COMMUNICATION IN BUSINESS 100

ASSESSMENT 2

Student Name: A. Student

Student Number: 12345678

Students Email Address: A.Student@curtin.edu.au

Tutors Name: Hannah Vickers

Tutorial Day and Time: Friday, 8.00am

Name of Company: Honda Motor

Title: Local Network Submission

Semester/ Campus Details: Semester 2, 2014 - Bentley

(Word Count: 1189/1320)

Global compact Submission
Striving-to-be-a-company-society-wants-to-exist

A.Student
Chief-Executive-Officer
Honda-Motor-Company
04-10-2014
Contents

Our-Commitment 4

Human-Rights (Benefits-and-Challenges) 5

Environmental-Initiatives (Benefits-and-Challenges) 6

Implications-for-Stakeholders 7

References 8

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 Our-Commitment

At Honda, we have always understood that our achievement is not determined solely
by the vehicles we produce, but also by the sustainability efforts we make to benefit
society. Ever since its early stage, Honda has embraced its obligations as a corporate
citizen and strived to return to society. Our responsibilities to various stakeholders
have guided us for over half a century (Honda 2014), and ensured that our business
practices have a positive impact on society.

In the past few years Honda has been committed to incorporating CSR into core
strategy and reflecting them in day-to-day operations, thus improving corporate
social performance especially in terms of human rights and
environmental protection. In the CDP (Carbon Disclosure Project)s
report of Global 500 companies, we were selected as one of twelve
international leaders for environmental performance (CDP 2013).
The abundant experience in protecting the environment and
human rights ensures Honda to contribute significantly towards
building a sustainable society by sharing with other companies
both our acclaimed practices and our lessons learned. This
submission, therefore, contains our representative practices, valuable lessons and
sound recommendations with an overall evaluation for better complying with the
following UNGC Principles:

Principle 1: "Businesses should support and respect the protection of

internationally proclaimed human rights."

Principle 8: "Businesses should undertake initiatives to promote

greater environmental responsibility."

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 Respecting-the-IndividualHuman-Rights

For employees, we have established the Business Ethics Improvement Proposal Line
to facilitate employees to discuss and address their issues regarding fairness and
working conditions, and launched the Women Career Support Program (Coffin 2003).
For customers, Honda has Orange Dealers, who provide special-needs vehicles,
barrier-free showrooms and restrooms suitable for wheelchair users (Honda 2014).
Consequently, we are proud to see that our internal ethical activities improve
employee welfare and operating efficiency, and the external human rights initiatives
in turn encourage the workforce to develop.

Admittedly, despite these achievements our stand was challenged in 2010 when a
string of strikes broke out in Chinas plants due to our neglect of the changing
expectations of workers (see Chinese Honda Strike a Wake-up Call for Japan). We
solved this issue by communicating actively with workers and heeding similar
situations in other regions. From this incident we have learned lessons that with
higher occupational expectations of the new generation of workers in developing
countries, Honda, as a multinational company, must anticipate the change in social
values and respond by fully comprehending these concerns and then addressing
them with speed. Therefore, we propose the following recommendation in keeping
with principle 1:

Recommendation 1: Establish regional human rights review programs

to anticipate and understand social changes, identify local human
rights problems between companies and stakeholders, and hold
periodical roundtable meetings of all regional program managers to
share and develop.

BENEFITS:
It will significantly reduce the neglect of changing concerns and expectations
of stakeholders and address relevant human rights issues before conflicts
happen.

It will improve and speed up corporate social responsiveness as the company

now has a better understanding of social expectations.
It will prevent huge reputational and financial losses by identifying issues in
advance and learning from other regions where the company also operates.
It will decrease business criticism, increase respect and positive publicity, and
thus increase market share and employee retentions.
CHALLENGES:
The program may become ineffective as it is still under management control,
but the management is becoming increasingly keen on corporate social
responsibility as they know how this will benefit the company. With ethical
awareness widely raised in society, companies cannot risk their own future.

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 Expenses will be incurred, such as investigation and labour costs, but offset by
the benefits the program offers including the prevention of costly conflicts.
Blue-Skies-for-Our-ChildrenEnvironmental-Initiatives

As an automobile manufacturer, we have always understood that Honda has greater

responsibility for protecting the environment and nurturing the next generation.
Since 2000, we have conducted a program named Hello Woods to hold forums
about forest rejuvenation (Honda 2014). Our support of the environment is included
in the environmental performance report available on the Honda website.

We are also very proud of the introduction of water-based paint at Honda Asian
plants. In Asia, which lacks regulations forbidding solvent-based paint whose
emissions cause acid rain and destroy forests, very few car manufacturers use water-
based paint due to its higher cost. (Stewart 2014). Honda of Japan stressed these
problems and encouraged workers to work with technical teams. As a result, we
realise that water-based paint covers more efficiently than solvent-based paint, and
by using less paint we can cut down the cost and introduce water-based paint
successfully. Surprisingly, it was some direct workers who first found this result.

Importantly, weve learnt that we can never ignore the influence of employees on
improving environmental performance. Their attitudes are critical to successfully
implement environmental policies, and because of their close relationship with
production, they can make very useful suggestions on our environmental
improvements. Based on this review, we recommend the following practice to
achieve compliance to principle 8:

Recommendation 2: Track and record environmental impact at

important stages of the value chain, communicate the periodic results
to related employees, and reward employees who give constructive
proposals.
BENEFITS:
This will relate companies environmental impact directly to their business
activities and thus confirm acceptable behaviour and performance of both
companies and employees.

This will facilitate employees to fully understand how their roles influence the
environment and encourage them to participate in environmental
responsiveness, collectively contributing to environmental sustainability.
By monitoring environmental impact on each stage of the value chain,
companies can effectively reduce their environmental footprints and thus
uphold their social contract.
Encouraging employees to participate will inspire their creativity and
initiative, resulting in cost saving for the company.

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CHALLENGES:
There may be employees who still choose to be indifferent, but building a
culture where the majority has a positive attitude towards sustainability will
motivate them to exert themselves.

Implications-for-Key-Stakeholders

IMPLICATIONS:

Honda will be able to anticipate changes in social values, respond with speed
and flexibility, and prevent huge reputational and financial losses. We can
provide environmentally sustainable businesses, meeting our social contract
and gaining customer loyalty.

Customers, as core stakeholders, will enjoy ethical purchase in a circumstance

without discrimination and environmental hazards.

Employees, as primary stakeholders, will have their rights better protected,

their voices easily heard and their potentials better fulfilled.

Suppliers have to become more environmentally friendly as companies will

review their impact through the whole value chain, which thereby improves
performance of the supply chain.

Communities will get improved.

Special interest groups, as secondary stakeholders, will relieve their concerns.

RISKS:

Shareholders may face a short-term earnings reduction due to costs of these

practices, but will benefit in a long term as the company improves its
reputation and customer loyalty.

Whether respecting fundamental human rights or minimizing the environmental

impact of our international operations, Honda seeks to be a responsible company.

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Through sharing our recommendations with Honda management, we wish to make a
joint effort for a sustainable society where every stakeholder can enjoy life.

A. Student
Director-of-Honda-Motor

References:
Carbon Disclosure Project. 2014. CDP Global 500 Climate Change report 2013.
Accessed 4 October 2014.
https://www.cdp.net/enUS/Results/Pages/leadership-index.aspx

Coffin, Bill. 2003. "Ethics and Compliance at Honda of America." Risk Management
50 (12):12-16.

Honda Worldwide. 2014. Honda CSR Report 2014. Accessed 4 October 2014.
http://world.honda.com/CSR/index.html

Stewart, John. 2014. How Waterborne Paint Is Changing the Automotive Industry.
Specialty Equipment Market Association.
http://www.sema.org/sema-enews/2012/14/how-waterborne-paint-is-
changing-the-auto-industry

Tabuchi, Hiroko. 2010. "Chinese Honda strike a wake-up call for Japan." The New York
Times:B1.

United Nations Global Compact. 2014. Accessed 4 October 2014.

http://www.unglobalcompact.org/index.htm.