Business, Society and the Planet

This document explores the relationship between business, society, and the environment. It discusses two companies, Vodafone India and Vodafone Australia, and their social responsibilities in India and Australia. The document also covers the sustainable development goals of these companies, the quality of their social accounting approach, and the ideas and concepts that influence their thinking and conclusions.

Running head: BUSINESS, SOCIETY AND THE PLANET
Business, Society and the Planet
Name of student
Name of University
Author note

1BUSINESS, SOCIETY AND THE PLANET
Table of Contents
Description of two companies and business activities...............................................................3
Difference between the ranges of issues within the social reports.............................................3
Sustainable Development Goals for these two companies in India and Australia.....................4
Quality of social accounting approach.......................................................................................4
Reflecting the values..................................................................................................................5
Ideas and concepts that influence own thinking and conclusions..............................................6
References..................................................................................................................................6

2BUSINESS, SOCIETY AND THE PLANET
Description of two companies and business activities
As stated in the report, the company is similar, though operating in two different
countries, i.e., in India and Australia. Vodafone India is one of the biggest
telecommunications services in India with a market share of 21 percent and 223 million
subscribers. It is a subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc and core business activities include
network infrastructure management to connect customers and providing them mobile and
fixed voice services, messaging and data services as well. The supply chain management
consists of IT services and emphasis on research and development has helped in technology
analysis and a perfect vision responsible for making effective business decisions (Carroll &
Buchholtz, 2014). For Vodafone India, the needs of clients are at the centre of Group’s
actions and distribution of products and services is managed through retail chain, tele sales
and internet along with third party service provides, IT resellers, etc., mainly considered as
indirect distribution channels.
Vodafone Australia or Vodafone Hutchison Australia is considered as one of the
largest telecommunications company and provider of Internet services. The merging between
Vodafone and Hutchinson has made it the third largest mobile services’ provider in Australia
with 19 percent market share and approximately over 5.8 million subscribers. The broadband
services and constant initiatives undertaken to meet the clients’ needs and at the same time,
focusing on the social responsibilities have created a strong and positive brand image (Gray,
Adams & Owen, 2014). Vodafone Australia also focused on management of diversity,
equality and providing opportunities to people for the creation of an inclusive environment
and stayed ahead in the competitive business environment too. Vodafone, operating in both
India and Australia has focused on social responsibilities to keep environment clean and safe
and conduct business practices sustainably (Wilson & Post 2013).

3BUSINESS, SOCIETY AND THE PLANET
Difference between the ranges of issues within the social reports
Both the companies in India and Australia have recognised their individual roles and
responsibilities to address the major issues and challenges related to health, education,
equality and accessibility. Vodafone India, with the nationwide operations and network has
focused on eradicating poverty and lack of educational facilities accessible by people in rural
areas. There has also been discrimination and inequality among women, which has made the
company focus on managing social and economic empowerment of women and made sure to
provide educational facilities to poor children free of cost (Lawrence & Weber, 2014). The
programmes and initiatives undertaken by the company promoted gender equality and
supported formation of various scopes to empower women and provide them financial
support too. Vodafone India managed charities by launching schools for poor people and
allowed them to gain free access to educational materials while more than 3 lakh trees are
planted all over India to increase the forest cover by 300 hectares of land in Kanha, MP
(Dyllick & Muff 2016). With the Billion Tree Campaign, the trees are planted to improve
Wildlife corridor between Kanha and Pench wildlife sanctuaries to preserve the ecological
balance in environment through offset of 33 million kg of carbon footprints along with
creation of livelihood opportunities for local people as well.
Vodafone Australia, on the other hand dealt with issues like rash driving, drink and
drive, cyber security issues, high percentage of carbon emissions, etc., as stated in the social
reports. The company has implemented sustainability strategies to monitor the usage of
energy annually and reported on the carbon emissions. To overcome this kind of issue, the
smart meters arte installed on the mobile networks in Australia to gain better understanding
of energy usage and manage it wisely while on the other hand, Vodafone Australia made sure
to plant more trees for reducing the emissions of carbon and maintain a safe and healthy
environment (Doppelt, 2017). Vodafone Australia also has worked with network partners to

4BUSINESS, SOCIETY AND THE PLANET
design an innovative network site for improving the energy performance while the
installation of solar power has been considered as safe and alternate sources of energy that
could be beneficial in the future. To reduce wastes generation, Vodafone Australia aimed at
recycling old phones rather than ending up those in landfills, which could be used for the
development of new products.
Sustainable Development Goals for these two companies in India and Australia
The sustainable development goals are mainly addressed to understand how much
well the companies in India and Australia have managed to fulfil their social responsibilities
and ensured sustaining in the competitive marketplace with ease and effectiveness. The
sustainable development goals or SDGs of Vodafone India are to eradicate extreme poverty
and hunger, achieve universal primary education for all, improve child mortality, promote
gender equality and empowerment of women and to ensure management of environmental
sustainability. (Muff et al., 2013) As it has already been discussed, Vodafone in India has
made sure to extend the networks and developed innovative products and services to meet the
needs of emerging market while at the same time, contributing to the sustainable
development and improved the lives and livelihoods of people too. The company channelled
social investment in various programmes and initiatives for promoting sustainable
development and achieved long term success with a positive brand image established among
the minds of people too (Muff 2013).
The mobile money transfer facility programme and payment process named M Pesa
has supported economic development by allowing access to the basic financial services in the
emerging markets for the people who do not have ban accounts. It can make the people in
various rural areas of India to send or receive funds as well as save a certain amount of
money and even take loans or insurance. This facility has also been established in Australia

5BUSINESS, SOCIETY AND THE PLANET
as well, which has within quick time reached over 20 million users (Cheng, Ioannou &
Serafeim, 2014). The Connected Farming in India initiative derived from the report has
identified the impacts of various mobile services that are designed for improving the
production level and effectiveness of agricultural production in business. It has not only
impacted the lives of millions of farmers positively, but has also generated a total of more
than $9 billion as additional income for the farmers in India.
The SDGs of Vodafone Australia are to ensure inclusive and equitable quality based
educational facilities through promotion of lifelong learning opportunities created for
children from poor background, promoting a sustainable economic growth by creating a fully
productive and active workforce with decent working conditions made available for all (Ni &
Van Wart, 2015). The other SDGs are to achieve gender equality through empowerment of
women and girls all around Australia, developing resilient infrastructure by ensuring
sustainable industrialisation and innovation and undertaking immediate actions whenever
necessary for dealing with climatic change conditions and reducing harmful impacts on the
environment by reducing carbon emissions too.
Quality of social accounting approach
According to Zadek et al.’s (1997), the social accounting approach of Vodafone
Australia aims at capturing the potential and capability of mobile communications for
bringing development and produce socio-economic value in both the emerging economy and
developed markets too. This has been possible with the extension of accessibility to
communications to all parts of community and delivering against the expectations and
demands of stakeholders properly too (Zadek et al. 1997). The corporate social
responsibilities of Vodafone in Australia also include that the business practices are
implemented for strengthening the business principles and policies and ensure providing a

6BUSINESS, SOCIETY AND THE PLANET
safe, secure and responsible internet based experience to respond to climate changes. The key
performance indicators have though played a vital part in making Vodafone Group successful
such as use of energy, both direct and indirect, has been reduced along with carbon
emissions. Alongside, many phones are being used for recycling rather than throwing as
disposable and in landfills, which has decreased the network generated wastes and even most
of the energy has been sourced from renewables and alternate energy sources including solar
power (Servaes & Tamayo, 2013). Another major initiative undertaken by Vodafone
Australia to contribute to corporate social responsibility objective is to work in partnership
with non-governmental organisations or NGOs for creating mobile aid payment transfers to
the humanitarian organisation concern worldwide and get engaged in Carbon Disclosure
Project on climatic aspects to create positive impacts in the future (Charles Jr, Schmidheiny
& Watts 2017). By engaging with the employees, a positive work culture is established,
which has kept them motivated and encouraged to perform better.
As stated by Zadek et al.’s (1997), the corporate social responsibility and accounting
is centred on various activities like donations’ making, community development, introducing
new schools, creating employment opportunities and planting trees to move towards a
greener environment. Vodafone India focused on the empowerment of women and aims to
create equal scopes and opportunities for women within the society, which is a revolutionary
approach to social accounting used by the organisation (Zadek et al. 1997). The outlook
towards corporate social responsibility in India is much beyond the scope of passive
philanthropy, rather it has allowed Vodafone to approach towards sustainability measures.
This has improved the standards of living of people and the use of mobile technology for
several kinds of issues such as education, healthcare, banking, and rural entrepreneurship has
transformed the way society operates in India (Flammer 2013). The partnership working with
Government in Gujarat, India has launched the e-Mamta programme, i.e., a mother child

7BUSINESS, SOCIETY AND THE PLANET
tracking system to lower the high rate of infant mortality rate in many states of India. The
flagship programme named World of Difference by Vodafone Foundations, Australia has
also allowed for development of personal and professional development of employees with
active learning opportunities. The desktops at workplace are being replaced with laptops for
reducing the emissions of carbons and even the suppliers are interacted with to limit plastic
packaging for the SIM cards, all of which, are necessary for creating a healthier and cleaner
environment (Saeidi et al. 2015). There are instances where Vodafone India and Vodafone
Australia have installed variable speed diesel generators at multiple sites for reducing the
usage of diesel by more than 35 percent. This has also increased the capability of fuel and has
resulted in reduced emissions of carbon at a rate of just 8 to 10 percent.
Reflecting the values
Based on our group discussion, we can see that both the companies in India and
Australia have been committed to its individual social responsibilities. It could be seen that
the mobile penetration has facilitated economic growth, which is one of the major reasons for
allowing people in India to gain access to internet and learn new things through network
effects. Vodafone India has implemented two major initiatives that focus on the categories of
delivering transformational solutions and operating within a competitive environment much
more responsibly through reduction of environmental impacts. It could also been seen that the
two companies in India and Australia, both have focused on the empowerment of women by
promoting gender equality and creating enough opportunities for women within the society.
The living standards of people has been improved with various training and developmental
sessions arranged for the farmers to create good farm lands and ensure production at higher
rate too. This has made me understand about the importance of corporate social responsibility

8BUSINESS, SOCIETY AND THE PLANET
and how it has helped in developing new ideas and concepts to bring innovation and change
all throughout on a positive note.
Ideas and concepts that influence own thinking and conclusions
The ideas that are present in the report clearly demonstrate the ideas and concepts
related to social responsibilities and it proved that the two companies in India and Australia,
both have been responsible towards sustainable business functioning and gaining competitive
advantage in business as well. The sustainable measures undertaken by the companies have
influenced me to gain a proper understanding of the concerned aspects and this can be
beneficial for allowing these companies to maintain the business standards too with ease and
effectiveness. It could also be understood from the report that the culture and values are
important for business success including the management of flexibility, culture and diversity.
The companies have not only focused on the sustainable business management and
commitment towards a healthier environment, but also has focused on flexibility to create
flexible working conditions while at the same time, created a diversified workforce to form a
positive work culture. The approval of CSR policies and principles and gaining an overall
oversight is essential for the manager and Directors of Vodafone Groups, It is used for
promoting an effective strategy aimed at executing the policies through the Corporate
foundation, furthermore keep the programmes and corporate social responsibility projects
comply with those policies appropriately.

9BUSINESS, SOCIETY AND THE PLANET
References
Carroll, A., & Buchholtz, A. (2014). Business and society: Ethics, sustainability, and
stakeholder management. Nelson Education.
Charles Jr, O. H., Schmidheiny, S., & Watts, P. (2017). Walking the talk: The business case
for sustainable development. Routledge.
Cheng, B., Ioannou, I., & Serafeim, G. (2014). Corporate social responsibility and access to
finance. Strategic management journal, 35(1), 1-23.
Deng, X., Kang, J. K., & Low, B. S. (2013). Corporate social responsibility and stakeholder
value maximization: Evidence from mergers. Journal of financial Economics, 110(1),
87-109.
Doppelt, B. (2017). Leading change toward sustainability: A change-management guide for
business, government and civil society. Routledge.
Dyllick, T., & Muff, K. (2016). Clarifying the meaning of sustainable business: Introducing a
typology from business-as-usual to true business sustainability. Organization &
Environment, 29(2), 156-174.
Flammer, C. (2013). Corporate social responsibility and shareholder reaction: The
environmental awareness of investors. Academy of Management Journal, 56(3), 758-
781.
Gray, R., Adams, C., & Owen, D. (2014). Accountability, social responsibility and
sustainability: accounting for society and the environment. Pearson Higher Ed.
Lawrence, A. T., & Weber, J. (2014). Business and society: Stakeholders, ethics, public
policy. Tata McGraw-Hill Education.

10BUSINESS, SOCIETY AND THE PLANET
Muff, K. (2013). Developing globally responsible leaders in business schools: A vision and
transformational practice for the journey ahead. Journal of Management
Development, 32(5), 487-507.
Muff, K., Dyllick, T., Drewell, M., North, J., Shrivastava, P., & Haertle, J. (2013).
Management education for the world: A vision for business schools serving people
and the planet. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Ni, A., & Van Wart, M. (2015). Corporate Social Responsibility: Doing Well and Doing
Good. In Building Business-Government Relations (pp. 175-196). Routledge.
Saeidi, S. P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S. P., & Saaeidi, S. A. (2015). How does corporate
social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of
competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of business
research, 68(2), 341-350.
Servaes, H., & Tamayo, A. (2013). The impact of corporate social responsibility on firm
value: The role of customer awareness. Management science, 59(5), 1045-1061.
vodafone.com. (2019). Retrieved from https://www.vodafone.com
Wilson, F., & Post, J. E. (2013). Business models for people, planet (& profits): exploring the
phenomena of social business, a market-based approach to social value creation.
Small Business Economics, 40(3), 715-737.
Zadek, S., Pruzan, P., & Evans, R. (1997). Building corporate accountability. London:
Earthscan.