Planned Obsolescence: Exemplar Essay To Follow

Q. 1
I do not think that Unilever was employing the true CSR course. Indeed, at the heart of CSR is to give some value away to the community in an attempt to improve the bottom line, which is the welfare of the subjects. However, the enterprise became philanthropic with the aim of ensuring that the sales persons and suppliers adhered to the company’s working principles. Here, Unilever is not attending to the welfare of the stakeholders. Rather, it is using CSR to manipulate them. The chief reason for the low score was the fact that Unilever was deceptive in its attributes. Unlike what should be the case in pursuing a CSR discourse, the company was motivated by profits. Even though the entity assisted the community, its operations were focused more on the profits as opposed to the community. This is the reason for the score.
Q. 2
There is indeed planned obsolescence in the beauty industry. Beauty products are made with a potentially limited life meaning that they tend to become unfashionable for a long time. Planned obsolescence in the beauty industry brings along several issues. Foremost is that it can easily and quickly destroy the ecology. Take an instance of palm oil. The product is made from certain plant species. Due to the planned obsolescence associated with it, there is a high chance that the continued production of palm oil will cause desertification. Planned obsolescence is only profitable for the economy in the short run. As such, when a product is introduced into the market, it drives the economy through its high sales.
However, after the detrimental effects associated with the product are eventually known, it follows that the product becomes non-meaningful in people’s life. It becomes unfashionable leading to its outset. Also, effects such as desertification caused by palm oil create critical problems for the economy. This is to say that it erodes away some of essential environmental factors, which provides an opportunity for economic growth. I hugely disagree with the issue of planned obsolescence. This is primarily so given the nature of effects it has on the human experience and survival as well. I also tend to think that planned obsolescence does not respect human dignity. Rather, companies seek for such a discourse at the expense of customers and other interest groups.
Q. 3
Planned obsolescence is indeed the issue with Unilever. If it adopts a non-planned obsolescence strategy, there is a high chance that its figures will be improved. If they ask me for a discount in the price of coming up with a new strategy, I will likely to accept. However, I will only accept only if the break even will be reached at a faster rate. A discount rate of 3 percent, as opposed to one of 7 percent, would be the most appropriate.