Case study on the most equal and unequal companies

Many big name brands on the high street may seem friendly and
attractive but do they reserve the same treatment for their employees? In
these two case studies, we will find out about two companies. The first
one is SAP
SAP:
SAP, the American tech giant was recently the first technology company in
America to get the Economic Dividends for Gender Equality (EDGE) award
in 2014. At the ceremony, the SAP chief of Human Resources Jewell
Parkinson commented that This recognition shows how committed we are
to making SAP more gender-equal, he said. Mr Parkinson also added that
Not only are we holding ourselves to the highest, most transparent
international standards, but were creating a roadmap others in the
industry can emulate.
The recognition is a big leap forward for SAP as they strive to create an
equal comapny. Launched at the World Economic Forum in 2011, the
award was created to recognize companies in the world which showed a
considerable effort to make their companies equal. Jennifer Morgan, chief
for SAP North America said The EDGE certification is another testament
to the fact that SAP North America is leading our industry and region on
diversity and inclusion in the workplace,
SAP employed 22.5% of women in their total North American workforce
and women occupied 8% of leadership positions. SAP hopes to increase
the figure to 10%, which would be the first ever North American company
to reach double figures in leadership positions. SAP also wants to increase
their women workforce in North America to 25% which would be their
highest total in the history of SAP. Tech companies normally employ men
for the job and when they have to acquire women, they usually acquire
them from other companies instead of nurturing their own talent, which
would empower gender equality.

SAP, with their EDGE certification lights a beacon in the dark sea gender
equality in tech to attract and motivate men and women and to banish
stereotypical expectations in the workplace. With this prestigious EDGE
acknowledgment, SAP is raising the bar for the competition and hopefully,
other technology companies will follow. SAP seems to be committed to
creating an equal environment, and this is really blazing a trail as tech
companies are notorious for having an extremely small minority of women
and that is really a shame because some women are really talented and

skilled. Anna Wittenburg, the chief diversity officer commented SAP is

committed to ensuring a gender-balanced environment, , Greater
diversity provides numerous benefits to the company and our employees,
customers, partners and the bottom line. We know that companies are far
more innovative and successful when they leverage diverse talent. We are
proud of the strides we are making and hope to see other major players in
the tech industry follow SAPs lead. Hopefully, many more companies will
follow SAP and even if they dont earn an EDGE, its always good to know
they are trying.
Nestle:
Nestle is one of the largest foodstuffs producer. It makes chocolate, milk,
chocolate and even more and they have Theyre also considered to be one
of the best employers in Europe with six LEED certifications. It looks like
they are the good guys, but why people think Nestle is bad and unequal?
In 2010, the documentary the Dark Side of Chocolate unveiled the cruel
methods that Nestle used. In the wake of this documentary, the
international labour rights filed a lawsuit against Nestle on the behalf of
three Malian women. The lawsuit claimed that they were trafficked from
the Ivory Coast and then subsequently forced to work on a Cocoa
plantation, being beaten regularly with a cane. Even though Nestle wasnt
liable for this cruel and inhumane unequal treatment as a Californian court
ruled in 2012, this created a huge looming shadow which has never
moved since. A report in 2013 by the Fair Labour Association (FLA)
showed that they breached several company rules on abuse and equality
and also showed that the plantation were the Malian women were abused
wasnt checked by an inspector for 15 years! The FLA also showed that
Nestle were fully aware of the treatment but did NOTHING about it for 10
YEARS! So much for the fancy equality policies.
Another scandalous scandal involving manipulation was when the Swiss
company struck a deal up with Grace Mugabe, wife of the infamous
dictator Robert Mugabe. It would be an ordinary contract to supply milk for
their chocolate except the farms that Nestle used to get their milk from
was CONFISCATED from poor black farmers. It is true that Nestle has more
than 300,000 employers and eventually, one is going to mess up but even
if Nestle was unaware of where Grace Mugabe got the farms form they
are still destroying a familys already slim hopes of survival by taking
away their only lifeline.
We are back in the 1990s and Nestl is selling infant formula by the
millions. The formula was aimed at poor African mothers. It is almost as

good as baby milk, they claimed but a study showed that it lacked several
nutrients for neural growth. This study, conducted by the International
Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) caused an uproar in the media with
more than 40,000 letters coming in. Even worse, the instruction to
sterilize and boil the milk was in English, a language that many poor
mothers didnt understand and even if they understood the instructions,
most of them didnt have the sufficient facilities to boil it. When they
boiled it, they used polluted water, causing diarrhea and death in about
10,000 infants around Africa. Firstly, this is unequal as they are falsely
marketing food and it is unequal towards the mothers of the baby as they
believe in the propaganda they believe and secondly, it is unfair because
the children have died, probably causing grief and sadness in many
peoples lives.
In conclusion, eventually when you have so many people working for you,
one is eventually going mess up or do something wrong but if you look at
Kraft, Heinz or any other major company, they have occasionally messed
but not as much as Nestle. After you mess up several times, the public
starts to hate you. Unlike other companies, who get a bad reputation for
little or no reason, Nestles reputation is thoroughly deserved. Enough is
enough Nestle.