Business Communication Skills Report: Summary and Analysis

This report on business communication skills encompasses several key areas. It begins by addressing a fraud case involving a 21-year-old individual and a $10 million superannuation fund scam. The report then examines the impact of government tax cuts on interest rates and wage growth, as well as the consequent decline in consumer confidence. Finally, it delves into the issue of greenwashing, where companies make misleading claims about their environmental practices, including a discussion on the actions of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the challenges of regulating environmental advertising. The report concludes by highlighting the increasing consumer activism and the need for companies to adopt reliable standards like environmental management systems (EMS) and Global Reporting Initiative to build trust and credibility. The report references relevant journals and books to support its findings.

BUSINESS COMMUNICATION
SKILLS

Table of Contents
BUSINESS COMMUNICATION SKILLS....................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Summary Statement 1..................................................................................................................3
Summary Statement 2..................................................................................................................3
Summary Statement 3..................................................................................................................3
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

MAIN BODY
Summary Statement 1
21 year old Jasmin Vella-Arpaci, involved in $10 million ring fraud by hacking
superannuation funds of REST and HEST involving multiple consumers was charged by
Melbourne court with 53 frauds.
Summary Statement 2
RBA claims that government's tax-cuts has led to decline in interest rate and wage growth
evidencing form their minutes that the expected extra flow of cash in retail sector after tax-cuts
has not happened due to stalling of upward trend in wages further impacting consumer's
confidence about economy, making it fall by more than 8% as per ANZ-Roy Morgan measure.
Summary Statement 3
Terra Choice, an advertising consultancy, claims increased number of greenwashing
cases through which the companies’ exaggerate their policies adopted for sustainable
development. FTC has although developed Green Guide, it fails to address recent marketing
terms used by the company like ‘carbon offsets’ which unregulates environmental advertising in
US.
Following the trend started by Canada, Australia and UK, US’s FTC is also reviewing the
guidelines and is expected to include modern marketing terms used and regulate third party
certifications due to increased number of unregulated certifications. FTC has begun taking
actions where it charged three paper plates manufacturing companies due to their false claims of
biodegradability and similarly, four textile sellers were also charged who falsely claimed that
their cloth is manufactured from biodegradable bamboo, the cloth actually being rayon.
Due to increased inclination of consumers towards eco-friendly products, companies are taking
advantage by claiming falsely like Shell or Malaysian Palm Oil Company who stated their
products and activities as sustainable developers who were later charged. Indoor cleaning
product sellers comprise worst greenwashing offenders where only 3 out of 397 cleaners actually
sold eco-friendly products. Regular display of such green ads has created concept of deep
greenwashing. However, companies are limiting their sustainable claims to the product only and
backing it with strong data so that greenwashing charges can be avoided.
Since regulation was limited, there are increased numbers of consumer activists groups and blogs
protesting against claims of greenwashing. This has led to companies hesitating before making

any greenwashing claims even if they are true due to increased uncertainty and avoiding
aggressiveness of consumers. Only firms with no reputation are now engaging in greenwashing
since thy have nothing to lose and clean companies are refraining from making public statements
claiming that consumers can easily identify if you are green company by your activities.
However, there are various standards and regulations that clean companies can adopt like
implementation of environmental management system (EMS), Global Reporting Initiative etc.
that will give them authorised credit. But FTC intends to focus more on products emphasizing on
their contents which is not heavily regulated. Although there are many reliable labels like Green
Seal, the frauds of getting such labels is increasing where product related data is submitted and
companies get the label like Energy Star. Identification of 15 bogus products under Energy Star
acts as a wake-up call prompting government to take stricter actions (Dahl, 2010).
Increased regulation would ultimately reduce consumer scepticism and make green labels
reliable.

REFERENCES
Dahl R., JUNE 2010. Environmental Health Perspectives. Vol. 118. No. 6. pp. A246-A252
Books and journals
1