Business Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility
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Harvard Business Case:
9-307-076
December 17, 2008
F. Warren McFarlan
William C. Kirby
Tracy Yuen Manty
Esquel Group: Integrating Business Strategy and Corporate Social Responsibility
Questions:
1. How did bringing the different manufacturing activities in-house help Esquel to maintain a high quality of their product and service offerings? What other initiatives did the company take in an effort to maintain high quality of its products and services?
2. Do you think Esquel was right in becoming a vertically integrated company? What do you see as the pros and cons of this strategy for Esquel? In your opinion, what are some of the unique characteristics of Esquel's business that made vertical integration their chosen strategy?
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Solution Summary
In 1200 words, this solution discusses the Esquel Group and analyzes this company in terms of their business strategies and corporate social responsibilities.
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Role of Manufacturing Activities:
According to the case, Esquel a yarn-dyed woven cotton fabric firm has established different manufacturing facilities in-house that helped it to maintain its product quality (McFarlan, Kirby & Manty, December 17, 2008). There are various aspects that can be used to evaluate the role of in-house manufacturing activities in the success of Esquel. These are as follow:
Flexibility in production: Owning of vertical supply chain has assisted the company to ensure a flexible movement of its production related activities without compromising with the quality. In this manner, bringing the manufacturing activities in-house has helped the company to sustain its product and service quality.
Cost effective production: Establishment of low-emission coal-fired power station in-house has also helped the company to address the issue of occasional power shortage (Mcfarlan, Kirby & Manty, December 17, 2008). By managing the movement of heavy equipment with proper supply of power, the company has maintained high quality of its product and service offerings.
Technological advancement: By bringing in-house manufacturing activities, the company has attained a managed and balanced production and operations. A managed business has assisted the company to implement in the technology advancement through the use of RFID. In this way, the company in-house manufacturing activities have assisted Esquel to maintain the quality of its product and service offerings (Mcfarlan, Kirby & Manty, December 17, 2008).
Initiatives:
Esquel has also executed some other initiatives apart from the in-house manufacturing activities to maintain the high quality of product and service offerings. These are as follow:
Environmental Protection: Practices to protect the environmental resources is another initiative followed by Esquel (Mcfarlan, Kirby & Manty, December 17, 2008). The use of low-emission coal-fired power stations has ...
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