January 2008 - Business School Bulletin

The geography of disaster response

About half of Global Fortune Firms, as a whole, provided goods and services worth over $580 million, to the tsunami effort. Companies are now donating more than before of the $97 million donated to the hurricane Katrina effort, $27 million came from corporate funding.

Understandably, investigations show, companies are more likely to give to a “home region effort”, something that has had an affect on their local area.

A worrying suggestion is that “Disaster fatigue” is setting in on some companies, the more that occur, the less significant they will become to a company to focus its donations.

Environment: the value of being prepared

Environmental management is a costly operation, but the increase in reputation, will lead to an increase in market value of a corporate organization or company.

Higher polluting industries are subject to more environmental constraints, taking this into consideration, the market value of a higher polluting industry is generally lower, than a lower polluting industry, even if the profits are slightly lower.

Keeping the corruption habit

Using company property for personal use, or phoning in “sick” after a late night, should no longer be taken into account as a overhead, but the worst offenders should be fined accordingly.

Securities Exchange Commission is suggesting companies to adopt much more detailed anti-corruption programmes, for the sake of their companies, and to extinguish offenders.