Transcript 2

Vivien: Hi! Everyone! Welcome to our two o’clock live show: Understand Philanthropic Responsibility for Corporate in 8 minutes. I’m Vivien.

Lisa: I’m Lisa.

Vivien: First, what is philanthropic responsibility, Lisa?

Lisa: Umm… Philanthropic responsibility in Carroll’s pyra...pyramid of corporate social responsibility is umm…the highest level. It unlike the economic and legal responsibility, which are required by society, but if…but the society will...will be glad if you take it.

Vivien: Umm…The goal for philan, for this responsibility is to be a good corporate citizen. It asks you to give back. Provide programs to support your community and engage in volunteerism, volunteerism. For example, corporate can help local to build hospitals, or schools, or sponsor cultural affairs. And, all in all, the purpose is to improve the quality of life.

Lisa: I’m support...support the philanthropic responsibility. The…this responsibility reflects the current public expectations for entrepreneurs. Umm…Philanthropic responsibilities are voluntary and benevolent activities. Entrepreneurs will…are willing to help and improve the society, including civic activities and development, by…by their desire. Nowadays, these…these philanthropic responsibilities become a kind of strategies umm…for entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurs would think…would think about the profits, plan…make a plan which can balance…balance between financial and social goals, and manage it. Unquestionably, entrepreneurs want the si…win-win situation on the business. But they should refer philanthropy into actions, then they can really get what they want.

Lisa: Umm…then I want to talk about the idea of “community involvement.” Community involvement is a conception, which means that entrepreneurs and the general public is…are members of the community. That is, they are influenced by each other. Umm…This relationship is like jigsaw puzzle, which…which would be incomplete without only one piece. Therefore, entrepreneurs should make efforts with the general public umm…hand in hand. Having the philanthropic responsibilities not only benefit the society but also the companies. Because the healthier society can bring more profits to the companies.

Lisa: There are four points important in the philanthropic responsibility, including help, share, donate, and give back. The style of helping others is mostly the foundation or financial donation, people…which helps people who are disadvantaged minority in the society. If entrepreneurs can provide good systems, good facilities, and good programs to people, then the…the quality of people’s life can be promoted.

Lisa: Why entrepreneurs need to have the philanthropic responsibility? Of course they have advantages appealing to entrepreneurs. The first one is it is the effective advertising way that can promote companies’ images. Umm…Make more people see the companies. The second one is the companies can gain greater acceptance because most people would accept the have the…which companies have good images. They are more willing to work for the…for this kind of companies. The third one is well-being and quality of people and life. If people and life can be promoted higher, and they can pro…bring more profits to entrepreneurs. If entrepreneurs want business to grow bigger and stronger like this flourishing tree, they should cultivate it with corporate responsi…corporate social responsibility.

Vivien: And I’m on the against side. The dictionary defines philanthropy as “a desire to help mankind as indicated by acts of charity; love of mankind.” The philanthropy responsibility is desired of business by society, but when the desire becomes a force, or a pressure, what will it be? Or when an entrepreneur said “Why do I have to pretend to care when I don’t? I don’t!” Are we going to force him to take the responsibility? Umm…does our society turns out to promote hypocrisy?

Vivien: Well, there is some advantages for businessmen if they take this responsibility: umm…first, they can promote their corporate image. When you do charity, people will think that wow you’re a good man, and your company must be a conscientious company, and then people will think that your pro…that are…people are more willing to buy your product because they think you are a good person. And…umm…second, do…do charity can deduct tax! In Taiwan, if businessmen give disaster relief to the government, their tax, their deduction rates can...umm… up to 100%! That means they don’t have to pay any tax.

Vivien: But there’s also some disadvantages for entrepreneurs. If you take this responsibility, it is for sure that you will have extra expenses. But maybe you’ll say extra expenses is not a big deal, because it’s just like another investment! But the problem is, umm… doing charity is not like buying shares or open another company, its profit is unclear. And, I think when you think…when you think of how much profit you will earn when doing charity, you…you’re already turn aside from the original spirit of corporate social responsibility. Umm… besides, this notion is conscienceless! So why force corporation to do things that the…ok! will against their basic goal to gain profit?

Vivien: To the public, maybe you’ll say I don’t care they are umm…kind-hearted or not, whatever their intention are, it’s better to…it’s better than nothing! Some people do, do get the sub…subvention! But the problem is that they show their charitable, charitable moves to us, but their firms still do things that will harm our society! This brings out two, two problems, first is that they do not really pay responsibility for their harm…for the harm they cause, and…but donate money to umm…more noticeable and more appealing issues to, in order to catch our attention. The second problem is that businessmen can blur the point that they are the origin of the problem. We always see them doing good things, but the wicked part are left unsaid. So, this will gradually make public think that corporations may have conscience—they can help the, help government build a better society! But is that really so?

Lisa: The conclusion of approving the philanthropic responsibility is that business has a responsibility to give back to the community, and besides, although the contribution is so small, it also can change the society.

Vivien: As for, for my conclusion, philan…I think philanthropy responsibility brings more disadvantages than advantages. Umm…for big company, they can, it’s the opportunity for them to improve their image, but they also have to take the risk of wasting money. To smaller company, this, this…umm…responsibility is a big burden for them. And for the public, we only get facial benefits and their hypocrisy, but the real basic pro, problems is left unsolved. And… this is our presentation, thank you for listening.

Question time:

Alice: Umm, I want to ask Vivien. Do you have any examples that, umm…some entrepreneurs umm… they do, they look like they are doing good things but they’re actually having bad intentions?

Vivien: Do you mean the thing it, itself have bad intentions?

Alice: Yes.

Vivien: I don’t know if there’re, if there has examples like this. But what I mean before is they do good things but they…the…umm…they show to public that they are doing good things. But, umm…the problem in their company that will harm our society is still… they still do this kind of things. So, the two things is different.