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Individual Work Assignment
3. SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
In the author’s opinion, there is no right answer to the question whether the tobacco industry should be eliminated or at least slowed down. Any issue of this kind is just a matter of opinion. And just like any other business or industry, tobacco industry has its pros and cons, it benefits the society in some way, but at the same time it causes damage to it. But that is exactly the same as all the other businesses do – to some extent each one of them has negative impact on particular layer of the society. And if they say they don’t, there are two options – either they are lying, or it is charity.
The most important index in this case is what outweighs – is it the damage which the particular business cause to the society or it is the benefits it brings? The author assumes, that in ITC Ltd. case the positive impact they have is higher that the negative one. Most likely, it is not in tobacco companies’ forces to improve people’s health by banning their products – human being by its essence has always been predisposed to self-destruction, and taking the cigarettes away from people won’t make them live a healthier life style, it would only drive them to inventing new witty ways of harming themselves with different products. Besides, each person has a power of choice and the responsibility for this choice lies solely on his shoulders.
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Individual work assignment “THE TRIPLE BOTTOM LINE” CASE ETHICAL ISSUES In the last decade India has become one of the world’s fastest growing major economies, which serves as one of the main reasons for the country to be a very attractive market for the tobacco industry in general, and the cigarette industry in particular. In 2011, India was one of the three largest producers of tobacco along with China and Brazil. However, it continues to face significant issues related to poverty, corruption, malnutrition, inadequate public healthcare, and terrorism. And even though the tobacco industry development helps to solve some of these problems, such as poverty and unemployment, there still exist various arguable aspects within the industry which are brought to light – for example, health issues and mortality rates instigated by tobacco usage. As there are the tremendous opportunities for growth in the cigarette industry, it would be simply irrational not to use them, but at the same time there exist the controversies around significant social costs, related to health risks for primary and even secondary smokers. The main dilemma for the companies operating in tobacco industry is to make decisions regarding the future direction of their firms in such a way, so that these decisions pay respect to the interest of all stakeholders and satisfy them, along with addressing the interest of the society at large, while maintaining short-term and long-term viabilities.
