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.
