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In This Issue
Editor's Note
Moving Beyond Monitoring in the Supply Chain
As part of our DR-CAFTA Responsible Competitiveness Project, BSR has documented several case studies on how multinational companies can work with suppliers to improve their social and environmental performance beyond minimum requirements.
This week’s feature article—pulling lessons from industries in the DR-CAFTA region that are applicable to other regions and sectors—outlines key steps companies can take to support suppliers, including demonstrating the business case for improvement, providing appropriate incentives, and, when it makes sense, sharing costs.
From our offices in China, we offer the results of our recent survey of 109 factories supplying companies such as Gap Inc., Marks and Spencer, and Walmart: A new generation of workers is demanding more from factory managers, particularly around wages, benefits, and career opportunities.
Finally, BSR’s Director of Partnership Development Pei Bin shares strategies from our China Philanthropy Incubator initiative on how companies can help make their philanthropy strategies more proactive and strategic.
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In Depth
Supplier Ownership: A Shared Vision for Responsible Supply Chains
By
BSR’s DR-CAFTA Responsible Competitiveness Project provides a template for encouraging suppliers to move “beyond monitoring” to take ownership of continuous improvement programs for labor conditions.
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Spotlight
Making China’s Philanthropic Sector Strategic
As part of BSR's three-year CiYuan (China Philanthropy Incubator) initiative, we recently hosted a roundtable with the Cisco Foundation, which convened leaders from Chinese foundations, NGOs, academia, and government to discuss how to strengthen corporate and foundation support for NGOs in China.
The following best practices discussed at the meeting can help companies transform their philanthropic strategy from one that is reactive to one that is proactive and strategic:
- Align goals by clearly articulating your philanthropic vision to your NGO partners.
- Apply the best strategies from the private sector to development objectives by sharing your business thinking, models, and disciplines with partners.
- Establish a competitive partnership-selection process so that you understand all partners' strengths and weaknesses and leverage a combination of their assets.
- Dedicate resources to managing partnerships and building partners' capacity.
- Invest in innovations that promote replicable, sustainable, and scalable solutions that have widespread impact.
For more information on how you can join the CiYuan initiative, contact Pei Bin.
Quick Hit
New Generation of Workers Enters Chinese Manufacturing Industry
According to a recent BSR survey of 109 Chinese factories that serve as suppliers for companies such as Gap Inc., Marks and Spencer, Walmart, and others, pervasive labor shortages in the country as well as a rising number of workers born in the 1980s or 1990s are having an impact on the manufacturing industry. The survey included 14 quantitative and qualitative questions that covered the extent of the shortages, the impact of the shortages on operations, the proportion of younger workers in manufacturing jobs, and good management practices for dealing with these issues.
These "new generation workers" now account for 60 percent of the manufacturing industry workforce (see which industries have the most new generation workers below). This trend has led to new challenges for factory management such as low loyalty and professional ethics; reluctance to work overtime; higher expectations for living standards, wages, benefits, training, and career development; and greater concerns for learning and entertainment opportunities.
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