No longer can the bottom line be calculated in short-term financial gains alone. A company's social responsibility record also matters, to shareholders, consumers, the US public, and the communities where the company operates. Nike implicitly endorses the notion that a company must pay close attention to its social and environmental performance to protect the long-term value of its name and investment.
Independent monitoring is particularly important.
Companies and the auditing firms they hire simply do not have the expertise in labor and human rights, nor the trust of workers, crucial to getting employee input on day-today conditions in supplier plants. Unfortunately, Knight's announcement did not include any new initiatives on wages. Some would argue that it's better to have a minimum-wage job than no job. Indeed, Indonesian footwear workers expressed concern about being dismissed when a fact-finding delegation from ICCR visited Nike supplier plants in Vietnam and Indonesia in March. But the real choice is not between low-wage jobs and no jobs.