Four New Rules to Corporate Responsibility

The origins of Target’s corporate responsibility philosophy began many years ago out of a modest-sized department store called Dayton’s Dry Goods. At that time, our founder, George Draper Dayton, proclaimed that our business must maintain “the higher ground of stewardship.” It was at that moment when Target’s reputation for dependable merchandise, fair business practices, and a generous spirit of giving was born. Ever since then, we’ve taken that philosophy and expanded on it—we not only believe we must maintain “the higher ground of stewardship,” but we also believe we are Here for Good. 

For Target, being Here for Good goes beyond giving our guests the highest quality products for a fair price. It means we believe in providing the tools and resources for our team to lead healthy lives and enjoy fulfilling careers, demanding safe working conditions and ethical practices from our vendors around the world and paying attention to the impact our business has on the environment by making sustainability commitments we can keep. Ultimately, it means continuing our investments in communities. Ever since 1946, we’ve given 5 percent of our pretax profits back to the community. Today, our 5 perecent giving program invests more than $3 million a week in hundreds of communities throughout America.   We are extremely proud of our hard-earned reputation of dependability, fairness, and generosity—and every one of Target’s 355,000 team members work hard to make sure we never take it for granted. As part of my participation at the 2011 International Corporate Citizenship Conference, I presented some rules that every organization can use to be mindful of their reputation—rules that may be unconventional to some.   Click here to read more about Target's corporate responsibility philosophy.   The Boston College Center for Corporate Citizenship is a membership-based research organization that is part of the Carroll School of Management. It is committed to helping business leverage its social, economic and human assets to ensure both its success and a more just and sustainable world. As a leading resource on corporate citizenship, the Center works with global corporations to help them define, plan and operationalize their corporate citizenship. Through the power of research, management and leadership programs, and the insights of its 350 corporate members, the Center creates knowledge, value and demand for corporate citizenship. www.BCCorporateCitizenship.org

 

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