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It is not a coincidence that there is a positive trend between companies that do good in their community and company success. With this generation of consumers and employees placing more importance on community consciousness than ever before, it makes sense that the companies that are giving back are the ones attracting the most business.
Doing good isn't limited to community service hours, it extends to the company's business model—to the mark they leave on the environment and the way consumers view them. Companies that are making it their goal to solve the world's most challenging problems are the ones making the most progress. Take a pharmaceutical company for example; it is their business to develop and provide vaccines for infections and potentially life threatening diseases. The company could base its pricing off of the gross national income per capita of each country in order to make the drugs attainable where they were needed most. By developing and selling vaccines, the company is able to reinvest their profits into developing vaccines for more ambitious projects like HIV or malaria. This continual cycle of reinvestment and doing good is what makes companies like this so successful.
In the pharmaceutical industry, it is clear how their business model would enable them to develop products around the idea of tackling world issues. The connection isn't as obvious for other industries, however, this does not take away from its urgency or validity. Take a fast food giant, for example. A company that produces and uses over 2 billion eggs a year has made the choice to remove antibiotics from their chickens, as well as begun a 10-year plan to convert them to cage free environments. This movement by such a large member of the industry will without a doubt inspire change throughout. The removal of antibiotics and liberation of birds will not only better the lives of the animals, but the health of the consumers as well. Consumers are asking more and more questions about what is in their food and the process before it reached their table. This trend is forcing the food industry into transparency and responsibility when it comes to the production of their products.
The switch from cage to cage-free eggs is bold and inspiring, but doing good does not always require a complete alteration of an industry. Companies are changing the world by ensuring a living wage for employees, Fair Trade Certifying products, empowering communities in poverty, and searching for ways to incorporate renewable energy use into a daily routine. Doing good is not restricted to a certain industry or country or company size. It is attainable, it is valuable, and it seems to be catching on.
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