Discussion question 1
Timberland has prided itself as an American brand and has continued to take an active role in social responsibility as early as 1989. The company partnered with Boston’s City Year and urban “Peace Corps” to promote community service. Timberland has tried to be loyal to their stakeholders by remaining “social responsible” over the years. I would be certain that they see their wide range of stakeholders as everyone that benefits from the company. This would include, employees who benefit from working for the company that offers 40 hours of paid time off to volunteer in their community. Giving employees the opportunity to make a difference in their communities is a way for the company to get their employees to give back and strengthen the community. Employees who feel socially responsible tend to be hard working and dedicated individuals.
Discussion question 2
Timberland products are made in thirty-eight different countries which widens their stakeholder spectrum. They are dedicated to improving the environmental conditions near the factories they operate from in these countries. They take part in improving the land, air and water in these areas, in the last 10 years they have planted over one million trees including three hundred thousand fruit trees in Haiti. These improved conditions have been very important to these areas and continues to make these countries and their populations take notice and have a “stake” in the ongoing social responsibility Timberland continues to have. Being one of the retail companies that takes part in and prides themselves on making products from renewable sources add to their social responsibility. This also increases their stakeholders to the public/customers who purchase their products. Individuals who are socially responsible are more likely to purchase from companies who make quality products from recycled materials.
So all in all Timberland has a wide range of stakeholders including; employees, their customers, shareholders, foreign countries, environmentally social groups just to name a few. Timberland takes steps to be environmentally sustainable to attain competitive advantages in the market place. The company takes part in planting trees in the foreign countries in which they have factories to help with the much needed pollution in these areas. The company has also taken some environmental steps in their retail stores by using reclaimed materials for displays and also replacing incandescent spotlights in almost all their North American stores with the much more efficient LED spotlights. All of this is not to be out done by the fact they use renewable materials in the production of