Leadrship Development and business Ethics - Coursework Example

Leadership Development and Business Ethics Executive Summary The mastermind behind TOMS Shoes was Blake Mycoskie who laid its foundation in 2006. Through its One for One program TOMS Shoes is committed to provide a new pair of shoes to a needy child in return for each pair of its shoes sold out. By donating shoes to children TOMS Shoes aims to fulfill its corporate social responsibility campaign and prevent children from threats of various severe diseases of feet. Through its One for One program TOMS shoes endeavors to facilitate children in an umpteen number of ways.

Shoes are the basic necessity of children as they are required to wear specific school shoes for attending schools. Also children have to walk long distances in order to access educational, medical and clean drinking water facilities. Shoes are the focus of special attention because children deprived of shoes are vulnerable to numerous soil-based diseases like jiggers, hookworm, tetanus and podoconiosis. Hookworm is a universal disease that affects around 576 to 740 million people around the globe.

It is a major cause of protein loss and blood loss (anemia) in children. Similarly podoconiosis develops in individuals from being bare feet resulting in a disease known as big foot. It begins in children in teenage and causes severe leg and foot pain. Children with bare feet are also prone to jiggers that cause inflammation and ulcers in the feet. Tetanus is another disease causing acute infection if a bacterium enters through an open wound or injury in the foot. The One for One program operates by acquiring global partnerships of humanitarian organizations to identify deprived communities evaluated on grounds of health, educational and economic conditions.

Moreover TOMS shoes make sure that its involvement does not affect the local shoe making businesses adversely. TOMS also provides supplementary support to cater health and educational issues in children. Children of developing countries are the main target of TOMS One for One program. TOMS shoes does not provide a single kind of shoes but a variety of shoes tailor made to meet the size requirements of children of different ages as well as fulfill their diverse cultural needs. In 2012 TOMS, in collaboration with its sight-giving partner Seva Foundation, also brought eyewear within the ambit of its product-line.

It works on the same line as One for One program for shoes and donates a pair of glasses for every pair sold out. It also encompasses medical treatments, eye examinations and sight saving surgeries for children in Cambodia, Nepal and Tibet. However there are two sides of every picture and TOMS Shoes is no exception in this regard. At one hand donating shoes to facilitate communities is a great philanthropic cause while on the other hand various leadership issues are associated with it.  The foremost issue is that the local shoe industry fears a loss in its business owing to TOMS’ shoes donating activity.

Also critics point out that instead of donating shoes to help children temporarily TOMS must carry out shoe making training to enable people to have an everlasting source of earning and provide shoes to children at affordable prices. Training of shoe making would also pave way for other entrepreneurial activities thus generating greater revenues for the targeted communities. The second leadership issue that needs to be addressed by TOMS is that it must make its financial information publicly available for all stake holders.

 Being a private enterprise TOMS shoes does not release its financial statements leaving behind a vacuum in terms of its transparency. For enhanced accountability and transparency, it is sine qua non for TOMS to disclose all financial data about its One for One program, via its Giving Report. TOMS’ failure to provide financial information of its past and present performance may result in projecting its One for One program as more of a marketing tactic rather than a corporate social responsibility campaign .