Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)

Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation
Executive Summary
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has developed into a key strategy for present-day business organizations. Instead of focusing on maximizing their profits, organizations are attracting success by indulging in key global issues. Intel Inc. is a multinational organization operating in the technology/computing industry that has showcased what it takes to succeed through the CSR strategy. Intel is ranked among the most ethical organizations. The reputation emanates from the organization’s participation in multiple CSR activities and programs. Besides changing its industry, Intel has also instilled impacts on communities and the environment through CSR. Presently, the organization has implemented a RISE strategy that is poised to steer its CSR agenda deep into the decade. Analyzing Intel’s CSR strategy gives an insight into what organizations must do to integrate their stakeholders into successful global operations through social responsibility.
Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
Business organizations are fast changing their tactics to stay sustainable in their operational environments that are becoming increasingly competitive. Until recently, most multinational business organizations emphasized profitability at the expense of any other initiative. As long as the profitability indices stayed stable, managers found it appropriate to maintain their operations. However, the operational environment has changed to the extent that most stakeholders do not care much about profitability indices but how they stay sustainable. To that effect, the strategy has changed from an absolute focus on strategies to attracting customer loyalty through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives. Embracing CSR implies organizing operations in a manner that encourages them to act in a socially responsible tract. Such organizations develop strategies and initiatives geared towards building their competitive advantage primarily through self-regulation. Balancing the people and the planet’s needs has grown as a priority to multiple multinational organizations. Intel Inc. is among the organizations that have prospered on the grounds of CSR. At Intel, inputs are geared towards developing an ideal internal and external operational environment for sustainability. This paper explores Intel’s CSR strategy by assessing its prospects, including impacts in the industry, stakeholder impacts, key activities, and operational ethics. Exploring CSR in multinational organizations is becoming a necessity bearing the changing operational scope with organizations aiming to instill more stakeholder loyalty within their competitive strategies.
Industry Analysis
Industry Value Chain
The computing/semi-conductor industry is one of the most impactful industries presently bearing the content of its value chain. At least every person has an aspect of their life affected by the developments that continue in semi-conductors. In this industry, the value chain and integration of activities matter in achieving the optimum outputs with minimum resource inputs (Yim, 2015). At the highest level, the value chain constitutes research and development, production, production inputs, and distributions for end-use. To reduce their costs, fabless companies engaging solely in the design of semi-conductors collaborate with foundries that are semi-conductor manufacturers with limited design capabilities. Bearing the increasing costs in design, larger organizations such as Intel and AMD are fast transitioning into designing their semi-conductors. At the production level, the three primary segments include design, manufacturing and assembly, testing, and packaging (ATP) (Lombardo, 2017). Depending on the organization’s strategy, the production activities can be integrated into the organizational processes or lent to fabless companies. The semi-conductors are majorly used by other organizations such as mobile phones and computer manufacturing organizations. Intel is a unique organization bearing the multiple prospects in which it is engaged. While the manufacturing of semi-conductors still constitutes its primary industry, the organization is fast developing into other related portfolios, including server and motherboard developments.
Issues Facing the Industry
The computing industry is among the most dynamic industries in the world, with new products emerging from new or existing providers almost consistently. The market for present technologies can change quickly depending on the inputs by competitors (Moorhead, 2020). Partly, that explains why Intel operates in multiple portfolios. Still, Intel is among the most innovative organizations in existence. Intel is facing considerable competition in its operational environment. Presently, the organization commands only 7.65% of the global market share. To evade the impacts of stiff competition, Intel has also devised unique operational niches. Their operational platform is based on the Intel architecture in which the products are positioned to compete in a wide array of the spectrum from the lowest power portable devices to the high power data center servers (Lombardo, 2017). Intel remains the market leader in the server and PC segments. However, they acknowledge the increasing challenges posed by direct competitors such as Apple, Dell, Qualcomm, and Samsung, among other microprocessors and server tools developers. The emergence of competitors through ARM architecture remains the biggest challenge that Intel faces especially considering the popularity of devices such as mobile phones, personal computers, and tablets to the primary business portfolio of Intel.
Achieving a competitive advantage in a sustainable operational environment remains the primary purpose of any organization within the computing and technology industry. Intel understands the intensity of competition (Moorhead, 2020). They have since reacted to the challenges by creating niches that they believe to be primary to their activities. Among the niches that Intel and its competitors have identified include developing products with high performance. Emphasizing speed has been a key prospect in the development of servers and microprocessors/conductors (Lombardo, 2017). The other area of emphasis that the organization emphasizes is energy conservation. It has become a primary objective for organizations to focus on products and processes whose outputs culminate into energy conservation. To Intel and competitors, having energy-efficient products implies customer loyalty, something they need to remain sustainable. The computing industry also operates on other key grounds: product recognition and availability, reliability, quality, features, price, innovative designs, and ease of integration. Organizations that prosper in such prospects are likely to take market leadership.
Achieving the best out of the computing industry comes with a proper understanding of the changes. For multinational organizations whose products attract different inputs from a variety of cultural backgrounds, it remains insightful to understand the needs posed in different market segments. Players such as AMD, Zeon, Zen, and Apple, among others, have combined their key activities to reflect on the core organizational operation principles (Yim, 2015). Players are combining their network of tests, designs, and manufacturing to befit the needs. Among the areas that command high expenditure include research and development, besides the extensive focus on innovation. The computing industry emphasizes manufacturing yield, power consumption, performance, product cost, quality control, and customer satisfaction in the long term. The manufacturing of semi-conductors, microprocessors, or motherboards affects inputs from a wide range of stakeholders, something that organizations must take into consideration.
Responsibilities
Organizations within computing focus on multiple aspects of responsibility to ensure that they stay relevant in their operations. Primary among the emphasized areas of responsibility is environmental responsibility (Moorhead, 2020). To most manufacturing organizations, raw materials and other resources are retrieved from the environment. Hence, being environmentally friendly is a responsibility that all organizations must appreciate in the industry. Some efforts have been put to ensure that each organization follows strictly the laws to manage the environment. Still, organizations such as Intel, Apple, or Samsung have indulged in the initiatives to manage the emission of greenhouse gases to the ozone layer. The other activities in which environmentally-sensitive organizations have indulged include offsetting negative environmental impacts by funding researches or even planting trees, increasing reliance on renewable energy, and decreasing pollution through greenhouse emissions.
Organizations in technology are also indulged in ethical and economic responsibility. Through ethical responsibility, the organization ensures that it operates fairly and ethically. Ethical responsibility extends from responsible production processes to gain a competitive advantage using the ideal avenues. In the industry, organizations set ethical responsibility differently (Elafrou, Goumas, & Koziris, 2017). For instance, there is a focus on the minimum wage offerings while more inputs have been extended to free trade standards in the acquisition of raw materials. Organizations extend their ethics into philanthropy. Companies such as Microsoft have extended their inputs to steer resources towards initiatives with philanthropic impacts. Some of the prospects that have been emphasized through philanthropic responsibility include pandemics, fires, natural disasters, and the elimination of poverty, among other initiatives (Moorhead, 2020). The economic responsibility comes with the organizational commitment to direct their resources towards all the responsibility areas they are engaged in. While the end goal for technology organizations is to make a profit, there is a long-term motivation to instill positive impacts on people, the environment, and society.
Multiple organizations in technology have performed differently in showcasing their responsibility. One of the organizations that have excelled in emphasizing responsibility to the environment, people, and society is Samsung. Besides focusing on developing energy-efficient technologies, Samsung has also been active in participating in philanthropic responsibilities, including contributions to health pandemics, participation in global disasters such as the Haiti earthquake, and development of technology to combat some of the disasters (Elafrou, Goumas, & Koziris, 2017). Organizations such as Qualcomm, Apple, and AMD have also performed exemplarily in orchestrating efficient operations in a wide variety of responsible areas. Some of the organizations that are deemed fairly irresponsible in technology are those whose CSR activities have stayed concealed from the public. Competitors including Amtel, Micrel, and ON Semi-conductors have showcased little input in CSR’s public participation (Camilleri, 2017). With the changing operational environment, most organizations are making attempts to relate with their consumers or the general populations through the challenges that those stakeholders face.
Company Overview
Intel Inc. is a renowned American multinational corporation headquartered in Santa Clara, California. Intel operates in the technology industry, in which it manufactures semi-conductor chips and microprocessors. By revenue, Intel is the biggest manufacture of semi-conductors. Its products constitute most of the processors found in most personal computers. Intel has consistently been ranked among the Fortune 500 corporations since 2007 (Camilleri, 2017). Some of the renowned consumers of Intel semi-conductors and microprocessors include Dell, HP, and Lenovo. Throughout its operational span, Intel has managed to create multiple business portfolios, including venturing into embedded processors, graphics chips, flash memory, integrated circuits, network interface controllers, motherboard chipsets, and other devices related to computing and communications. Intel was founded in 1968 and has since maintained its position among global leaders in multinational corporations. While Intel has traditionally targeted corporations with their products, the strategy is fast changing. Presently, most organizations that depend on Intel products have developed avenues of integrating production. Intel, hence, is growing to steer direct impacts on consumers or venturing into newer markets such as developing microprocessors for other consumers such as mobile phone manufacturing corporations.
Ownership and Governance
Intel is a publicly traded organization with a distinct governance structure. Some of the top stockholders of Intel include The Vanguard Group Inc. with a stake of 7.91%, BlackRock Fund Advisors (5.26%), SSgA Funds Management Inc. (4.23%), Capital Research and Management Corporation (2.59%). Other organizations, including BlackRock Investment Management, Dimensional Fund Advisors, and Norges Bank Investment Management, are among the key stakeholders in the organization. Notably, Intel’s governance is highly hierarchical and relies heavily on the inputs of the board of governance. Some of the responsibilities of the board include overseeing the conduct of the business, reviewing and approving major financial activities, selecting the CEO and evaluating the CEO performance, overseeing the process of maintaining integrity within the organization, and administration and interpretation of compliance to various statutes and operational obligations. The top management is complemented with a range of operational tiers in the business and functional levels. Intel’s governance structure is mirrored in its subsidiary headquarters located on every continent. Remarkably the governance structure could be a challenge in as much as it manifests benefits (Camilleri, 2017). Some of the challenges that come with public stake ownership include the decisions to choose the organizational leaders. The performance of the organization is also heavily measured based on its merits in the stock market, which cannot imply the ideal inputs within the internal environment. Ultimately, the hierarchical structure could hinder efficient decision making bearing the characteristic, streamlined flow of communication in such organizations.
Position on Issues
Intel manifests strong positions in various issues that affect society. In its operations, Intel understands that society, people, and the environment form an integral part of its operational efficiency. As such, the organization has been indulged in a wide variety of issues. Lately, Intel stated its commitment to assist in combating modern slavery (Camilleri, 2017). The organization intends to employ its wide operational reach to instill a streamlined labor market. Mining in the East Congo, for instance, has born a specific interest in Intel. The organization operates to uphold human rights and social equality in its operations. Racism is another issue in which Intel has showcased the intention to participate. The organization actively advocates for the fight against racism or any element of social inequality. The intention is to eliminate the systematic root causes of disparities. Bearing the scope of social injustices and inequality, Intel has insisted on implementing change within its operational industry (Alhouti, 2013). The most significant input was the development of AI sliders that filter online gaming abuse. The organization developed a range of abuse categories, including white nationalism, racism and xenophobia, misogyny, LGBTQ hate, and aggression that it automatically filters from the gaming platforms. Such initiatives are poised to revitalize the approaches to social issues such as racism, gender inequality, or hate against LGBTQ individuals.
Intel has also been involved in various environmental and health issues. Primarily, Intel is developing its semi-conductors with an insight towards efficient energy management. Also, the organization resorted to the technological development of electric and driverless vehicles. The organization argue...