Friday, August 04, 2006

Fortune Magazine, Continued

When I continued looking at the current issue of Fortune, I came across another article dealing with corporate social responsibility. "The Senator From Starbucks" is an article about Starbucks' Founder and Chairman Howard Schultz and his mission to get corporations to deal with health-care reform.

Like all businesses, Starbucks has seen double-digit increases in their cost of healthcare. Unlike most businesses, Starbucks offers health insurance for part-time employees, so these increases affected them even more. Starbucks response was to start a wellness program and to increase their prices. Schultz, though, realized these responses were merely "Band-Aids" put on the problem. Most companies can't just raise their prices to cover the cost.

Due to Schultz's frustration with dealing with Congress - he left feeling good about the situation, but nothing was done after he left - he is trying to convene CEOs to help with the situation. He did have a summit with CEOs on CNBC last year, but he is trying to increase the number of CEOs who are willing to try to tackle the situation.

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