In the current reality, "the most at home in the world" has become much more than a marketing/El Al slogan
Last week it was reported that the Competition Authority opened an investigation against El Al for price gouging during the war. Apparently, while playing on our emotions, the national airline acted in an ugly way to rake in outrageous profits. The company's fourth quarter earnings report for 2023 shows a 370% jump in profits! Even when you take into account the fact that many airlines have stopped operating in Israel, this is an astronomical increase. The airline did state that there was no substantial change in the average revenue per passenger kilometer, But passengers who paid their best money to escape the war will tell you otherwise. Until the regulator reaches a decision, it's time for us as citizens to recognize the concept of corporate social responsibility - and start demanding that Israeli companies comply with it.
What is corporate social responsibility?
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR - Corporate Social Responsibility) is a policy and a way of managerial thinking that promotes the development of the organization while building shared values with the variety of stakeholders of the organization - all the factors, people or groups that are directly or indirectly affected by the company's activities or can affect it.
There are many types of stakeholders, for example:
At the internal organizational level
- employees, managers, owners, labor unions;
At the economic level
- customers, suppliers, distributors, lenders, bondholders, investors;
At the social level
- the community on its various levels, local and global, the ecological environment, the government, the regulator, civil society and more.
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Change of perception
The CSR approach is one of the main drivers of the perceptual change that has taken place in recent years: moving away from philanthropy used as a means of decoration and whitewashing immoral policies (see the Facebook and Zuckerberg article), and instead moving closer to creating real value for the corporation's environment, society and the country in which it operates.
Social corporate responsibility has several sides:
Ofer Nidm./PR
The positive side
- corporate responsibility turns companies from money-making systems into a force that contributes and improves the world - as a result of the public demanding it from those companies.
The negative side
- corporate responsibility can lead to wake washing, a sophisticated pretense designed to improve the image of companies and encourage purchases of their products or services. One of the classic examples is the Green Washing that fast fashion companies use to obscure the tremendous damage they create to the environment.
The cynical side
- diverting resources for the benefit of the issue without real work within the company. For example, a CEO of a corporation decides to allocate 5% of the expenses to CSR, and in fact to distribute "crumbs" to all kinds of charitable organizations while of course he does not forget to leverage this through a press release. All this without trying to solve the deep problems that the company itself creates. Example Classic is the story of the Sackler family, who only recently had their name removed from the building they donated to Tel Aviv University after years of struggle, because the drug they produced is considered the cause of the opioid epidemic in the US.
The corona, swords and iron and a huge corporation mocking huge corporations
The following video, which received close to 2 million views under the title "All Corona advertisements are the same" shows viewers how engineered all the advertisements are according to the same guidelines, which try to present the corporations as "taking care of the public in this difficult time":
Or to return to our time, "we will get through it together" and "together we will win" - and in this case, many critics, including Or Botbul, did not spare juicy condemnations of the phenomenon:
When one of the largest corporations in the world mocks Wake Washing
One of the most successful TV series in recent years, "The Boys", harshly criticizes and mocks the "Woke Washing" culture, while the evil corporation "Vought" never misses an opportunity to exploit issues such as pride and LGBT, the status of African Americans, police violence or the Me TOO to rake in credits cynically and unscrupulously.
There is even a reference mocking the PR video "Imagine" that Gal Gadot released during the Corona
But what is most surprising is that the one who produces and finances the series is Amazon - one of the largest and most powerful corporations in the world.
Even now, in the era of iron swords, we are witnessing a lot of Woke Washing with companies whose contribution to the community begins and ends with adding the inscription "Together we will win". Some companies are even taking advantage of the situation to reap profits - as, according to the competition authority's suspicion, El Al did.
The deep meaning of "Together we will win"
Not only do we as a public lose from irresponsible conduct, corporations also have a good reason to practice social responsibility. In fact, corporate social responsibility is not only the "right thing" - but also the profitable thing at the managerial level.
A study published last January in Nature magazine found that when companies show concern for social and environmental issues, their employees feel better about their work. They are more excited to work, show loyalty to the company, and even spread positive feedback about their workplace.
Why is it important on a business level? Because happy and proud employees do their jobs better and stay longer. So, social responsibility is not only for heaven's sake, but also a recipe for managing a stable and functioning company for the long term.
In conclusion
If we as a public demand ethical behavior from companies, and vote with our feet (and wallet) when the company runs away from corporate social responsibility; And if we as employees, strive to work in ethical companies - it is possible that in the future the big companies will try to stand more seriously behind the slogan "Together we will win".
The author is Ofer Nidam, entrepreneur, founder and CEO of Dasmit and aerodynamics engineer
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