Part 1
Lush is a Company that sells Fresh and handmade cosmetics. On their website, they describe their corporate view and how they act according to their corporate view in what regards to corporate ethics or corporate social responsibility. To begin with, they defend a position in which all companies should be ethical, and thus, the term ethical or unethical applied to a company should not be used. They refer to being ethical, which all corporations should be, and should continually strive to improve, means to fulfil the organization’s responsibility to their customers, respecting animal’s rights, the society in regards to taxes, as well as fighting poverty and the environment (Is Lush an Ethical Company).
Lush intends to show the world that is possible to comply with the law in what refers to safety requirements, without testing on animals, which means protecting animal's rights. They lobbied and campaigns against animal testing, and finally, it is illegal to sell products that have been tested on animals (Is Lush an Ethical Company).
Lush clearly puts all its efforts for meeting its philanthropic responsibilities. Not only it complies with legal and economic responsibilities, but it has met ethical responsibilities as it fought against animal testing, lobbying and campaigning. Lush acknowledges how they are evolving continually to respond to the world's events, legislations, and their aspirations. They know they are not perfect, but they try to get closer to their ideal vision and expectations as a company, their staff, customers and the needs of the planet. Lush created a Charity Pot product to raise funds for charities and good causes they support around the world. Whenever they find that it is needed, they try to implement programs to educate people. Lush helps fight child labor and assist them to get back to education. They want to help the world be better. Lush goes beyond the minimum requirements that finance and legislation and even basic ethical expectations require. They want to be part of the movement to change the world, to create change. They want to show the world that it is possible to go beyond, and being ethical should not mean to stand out (Is Lush an Ethical Company). All the companies should be ethical. But they go one step further; they do not consider themselves ethical because they have philanthropic responsibilities.
Part 2
Friedman theory about Social Corporate Responsibility is a shareholder theory. He believes a Corporation does not have social responsibilities, instead, he sustains that it is the the executives of the company who have responsibilities. He specifically mentioned as social responsibilities considered as part of the Social Corporate Responsibility areas such as no discrimination and reducing pollution. As this paper was written in 1970, surely there are several aspects that today are important that were not as highly appreciated by most of the society as they are today, such as carbon tax, or animal cruelty. Friedman theory claims that the corporate executive is responsible for its employees and the desires of the shareholders or stockholders, which generally is to do business to gain as much financial profit while complying with the law. Exceptions are corporations which have a particular goal such as a hospital or school. Theirs is not profit but providing a service such as education or health (Friedman, 1).
According to Friedman, when a corporation takes measures such as not increasing the price of products to help reduce inflation, even if it goes against its benefit, or if it reduces pollution even when it means cutting profit and spending more than law obliges, these are examples of what he considered to have social corporate responsibilities. The result is that it encourages competitiveness through the virtue and unselfish reasons, and their own expense, and so they force others to be also responsible for their actions. The result is that it becomes harder to exploit other people for selfish reasons (Friedman, 2). Ultimately, as it continues to encourage competitiveness through corporate social responsibilities, Friedman considers that this approach is still designed to increase profits, just within new rules: freedom, opens, non-deception and no fraud (Friedman, 4).
This last definition of the new game that Friedman describes seems to go in line with Lush's goal. Lush proposes that there should not be companies that are ethical because it means that some companies are not. In other words, what Lush is saying is that all businesses should strive continually to improve the way they do activities to help the World be a better place. Friedman would be very happy about this approach, and he would surely agree with many of Lush's ways of doing business such as the green policies. Friedman does not mention in his paper animal protection or organic products; however he does say discrimination. Lush however does not mention this area. It focuses on Child Labor, Fair Trade, Animal Testing, Green Policies and Carbon Taxes. Friedman would probably like to hear more about discrimination laws. Lush covers basic policies on their website, but they do not enter into much detail about specific discrimination issues such as maternity and child benefits, self-development within the company, opportunities, and others. There are a few examples of how working in Lush is great, such as having the day off on your birthday but there is not much more about that.
Part 3
The Company Lush does not claim itself to be 100% ethical. Instead they say they are continually improving and aiming at be ethical in as much as they can, keeping all their processes clean of labor slavery, and from damaging the planet in a direct and rapid way. As the world is always changing they also must keep up with those changes (Lush). Constantine, the leading head the company, says that it is harder to do things wrong than to do things right with the goal of being clean. However, he says they are not 100% clean, but they are constantly trying to be cleaner. He refers to clean as to be slave labor free, protect the environment as much as they can, and all the mentioned areas of Corporate Social Responsibility that an ethical corporation aims to fulfil.
One example in which Lush is doing this is in cutting the palm oil. They also raised money for refugees in Syria, and they pay living wages to their employees (PYMNTS, 2016). According to Payments and Commerce (2016), the company is doing very well as it can be seen in the increase of retail shops in successful Malls around Europe and other parts of the World. Mr. Constantine said that since 2013 they doubled their profits. Their prices are higher, but the way they do business guarantee their clients something that other companies cannot: that even if they cannot remain 100% clean, they guarantee as clean as it gets all the time. For that, they have fanatical and loyal customers who happily pay more for their products. Furthermore, the younger generation is seeking to spend their money in products that can guarantee what Lush guarantees.
Because Lush is a Cosmetic Company, it would be good for the company to make it clear where it stands in regards to other ethical issues such as abortion or embryo experiments as most high end cosmetic products do use embryos on their products. Because this is an ethical topic, it is necessary for the company to also include its position on this area.
However, the company is doing a great job as it is leading the way for other businesses and entrepreneurs to follow the same path. It is teaching the world how to make business in a new way for a better world.
Works Cited
"Lush Ethical Retail Focus (It's Way Harder Than It Looks)." PYMNTS, 17 Oct. 2016, http://www.pymnts.com/news/retail/2016/lush-ethical-retail-focus-its-way-harder-than-it-looks/.
Friedman, Milton. “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profits.” The New York Times Magazine, September 13, 1970.
"Is Lush an Ethical Company?" Lush, https://uk.lush.com/article/lush-ethical-company.
