ASOS: The case of supply chain ignorance
Background
ASOS is a British online fashion and cosmetic retailer primarily aimed at young adults. The company operates a ‘fashion with integrity’ initiative with the intention of making sure all aspects of their business is able to be scrutinised. And yet, when it was, an investigation found evidence of exploitation in their supply chain.
ASOS responded with shock arguing that practices were against their code of conduct, they said:
‘We have not found child labor in any of our approved Turkish factories. Most importantly, our team oversees remediation programs for vulnerable people who they discover in the workplace. In the example BBC Panorama showed, that was a factory we didn’t know about – unapproved outsourcing.’
But is ‘not knowing’ a good enough response?
Take a look at this story:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/jwebb/2016/10/25/child-workers-found-in-clothing-supply-chain-asos-marks-spencer-implicated/#76bc925a4b12
Research about Asos ethical issues from more than 3 sources such as:
Business recorder
Financial times
Bbc
Wiley Academic journal
Jstor academic journal
Emeralds
Business tribune
Answering following questions:
- What are the ethical issues in case.
- Do you really think these issues are of ethical nature, how and why?
- How the environment /community and society is being affected by these issues of company or vis a vis.
- Discuss 4 stakeholders, how they have been affected by these ethical issues
- Give 2 examples of similar ethical issues with reference , name of the business and lessons learned from them.
- Give 5 recommendations based on the 2, 3, 4
- Make good reference list.