csr inditex vs. h&m final[1]

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Termpaper

- Corporate Social Responsibility: Inditex

vs. H&M -

Hand-in date:

DD.MM.YYYY

Campus:BI Oslo

Examination code and name: EXC 2705 Scandinavian Management

Programme:Bachelor in Business Administration

Term Paper in EXC 2705 DD.MM.YYYY

Content

CONTENT.........................................................................................................................................I

SUMMARY:....................................................................................................................................II

COMPANY PROFILE:...................................................................................................................1

AN APPROACH TO INDITEX:.........................................................................................................1

CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:..............................................................................3

WHAT IS CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY?......................................................................3

INDITEX’S CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:....................................................................4

HENNES AND MAURITZ’S CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY:.........................................10

CONCLUSION AND DISCUSSION:...........................................................................................15

Corporate Social Responsibility, fiction or reality?...............................................................15

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Summary:

Through this paper we want to compare the differences and similarities

between two of the main retailers in Europe regarding such an important topic as

the Corporate Social Responsibility. At the same time, comparing these two

companies: Inditex Group, a Spanish retailer and one of the biggest in the world

and one of its main competitors, the Scandinavian (Sweden) company H&M; will

allow us to compare how two similar companies but from very different origins

faced this issue.

The reasons to choose these companies in order to analyze the Corporate

Social Responsibility policies from two different companies in Europe are the

followings:

- Both are important companies which has business all around the world.

This makes that both companies should be worry to control an ethical

behavior and environmental respect of all their work partners worldwide

which imply to be able to adequate to different country’s laws and

cultures.

- We were looking for two companies which have a similar business in

order to study how different cultures will make o not to have different

points of view regarding the Corporate Social Responsibility.

The analysis of the Corporate Responsibility policies from both companies

will be carry out based on the following dimensions:

- Social Dimension: Where they give rules and guidelines for External

manufacturers and suppliers, own group manufacturers and employees

- Economic Dimension: which we will not discuss in this paper.

- Environmental Dimension: the second dimension which we will talk about

as the growing importance it has for the people and the companies

currently.

Trough this study we expect to find out how this important topic is handle in

by two different companies and if they way to do it is similar or not between

similar business companies but with different country cultures.

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Company Profile:

An approach to Inditex:

In order to understand how Inditex become one of the main retailes in the

world we should talk about Amancio Ortega, founder of Inditex.

Amancio Ortega had to start working very young, when he was only 13.

One of his two first jobs was in a Clothing Store. He began distributing silk shirts

embroidered with the initials of the bourgeois of the time. After that, he began to

work as a clerk and manager of La Maja.

At some time of their working life, he was sent to the house of the bank

man called Pedro Barrié de la Maza to deliver him handmade shirts. This man

gave him a good tip with which he could buy their first scissors and patterns.

From this moment, he always looks what he leaves as tip and requires generosity

to his closest friends.

While he was working at La Maja with his brother, his sister and with his

future wife, he proposes to some manufacturers to make their own cloth to

commercialize. As they see the great success they reach, he and his brothers

decided to start their own business. And that was the germen of what Inditex is

today: A company that today has more than 5,000 stores worldwide and that last

year sales reached €11,084 million.

One of the greatest successes of Amancio Ortega was to offer to everyone

high quality clothes at a reasonable price. However his biggest success was to

introduce the concept called: “just-in-term” method. This method allows the

production chain to adapt its production to the customers’ needs in just 48 hours.

Firstly, Amancio open the first store under the name of ZARA in 1975.

Soon after he began to open stores all around Spain and it was in 1985 when

Inditex was created to be the Head of the firm. Just 3 years later they open his first

store out of Spain and start the expansion of the company worldwide.

With the unstoppable growth of the firm, another firms where created and

some other bought. Now Inditex has under its control the following brands: Zara,

Massimo Dutti, Pull & Bear, Bershka, Oysho, Zara Home and Uterqüe.

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From the very beginning, Inditex have had very present the necessity of

carry on a sustainable development of their business, reason why the company has

given such a big importance to the Corporate Social Responsibility. During the

following point we will discuss this under the Social Dimension and the

Environmental dimension.

Regarding to these, we will highlight that Inditex has recently obtained the

maximum score on the FTSE4Good index, which is an index that represent

globally accepted standards of good practice corporate social responsibility.

An approach to Hennes and Mauritz:

Hennes & Mauritz AB, also known as H&M, is a Swedish retail company

with presence in forty countries all around the world, but mostly located in

Europe. Its product range is comprised of clothing, including underwear and

sportswear, for men, women, children and teenagers, as well as cosmetic products,

accessories and footwear (Factiva.com). But Hennes & Maurtiz AB is more than

H&M, it comprises the brands: H&M, COS, MTWTFSS Weekday and Cheap

Monday.

H&M was founded in 1947 in the city of Västerå, Sweeden by Erling

Persson. In the beginning the company was named as Hennes, which in Swedish

means hers, due to the fact they only sold clothing for women. In 1968 Hennes

acquired Mauritz Widfross a Stockholm haunting equipment store. After the

acquisition of this company Hennes began to sell men clothing and change its

name to Hennes & Mauritz that later was abbreviated to H&M. During the

decades of the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s H&M’s main markets where Sweden,

Denmark, Norway, Germany and the United Kingdom, where its stores were

located. In the 90’s it started an expansion plan opening stores in France and

then in 2000 it opened in North America and in Spain. Following this expansion,

H&M entered the Asian market opening its stores in Shanghai, Hong Kong and

Tokyo in the year 2007. In 2009 it opened its first store in Russia and later on in

2010 in Israel and Turkey.

The mission of H&M is to offer the customers fashion and quality at the

best price possible. To achieve its mission, H&M has a team of a hundred

designers who design H&M clothing line based on the last tendencies of fashion.

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Moreover, the company has special and limited editions developed by famous

designers as Karl Lagerfeld, Stella McCartney or Jimmy Choo among others.

When looking to H&M Corporate Social Responsibility it is important to

have in mind that H&M does not own factories. Clothing are made by external

suppliers located in Asia and Europe, which makes control of quality and labor

conditions harder than if they were H&M own factories. To avoid problems H&M

has a very strict and specific code of conduct for its employees and suppliers as

part of it Corporate Social Responsibility, which we will discuss later.

Thanks to all of the above H&M has become one of the major retailers in

the world with 82,000 employees and reaching last year 126.97 billion SEK in

sales.

Corporate Social Responsibility:

What is Corporate Social Responsibility?

Corporate Social Responsibility - CSR from now on- has become more

and more important in recent years in companies all around the world, but

especially in North America and Europe and the main question is why.

Corporations engage to CSR for multiple reasons: having a better brand

reputation, attract employees to work for them, forestall legislation through social

actions and programmes or to become a long-term investment in a community

(Crane and Matten 2010). Because all of these and more reasons CSR have

become such a strong issue in the twenty first century companies. But, what is

Corporate Social Responsibility?

Economist and researches from all over the world have researched and

debated about what CSR is or why corporations have to have responsibility with

the society. We, as students of business administration and members of this

society, think that companies have to have responsibilities not only with its

customers and stakeholders, but also with the community where they work and

the environment.

According to Carrol and Buchholtz (2009) CSR includes economic, legal,

ethical and philanthropic expectations placed on organizations by society at a

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given point in time. The economic responsibility is the most important one and the

basis for the rest of the responsibilities and as well as the legal responsibilities is

required by the society. The ethical responsibility goes beyond the legal ones,

which means that the company has to do what is right, just and fair. It is what is

expected by the society. The final stair of this pyramid is the philanthropic

responsibilities, which are desired by society (Crane and Matten 2010). But this is

the US context and the companies we are going to study are both European, even

though they have presence worldwide. In Europe the importance of the four level

of responsibilities are a little bit different. While economic responsibility is really

important and it goes beyond a certain level of profit and involves responsibility

with the employees and local communities, the philanthropic stair is not as

important as in North America.

CSR can be also defined as the active and voluntary contribution to the

social, economic and, economic and environmental firms, usually with the aim of

improving their competitive position and valuation and added value.

Now that we have defined what corporations and society understand by

Corporate Social Responsibility we can study in detail how CSR’s of Inditex and

H&M are.

Inditex’s Corporate Social Responsibility:

Inditex group plan is divided into three dimensions: the social dimension,

the environmental dimension and the economic dimension. During this section we

will focus on the first two.

Social Dimension: It refers to the code which governs the relations with the

External Manufacturers and Workshops and the relations between the employees

of the firm.

- Inditex code of conduct for external manufacturers and suppliers: this

section is divided in two parts.

a. The first is an introduction of the code where it is indicated the

regulatory framework on which the new Code is articulated: The

agreements of the ILO, The Universal Declaration of Human Rights of

the United Nations, The Principles of the Global Compact of the

United Nations, The Directives of the OECD for multinational Page 4


companies, The Base Code of ETI, The locally applicable employment

legislation and The local legislation in environmental matters and, in

the absence there of, the international legislation that is in force.

b. The second part of the code refers to the 11 points which are

regulated by Inditex and explains what they consist about.

1. No forced labor: Inditex does not allow any kind of force work and do not

allow their suppliers to ask for any deposit to her employees and make

them to recognize the right of the employee to leave the job if he has

advice with reasonable time.

2. No child labor: Inditex define like underage to any people under sixteen.

But if the country’s legislation asks for a higher age, then this limit will

have to be respect. It also says that people under eighteen should not

work at night or in dangerous situations as is define in the

Recommendation 190 of the International Labour Organization.

3. No discrimination : Not any discrimination should be allow based on race,

caste, creed, nationality, religion, age, physical or mental disability,

gender, marital status, sexual orientation and/or union membership or

political affiliation.

4. Respect for freedom of association and collective bargaining: It shall be

ensure that the employees, without distinction, have the right of

association, union membership and collective bargaining. No

discrimination could arise from the exercise of this right.

5. No harsh or inhumane treatment: Inditex require that all employees

should be treated with dignity and respect.

6. Safe and hygienic working conditions : a safe and healthy work place

should be provided to the workers, as well as minimum conditions of

light, ventilation, hygienic environment, fire protection, security

measures and access to potable water. Moreover, externals

manufacturers and suppliers should adopt every necessary measure to

ensure security and safe conditions at the work place.

7. Wages are paid : Inditex require that the employees’ salary should be at

least the minimum established by law or higher. Moreover it should be

enough to cover the basic and reasonable necessities of the employees.

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8. Working hours are not excessive : Is not allowed to work more than 48

hours a week and it should be recognize at least one free day for every 7

natural days.

9. Environmental awareness : “External manufacturers, suppliers and their

subcontractors shall be duly committed at all times to protect the

environment and shall comply, at least, with the standards and

requirements of the applicable Local and International Laws and

Regulations”. (Inditex Source)

10. Regular employment

11. Code implementation : In this point it is explain how some aspects should

be regulated on the Inditex structure. Topics as the requisites for

subcontracting or for the publication of the code as well as the necessity

of providing the employees with a copy of the code translate to the local

language are discussed here.

Why does inditex implement a code of conduct for their suppliers?

The reason why Inditex has developed this code for external

manufacturers and suppliers is that Inditex works with enormous number of

externals, even when it also has it owns manufactures. So, in order to ensure that

every part of the Inditex structure follow ethical rules and behavior they integrated

this code to the conduct code of the company.

From the moment that this code was implemented, every supplier

(External manufacturers and Workshops) of Inditex has the obligation of follow

the rules disposed in it.

How does Inditex control that everyone related with the business follow the

code?

As Inditex is very concern about the social dimension it has develop rules

and codes as well as a department to ensure that the ethical rules are met.

The first step was the inclusion of a rule in the code that allows Inditex to

make all the controls they want without the necessity of advice before the control.

It also creates a department of consultants which is dedicated to the

realization of these control all around the world where Inditex has supplier.

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However, as Inditex has such a big number of external manufacturers and

suppliers it also has external consultants to make these controls.

3.1.1. Internal Guidelines for responsible practices: this section emphasis on

ensuring a good work environment as it makes a particular reference to

the No-discrimination of any person due to any reason (no racial, religion

o sex discrimination is permitted) as the company consider itself a

multicultural company.

Not only Inditex has regulated their External manufacturers and suppliers

but it has also create an Internal Guidelines for Responsible Practices of the

Inditex's Group Personnel to encourage the ethical behavior of their employees

and help prevent all forms of corruption.

As the name indicates, they are just guidelines and not a set of obligation.

Inditex expect that their employees will follow this guidelines, reason why it has

create an organism to report any irregularity inside the company.

It was approved in February 2002 and “is defined as an ethical

commitment that includes basic principles and standards for the appropriate

development of the relations between the Inditex Group and its main stakeholders

(employees, customers, shareholders, business partners and any societies where it

develops its business model).” (Extract of Inditex Ethical code).

The code explains their guidelines referring to the following aspects:

- Scope of application : these guidelines are to be follow in all the company

body, including own factories and business and External manufacturers

and Suppliers.

- Enforcement of the legislation : Employees shall follow the legislation

rules of the country in order to enforce these guidelines.

- Relationship among employees and with customers : “All employees are

bound to act, as regards their employment relationships with other

employees and with the customers, pursuant to the principles of respect,

dignity and justice, taking into account the different cultural sensitivity of

each individual and not allowing any manner of violence, harassment or

abuse in their work, nor any discrimination against because of their race,

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religion, age, nationality, sex, or any personal or social traits statutorily

forbidden other than their own merit and capacities, in pursuit, especially

of the attention and assimilation into working life of disabled or

handicapped people” (reference: Inditex web page)

- Relationship with suppliers : it should be based on a lawful, ethical and

respectful relationship.

- Relationship with authorities : based on the same rules as the above

relationship and it also mention that no employee should offer, grant,

apply for or accept, either directly or indirectly, any gifts, handouts,

favors or compensations,

- Communication of activities : employees should report directly to the

company.

- Personal conflicts of interest : Inditex remarks that the company respects

the personal and private life of its employees and if any problem will arise

then they are asked to go to the Committee of Ethics.

- Exercise of political activities : Inditex’s activities are to be carry out

without any political influence.

- Use of goods and services of the company : they are not to be used for

own profits.

- Exercise of other activities : employees shall not do another activity that

reduces the efficiency or will end in an interest conflict with Inditex.

- Confidentiality of information : the confidential contract still available

even when the employee leaves the company.

- Record of transactions : Inditex apply for the clearness of the transactions

- Enforcement of the Guidelines and Committee of Ethics :

- Publicity of the guidelines :“These Guidelines shall be made available to

the employees in their own language; they will be posted on all web sites

of the Group and shall be subject to the appropriate disclosure, training

and awareness-raising actions to be properly understood and

implemented within the whole organization”.

Environmental dimension: It refers to the necessity that Inditex believe it has

while realizing its activity according to the environment. They firmly believe that

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their business activity should be follow sustainable development standards which

guarantee the environmental protection.

These part of the corporate responsibility plan also has different point. We

will discuss two of them:

a. The first part refers to the principles that are follow in the

environmental policy which are 4:

1. Inditex will consider the environmental variable while their planning

and develop of their activities, as well as their company partners. It

will also promote the environmental awareness.

2. Inditex will met the environmental law which will legislate it activities

as the same time that it will work hard to minimize and avoid the

contamination and the environmental impact that it activities could

cause.

3. It will develop their management in order to improve their efficiency

and to reduce the resource consumption.

4. They guarantee that their employees will know the company’s policy

b. The second part that we will discuss refers to stragecial environmental

plan of Inditex for the following years:

As it has been said above, Inditex make a big effort to make the suitable

development art of its policy. Consequently they try to improve their efficiency,

reason why they analyze its business trying to find where they can apply that

principle and where it is possible to improve.

The currently strategic plan refers to the years 2007 to 2010 and its main

objectives are:

To reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

To encourage the spread of renewable energies.

To maximize efficient use of energy in manufacturing.

To raise employee awareness and enhance staff training.

Moreover it is focus on five points to develop:

1. Sustainable Store (Store Sustainability System)

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2. Inditex’s Pro-Kyoto

3. ProjectEnergy and Environmental Integration Project (IEMA):The goal of

this project is to install sources of renewable energy, such as wind energy,

solar photo-thermal and photovoltaic solar energy, at the company’s

distribution hubs and reduce energy use to a minimum.

4. The Carbon Footprint Project. Analysis of the Textile Life Cycle: The term

carbon footprint refers to the environmental impact of a given activity.

5. The Terra Project, the End of the Cycle.

Hennes and Mauritz’s Corporate Social Responsibility:

As it has been stated before the aim of H&M is to give its customers

fashion and quality at the best price. They way of achieving this is no other than

manufacture its products in a way that is environmentally and socially sustainable.

As well as Inditex we have divided H&M CSR in two dimensions: social

dimension and environmental dimension.

Social Dimension: refers to Code of Conduct and Code of Ethics that is applicable

for all suppliers, their subcontractors, business partners as well as Hennes and

Mauritz AB employees.

- H&M code of conduct is based on the following international and

national standards:

o The Universal Declaration of Human Rights

o The UN Convention on the Rights of the Child

o Applicable ILO Conventions

o National Legislation

In this code of conduct eight are the main points that are developed. Those

are the following:

1. Legal Requirements: All suppliers and business partners must follow all

the national laws of the countries they are operating in. If the code of

conduct is conflict with the law, this last one is the one, which has to be

followed.

2. Child Labor is not accepted: Based on the ILO Conventions and the UN

convention on the Rights of the Child H&M does not accept child labor.

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Child under the age of 15 (14 in the case that the law allows so) or

younger than the legal age of employment if it’s higher than 15 cannot be

employed. Moreover, all legal limitations on the employment of people

below the age of 18 must be followed.

3. Health and Safety: Suppliers employees and business partners’ employees’

security must be a priority at all times. This includes that no hazardous

equipment or unsafe buildings are accepted as well as emergency exist

must be clearly marked. The employers must ensure that there are the less

labor accidents as possible, and have always a first aid kit available and a

doctor or a nurse when is legally required.

4. Workers Rights: The basic rights of workers dealt in this code of conduct

are:

i. Not acceptance of force or bonded labour.

ii. Migrant employees have the same rights as local

employees.

iii. Every employee shall be treated with respect or dignity.

Any kind of abuse or harassment is not allowed.

iv. Every employee has the right to join or form association of

their own choosing.

v. No employee shall be discriminated against in employment

or occupation on the grounds of sex, race, color, age,

pregnancy, sexual orientation, religion, political opinion,

nationality, ethnic origin, disease or disability.

On concern of wages and salaries H&M base its code of conduct on

Article 23:3 of the Declaration of Human Rights that states the following:

“Everyone who works has the right to just and favorable remuneration ensuring

for himself and his family an existence worthy of human dignity.” This means that

wages must be paid on time and reflect the experience, qualification and

performance of the worker.

5. Housing Conditions: If the company provides housing to the employees

the point number three of the code of conduct also applies. The dormitory

must be separated from the workplace.

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6. Environment: Matter of environment will be discussed later when talking

about the Environmental dimension.

7. Systems approach: H&M suppliers and business partners must have the

necessary policies and management in place.

8. Monitoring and Enforcement: This point is to ensure that everyone follows

this code of conduct and they are transparent about information. H&M, to

ensure this has a team of auditors, known as the Full Auditing Program

(FAP), whose mission is to aim if there are any gaps between the code of

conduct and the actual practices and conditions of the workplace.

- The second part of the social dimension is the code of ethics that tries to

avoid disloyalty, dishonesty, bribery and corruption. This Code of Ethics

is basically a few important guidelines for employees and suppliers on

how they should behave when representing H&M.

- The third point of this dimension is the strengthen communities. As it is

said in the H&M Sustainability Report 2010 “Our operations have an

impact on communities around the world. We contribute to economic

growth in the areas that H&M and our suppliers operate in and use our

influence to promote better social and environmental conditions. Investing

in the communities around us extends these improvements more widely in

turn, benefits our business”. H&M focuses its efforts in three main areas

and through two main partners. The areas in which it works are:

employment and education among women and youth, water and

innovation of sustainable materials. Its main partners are: UNICEF and

WaterAid. An example of how much H&M is committed to its

communities is that in the year 2010 they spent 32.7 millions of Swedish

kroners.

Environmental Dimension: As it was said before the aim of H&M is to give its

customers fashion and quality at best price being socially and environmentally

sustainable. Environmental dimension is a really important matter in CSR’s

H&M. This dimension can be divided in three parts as it is divided in the H&M

Sustainability Report 2010: Be Climate Smart, Reduce, Reuse and Recycle, and

use natural resources responsibly.

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- Be Climate Smart is based in three main pillars to fight climate change

due to it is one of the major challenges of our time. These pillars are being

climate smart, energy efficient and use more renewable energy. They plan

to do so by reducing its greenhouse gas emission by 5% in 2012, installing

photovoltaic solar panels in its distribution centers in Belgium and

Germany or building their stores following environmental guidelines in

order to be more energy efficient. With all this measures H&M tries to

achieve a level of 20% of energy coming from renewable energies by 2020

or reduce the energy consumption also by a 20 percent in its stores.

- Reduce, Reuse and Recycle has as major aim to minimize waste impact

as much as possible, zero waste to landfill. To accomplish this challenge

the firm has started to carry on some measures such as:

o Bags made from recycled material. These bags are made of a 50

percent of post-consumer and 50 percent of pre-consumer.

o Reduce product packing from raw material selection to product and

end of life, including transportation packing.

o Recycling and reusing of hangers.

o Use of recycled fibers as recycled wool, cotton or polyester in

H&M products.

- Use natural resources responsibly because of the scarcity of natural

resources nowadays; H&M is highly committed to conserve water, soil, air

and species. To be able to carry on this commitment the company has

focused in:

o Raw Materials: H&M is working hard in achieving that by 2020

all cotton will come from sustainable sources; the participation of

the firm in the program Better Cotton Initiative reflects that.

Organic cotton, which is the cotton used by H&M, reduces

potential negative impact of cotton on local water quality and

biodiversity.

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o Water: Even though water is not a main part of H&M producing

system it is used it takes part in it. In order to improve and reduce

the waste of water the group has signed in 2008 the UN Global

Compact. By signing this compact H&M commits itself to improve

water efficiency and improve wastewater quality.

o Paper: H&M uses a lot of paper that is why they just use recycled

paper; Forest Stewardship Council (FSC) certified paper is used on

receipt rolls and EU- flower labeled paper is used in mail orders

and catalogues.

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Conclusion and Discussion:

In the previous pages we have exposed objectively the CSRs of the two

most important clothing retailers of the world. We have seen that they are not only

leaders in the industry but also leaders in Corporate Social Responsibility. Both

companies are highly committed with the communities they are operating in and

with the environment. However, one thing it is what companies do on paper and

another one what happens in practice. Many are the companies that have shown

the world how committed and worried they were about the environment or the

society and how much they were doing form that have had to recant themselves

because they were involved in public scandals of child exploitation or pollution.

An explication of this is what happened to the American sportswear manufacturer

Nike Inc. which had to pay 1.5 million dollars due to the fact children under the

age of fourteen where working in its factories in China and Vietnam. So what we

have to ask ourselves as customers of these firms is: Are they really executing all

those commitments?

Corporate Social Responsibility, fiction or reality?

After a long research to this paper we think that these two companies are

really committed with their responsibility with the society and the environment.

H&M has been awarded with the title of one of World’s most ethical companies

in 2011, which means that they are trying and achieving what they propose

themselves in their Sustainability Reports. Meanwhile, Inditex has recently

obtained the maximum score on the FTSE4Good index (An index that represent

globally accepted standards of good practice corporate social responsibility) and

only during the last year it end its relationships with more than 300 suppliers.

However, they do not have the complete control of their suppliers and

business partners and sometimes they can be involved in scandals as Nike was.

The main problems or deficiencies that are usually found when a supplier

receives a low qualification are: deficiencies on the safety measures, the

subcontracting not authorized or controlled by Inditex, excessive number of

extraordinary hours; lack of training of workers, the daily working hours exceed

the legal maximum (11 hours), the absence of weekly rest, undeclared workers to

Social Security or environmental pollution problems.

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To conclude with the discussion we will expose one of these cases where

some business partners escape to the control of the auctions and break the code of

conduct. The case regards to Inditex and was discovered by the Portuguese

newspaper “Expresso”.

The auditions carried by Inditex divide its suppliers with a score which

goes from A, the best grade; to D, the worst one. Once some deficiencies are

found specific deadlines are given to them in order to correct them and get out of

this qualification if they want to keep being a supplier of inditex.

As we can see, the compromise of Inditex does not only appear on the

paper, but it also comes true by the continuous auctions which are made around

the world to all of its external and internal suppliers. However, despite those

controls, in May 2006, the Portuguese Newspaper, the Expresso, published an

article denouncing the abuses and irregularities perpetrated by a few Inditex

suppliers in this country.

The reaction of Inditex was immediately, and they announced that they

were going to investigate the information given by Expresso. They also affirm

that in the case of this information will be validated; the suppliers will have been

violating the internal code of conduct for suppliers, so Inditex will end any

relationship with them.

What we can get from this example? We understand that the controls are not

perfect; however, these two companies put great effort in the accomplishment of

their codes of conduct and dealt harshly with the business partners who do not

comply.

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csr inditex vs. h&m final[1]

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