Corporate Social Responsibility: Viacom Company

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Table of Contents

Abstract
Viacom Company Overview
Circumstances that triggered the need for CSR initiatives
Targeted outcome from these initiatives
Managing people and financial resources to accomplish CSR goals
Conclusion
References

Abstract

Companies across the globe have devised different corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives to address the common social challenges affecting their customers. Among the companies with comprehensive and well structured CSR initiatives include the Viacom Inc. This analytical treatise attempts to explicitly review the CSR initiatives of the Viacom Company. Reflectively, the company strives to factor in the three Ps of management strategies comprising of the Planet, Profit, and People in its CSR activities.

These seer values are designed to facilitate sustainability due to acceptance by the community and coexistence, thus, earning the company a competitive advantage over other service providers in the same field of operation. Specifically, the paper adopts a holistic approach in extrapolating corporate social responsibility, environmental stewardship, and quality in service delivery with an added value tag at the Viacom Company.

Viacom Company Overview

The Viacom Inc. Company is a mass media company based in the United States of America and has several subsidiary brands within its business activities. Founded in 2006, the company is the fourth largest in the global mass media industry and provides services such as radio, cable television, movies, and publishing.

The company generated revenue of US$ 13.887 billion in 2013 and currently has an asset value of US$ 22.250 billion. The company operates in the competitive and dynamic global mass media industry. The company functions as a private entity with diverse interest in the entertainment industry.

Since its inception, the company has remained profitable due to its competitive business models and series of CSR initiatives. The organizational overview of this company consists of several divisions such as the BET Network, Paramount Pictures, Viacom Media Networks, and the Viacom International Media. The company operates under a board of directors (Viacom, 2014).

The company’s management philosophy is systematic governance with flexibility for innovation and creativity. This philosophy operates on the assumptions of confident, competent, and responsible business activities. The philosophy encourages a practical approach to addressing daily challenges in running the business and monitoring progress of the implemented strategies. In addition, the philosophy provides channels for constant motivation and rewarding the customers through a series of CSR initiatives (Viacom, 2014).

Viacom Company has managed to maintain innovation and commitment to quality in products through the ‘create share value’ policy which promotes customer loyalty. Besides, the company has participated in a series of corporate social responsibility activities through ethical managerial commitments designed to support socially responsible activities in the business such as the annual ‘Viacommunity Day’, which enhances its resource based approach to CSR (Viacom, 2014).

The competencies exhibited by the company are part of its overall strategic management and ethical corporate responsibility model. As one of the most efficient company in the global mass media industry, it defines its success from the opportunities it offers to the loyal customers who form part of the corporate social responsibility pillar. This competitive strategy has enhanced the corporation’s competitive advantage in the market.

The CSR initiatives are more than a public relations exercise since the green campaign, the annual ‘Viacommunity Day’, education trust, and health initiatives are part of the company’s management philosophy meant to promote the ‘create share value’ policy (Viacom, 2014).

Circumstances that triggered the need for CSR initiatives

Addressing social based concerns through the creation of shared responsibilities was the main reason for the establishment of the different CSR initiatives. The company was interested in eliminating their customers’ dependence on incentives by governments and other private organizations.

For instance, the ‘Get Schooled’ initiative by the Viacom Company was informed by the need to provide a long term solution to education crisis in the US and other parts of the globe. It is a private sponsorship program which supports schools by developing infrastructure, training teachers, offering financial support to students, and leadership training. The aim of this initiative is to guide and support youth in their career life.

This initiative is run by employees of the organization. Through partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the company has been in a position to provide education to disadvantaged students across the globe. The initiative is supported by the ‘roadblock’ commercial that shows the power of educating the community (Viacom, 2014).

Besides, the need to raise the level of HIV/AIDs awareness inspired the creation of the ‘Rap-It-Up’ Emmy Award. Through this initiative, the company was able to address the social concerns in different societies as a result of the effects of HIV/AIDs. The ‘Thin Line’ program aired on MTV by the company is an initiative that was meant to protect the youths from digital abuse.

Moreover, the ‘Comedy Central’ program by the company has been active in raising environmental awareness across the globe (D’Amato et al. 2009). Another CSR initiative aimed at addressing educational concerns across the globe is the ‘Kindergarten to Cap & Gown’. This initiative involves the company’s employees who act as mentors to students throughout the formal education stages and career development.

The company came up with a ‘Fight Malaria’ initiative to engage communities in Africa in combating malaria. Further, it came up with an initiative to combat malnutrition and ensure safe delivery for women within the same continent. In addition, it sponsored the Nigerian Idol which is a reality show besides coming up with a recycling initiative for women to recycle materials to produce environmentally friendly bags.

It also introduced the ‘save water-save life’ initiative In Egypt. This initiative still provides clean water to the communities across Egypt. Finally, the company organized various sporting initiatives such as cricket besides scholarship schemes in India. In summary, the CSR initiatives by the company were started to promote social cohesion and provide support services to customers across the globe (Viacom, 2014).

Targeted outcome from these initiatives

The Viacom Company aims at immensely benefiting from these CSR initiatives. First, the initiatives are expected to increase the presence of the company in various regions, including all the continents of the world.

This will enable the company to grow rapidly. Secondly, CSR initiatives are expected to enable the company to grow the customer base rapidly and enhance customer loyalty. For instance, in regions such as Nigeria, where Viacom carried out several CSR initiatives, the company expected to further expand its large market share as a result of customer loyalty (Porter and Mark, 2006).

Corporate social responsibility gives customers confidence in the company’s products because they often want to be identified with products of a company which cares about their other needs. Further, the CSR initiatives are expected to improve the relationship between the company and the customers (D’Amato et al. 2009). For instance, the ‘Get Schooled’ initiative is expected to earn the trust of customers who will feel appreciated and valued by the education initiative (Viacom, 2014).

The CSR initiatives are expected to show the strength of the company as being able to learn and execute changes according to the needs of the markets. From this conceptualization, the company expected to command a competitive position by being flexible to change within the milieu of technological developments and customer trends addressed by the initiatives (Porter and Mark, 2006). This was informed by the fact that success and market position falls on the paradigm of long term organizational culture.

Heavy involvement in CSR activities has been always a major concern for shareholders because they view it as a conflict of interest. Shareholders’ goal is to get a lot of returns in the form of dividends and market price of the shares. Despite this conflict of interest, the shareholders of the Viacom Company have gained from CSR initiatives through increased returns.

Moreover, due to positive publicity and reputation, the market value of shares of the Viacom Company is always stable. In summary, an organization gains immensely from the CSR initiatives since they improve the profitability of the organization and increase the customer base (Porter and Mark, 2006).

Managing people and financial resources to accomplish CSR goals

The Viacom Company adopted several strategies to effectively manage its people and financial resources to accomplish its CSR goals. For instance, the company adopted a proactive partnership strategy for implementing the strategies such as the ‘Get Schooled’, ‘Comedy Central’, and ‘Rap-It-Up’. Through partnership with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, the Viacom Company was able to successfully implement the ‘Get Schooled’ initiative since the implementation process and financing was equally shared (Viacom, 2014).

The company was also in a position to recruit volunteers within its human resource to further cut on the cost of implementing some of the initiatives. For instance, during the implementation of the ‘Fight Malaria’ initiative in Kenya, the employees from Kenya offered free community service as change agents and liaison officers.

The engagement of employees in the CSR initiatives enabled the Viacom Company to attract and retain experienced and qualified personnel. This is because the staff members would naturally feel as being part of an organization that appreciates the communities where they come from (Porter and Mark, 2006).

Notwithstanding, the company has made it a policy to allocate a substantial amount of revenues for charity purposes. Since the initiatives operate within a pre-determined budget, the company has been able to create systematic and dynamic systems for running the initiatives concurrently.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is apparent that corporate social responsibility and ethical management plan of the Viacom Company has positioned it as a company of the future. Viacom Company has developed a mutual relationship with its customers through the numerous CSR initiatives such as the ‘Get Schooled’, ‘Comedy Central’, and ‘Rap-It-Up’.

In addition, the company has a series of programs on education trust, environmental conservation, and provision of social amenities across the globe. These seer values are designed to facilitate sustainability due to acceptance by the community. This eventually earns the company a competitive advantage over other service providers in the same field of operation. Generally, the Viacom Company’s CSR initiatives are expected to increase the presence of the company in various regions across the world.

References

D’Amato, A., Henderson, S., & Florence, S. (2009). Corporate social responsibility and sustainable business: guide to leadership, task and functions. Web.

Porter, M., &Mark, K. (2006). Strategy and society: The link between competitive advantage and corporate social responsibility. Web.

Viacom (2014). Corporate responsibility. Web.

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