in one way or the other. Secondly, the company needs to use the event as a marketing tool by exhibiting the company products to ensure that customers are aware not only of the company but also the various products they offer. This way, the event will have a two-way positive impact both to the community as well as to Sunshine’s long-term survival. Recommendations From the critical analysis of the Sunshine’s philanthropy event, there is need to come up with clear criteria for selecting the beneficiaries. For instance, the company should select the schools with respect to the poverty levels or number of technological equipment available. This is to ensure that only worthy institutions and those that are economically disadvantaged receive charity donations (Jones, Indexes, Register & Socially, 2008). As learnt, charity work should target closing social problems such as economic disparities within the society. In addition, having a clear procedure will help to solve issues that may arise after the event. Next, the company needs to focus on charity events as a marketing strategy for the organization. While corporate social responsibility is a way to give back to the society, it can be used to optimize organizational performance (Kiger, 2000). In this light, the company should use this event as a platform to create public awareness about their products and services, specifically targeting learning institutions that are major customers of computer products. This way, the company will benefit through the charity event by making their products more known in the market. Conclusion In conclusion, Philanthropic initiatives are crucial in the modern business environments as they seek to promote the society along its business development goals. Philanthropy refers to the provision of resources to support the society and to help them overcome some of their social problems. A company such as Sunshine that targets the international market must be aware of the social problems of the people and find ways to solve them. The Sunshine Charity event seeks to promote education among schools by making donations such as books, computers and internet technology. Supporting schools for disabled helps to empower the weak in society and to make them productive people in the society. While this event is effective in mobilising funds and people to come support a cross-cultural program, it fails to use a transparent rationale for selecting the beneficiaries of the program. Secondly, it does not realise the marketing needs that need to be accomplished through such social events. Therefore, there is need to come up with clear procedures to select those who benefit from the event and an innovative way to use the event to market the organizational products. Bibliography Alon, I, 2003, Chinese culture, organizational behavior, and international business management. 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