A brief description of Rolex Company and the reasons why it has been listed among the best CSR companies in the world
Rolex Company is one of the most successful firms in the world. The company is located in Switzerland with its headquarters in Geneva. It was founded in the year 1905, and the co-founders of the firm were Alfred Davis and Hans Wilsdorf (Davis & Liu, 2013). The company manufactures watches and sells the watches to all parts of the world. The company is believed to be producing an approximate of 2000 watches daily (TheRichest, 2012). The brand value of the company was valued at $ 8.8 billion as in the year 2016 (Taylor et al., 2016). Some reasons have led to the inclusion of Rolex in the best CSR companies in the world by Forbes (Taylor et al., 2016). One of the reasons is its reputation. Rolex has maintained its reputation since its inception around the world, and this attribute has helped it in building trust in his customers (Davis & Liu, 2013). The second reason that has led it to be among the best companies in the world is the nature of products and services it provides to its clients. Rolex is known for quality and original products. This helps the company to attract many customers and retain them hence increasing its revenue. The third reason is the stability in its governance. Since the company was formed, there had been no wrangles between the management. This has led to proper working conditions among the employees. Good working conditions among the employees have resulted in increased production, leading to increase in sales. Lastly, the company’s ability to satisfy its customers through upgrading and invent new commodities over time has also led to its inclusion in among the best enterprises in the world.
Primary stakeholders of Rolex Company
Primary stakeholders, according to the company, include any person or organization that are impacted or benefit from the operation of Rolex Company. Primary stakeholders in the company include employees, stockholders, customers, suppliers, and creditors and directors of the company (Franch & Buffa, 2010). Primary stakeholders have played a major role in the development and success of the Rolex Company. The reason as to why the primary stakeholders are referred to as an integral part of the company is that they are affected by the operations of the organization directly (Franch& Buffa, 2010). Firms are set up with the aim of producing products that satisfy human needs, and without customers, the firm cannot exist. For Rolex to succeed, it puts the needs of their customers before everything. The customers can choose to look for other similar products from other producers. However, to prevent this action, Rolex continues to invent new products, which value the customers’ money. Employees are the ones in charge of producing, delivering and creating the products and services that the consumers need (Franch & Buffa, 2010). Rolex company employees produce high-quality watches, which satisfy customer needs. If Rolex loses its best employees, it may end up losing its customers. Nevertheless, to retain and attract the best employees, the company offers the best and attractive deals in the industry, and shareholders are the owners of the company (Franch& Buffa, 2010). Shareholders play a major role in ensuring the development of Rolex Company. The high number of contributions produced by the shareholders in the Rolex Company has been able to increase its expenditure, resulting in increase in the revenues earned by the company. Suppliers and other business partner compose Rolex primary stakeholders, and the company collaborates with these partners to run their business. Building a long-term relationship between these partners ensures that the products can be availed to the customer at the right time and place hence removing any inconvenience. Lastly, the national government and the regulatory agencies keep the company in the check every time, and Rolex Company ensures that it always affirm to the government laws and regulations to avoid any dispute that might arise (Franch & Buffa, 2010).
Secondary Stakeholders of Rolex Company
Rolex Company considers its secondary stakeholders as groups or people who have indirect interest in the operations of the firm. These groups include the general public, competitors, non-governmental organizations, activist groups, the media and the business support organizations such as banks (Franch & Buffa, 2010). Secondary stakeholders are also significant to Rolex Company since they can become primary stakeholders. Secondary stakeholders can become primary stakeholders in the organization if they end up becoming shareholders or employees in the firm (Franch & Buffa, 2010). This body keeps the firm on the cross check on what kind of products it produces. The general public is referred to as secondary stakeholders since they are affected by the operations of the company and have an indirect interest in the company’s operations (Franch & Buffa, 2010). Banks are referred to as secondary stakeholders of the organization since they are influenced by the cash flows that the firm indulges itself in the national level. However, this effect is small, explaining the reason all the mentioned groups lie in the secondary stakeholder’s category.
Ethical Issues Concerning Stakeholders
Ethical issues are the problems that require an employee or the organization to make a choice between the alternatives that must be either evaluated as wrong or as correct (Akaah & Riordan, 1989). Some issues might be ethically wrong but legally correct. There are so many ethical issues in Rolex Company, which affect the employees and other stakeholders in the organization. Some of the ethical issues affecting the Rolex Company include the employees’ behavior, supplier relations, and customer relations (Akaah & Riordan, 1989). Rolex Company faces some issues, which stem from the employees’ behavior in the company. Some of these ethical issues include the code of grooming by the employees and some behaviors that the employees might not involve themselves while on duty (Akaah & Riordan, 1989). There are some legal consequences that are put in place to deal with ethical issues regarding employees’ behavior. However, to deal with ethical issues arising from the employees, the Rolex Company has a set of standards, which dictate the behavior of employees. Roles Company must consider the ethical issues which are involved while relating with their customers and suppliers. Some of the ethical issues which might arise while dealing with suppliers are whether it is ethical to work together with suppliers have unethical behaviors (Akaah & Riordan, 1989). When dealing with the customer, the company should ensure that ethical issues are properly looked into. The company should ensure that when it is advertising its products, it provides with the correct information regarding the products to avoid misleading the customers (Akaah & Riordan, 1989). There are also some ethical issues regarding the company and the government. There are ethical issues regarding the production process, the control of safety and regulations of the products. The federal laws state that each company must comply with these rules so as to ensure that ethics is maintained.
There are also issues regarding the advertisement process of the firm. Some of the ethical issues in this area include misleading information about the products produced by the company (Akaah & Riordan, 1989). It’s the role of every company to provide the customers with the correct information so that they can be in a position to make choices on which types of products
One of the objectives of the Rolex Company is to succeed globally and to increase their sales. However, for every company to succeed it must uphold its integrity. Every employee in the company should hold his or her integrity. Rolex Company has been good with the way it handles its employees’ integrity. According to the Reputation Institute (RI), the Rolex Company had a strong score on the reputation part (Goodstein, 2015). This shows that the company has not breached its reputation and still many of their customers still believe in their products. When a company loses its integrity, it ends up damaging its reputation (Goodstein, 2015). If a company damages its reputation, it ends up losing its good employees as well as customers.
The first step that the company can take to balance ethical concerns and the organizational goals is through taking an approach to offer primary and secondary stakeholders training program on ethics and integrity (Goodstein, 2015). These programs will help the company to realize its objectives and goals as well as upholding its ethics. Research shows that many stakeholders seemed to be confused between ethics and integrity, and it is the responsibility of Rolex Company to ensure that stakeholders distinguish (Goodstein, 2015). The programs will also enlighten the stakeholders on the impacts of each (the company and stakeholders), and how the same affect the company as it strives to achieve its goals.
The second step that the Rolex Company should undertake is to come up with a set of rules that governs ethical issues in the organization (Goodstein, 2015). The company should draft a set of rules which will govern how employees will behave in the organization and how the company will conduct its advertisement. Also in the draft of the organization, it should also outline its objectives. This will help the stakeholders to ensure that the company meets its targets and goals as well as upholding its reputation to its customers.
Lastly, it’s important for a company to balance between interests of the stakeholders and ethics. However, different stakeholders have different needs. For instance, it is the need of shareholders for the firm to make profits so that they can benefit. However, there exist ethics which control these activities in the firms. For instance, there are some ethical activities which might prevent the firm from engaging in some activities, which the shareholders think it is correct. The company needs to ensure that both sides are in peace with each other so as to avoid any conflict that might arise in the firm in the future.
Conclusion
Rolex Company has been developing steadily since its inception. The reasons behind the growth of the company include maintaining its reputation, proper management, and production of quality products. The company has managed its secondary and primary stakeholders over time, and balanced the interests of its stakeholders with the ethical issues that arise in the enterprise. However, the company can still come up with new objectives to ensure that there is a balance between the stakeholder's interest and ethical issues.
References
Akaah, I. P., & Riordan, E. A. (1989). Judgments of marketing professionals about ethical issues in marketing research: A replication and extension. Journal of Marketing Research, 112-120.
Davis, C., Kahler, J., Moran, P., & Liu, X. (2013). Tiger Woods Now Wears Rolex. Journal of Case Studies, 31(1), 96-109.
Franch, M., Martini, U., & Buffa, F. (2010). Roles and opinions of primary and secondary stakeholders within community-type destinations. Tourism review, 65(4), 74-85.
Goodstein, J. (2015). Philip Selznick and the problems of organizational integrity and responsibility. In Institutions and Ideals: Philip Selznick’s Legacy for Organizational Studies, pp. 175-197
Taylor, P. L., Badenhausen, K., Morris, I., Doerr, E., Insights, M., Ozanian, M. (2016, May). Rolex on the Forbes world’s most valuable brands list. Forbes. Retrieved from http://www.forbes.com/companies/rolex/
TheRichest. (2012, December 17). The top 10 most expensive watches made by Rolex. Retrieved January 28, 2017, from http://www.therichest.com/luxury/most-expensive/the-top-10-most-expensive-watches-made-by-rolex/
