The Power of Corporations in Affecting Peoples Lives - Movie Review Example

?The Big Bad Wolf in Today’s Market/Corporations’ Secrets Unleashed/Corporate Social Irresponsibility? With the emerging business strategies corporations deploy to spur brand identity, top-of-mind recall, strong brand equity, and most importantly bag sales that would hopefully go beyond the target, competing in any industry is at most lucrative today. Some of the well-known strategies that have been proven to work for some big names in the business world would be the Blue Ocean Strategy whose goal is to mainly create a unique business idea that does not wish to compete but stand alone on its own category; the Cost Leadership Strategy where lowering of prices of goods is the armor instrumental in stealing some of competitor’s buyers and etc. These are just a few of the mind games businesses use as bait to catch the big fish in a sea of high-potential buying power of consumers today. With this said, understanding what goes into the process of the “prey-predator” in the business kingdom & how the predator uses temptation to blur the lines between “needs” and “wants” is crucial for everyone as consumers to know when to take a bite and when to commit to a non-indulgent fast. The Corporation documentary written by Joel Bakan and directed by Mark Achbar and Jennifer Abbott shows they are up to one thing in producing this material – to breach into the politics of the pursuit of power and profit of businesses today. First of the points this documentary has tackled that is worthy of notice would be the difference in the business environment before and today. In the past, all that a business would pursue would be to breakeven from the cost of operating the business and earning beyond that was considered a bonus. However, contemporary businesses today, I believe spend half the time minding their own business and the other half monitoring their competitors’ moves and constantly on the lookout for events that they could use to benefit them. Just like dirty politics as we call it, there are a lot of hidden secrets to the success and downfall of business tycoons. Some of the well-kept secrets that have been revealed by this documentary would be the reality of the bargaining activities of corporations to fight for their rights that human beings alike enjoy, the business hoax against the United States President Franklin Roosevelt, the suppression of a news-worthy story of a television station so they could protect certain parties affiliated to them, and the most trivial among all would be the alleged involvement of IBM in the historical Nazi holocaust that destroyed so many lives (Bakan, J.). Indeed, what can be a matter of just being provided quality products and services for consumers like us could come from controversial undertakings waiting to be avenged. The second point that awakened my cognizance was when the writer of the documentary tagged corporations today as either being a person or a psychopath (Bakan, J.). It was for me automatic to comprehend how corporations are so much like people. They have rights to intellectual property, tangible properties, properties that are backed up by contracts and trusts which a company could always fight for to propel a peaceful and at the same time speedy development of their business. Aside from that, just like people, corporations have certain needs that would smoothly fit Maslow’s hierarchy – Physiological needs that pertains to legal documents, capital, manpower, & goods needed before they could start operating the business; Safety from market-reach-devouring competitors; The need for belongingness in a certain business category, being fully equipped for competition; Achieving utmost self-esteem by being top of mind of not only one’s chosen target market but including those that are not; And lastly, the highest would be self-actualization where competitors’ moves does not directly affect one’s business performance anymore. However, what is naked to consumers’ eyes would be when corporations start being a psychopath. This could be demonstrated simply in the most general business activities such as advertising, pricing, corporate social responsibility initiatives, the notion of limited liability and etc. (Bakan, J.). Some of the instances where corporations do not practice utmost transparency would be on their advertising, where they say more and give less or perhaps promoting deceptive advertisements that lacks in fully educating their consumers about the products or services they are getting. Aside from that, psychopathic corporations pass on the burden of unnecessary costs caused by unwise choice of suppliers and allocation of funds to customers by overpricing. When it comes to corporate social responsibility, which is most tricky, corporations use overtly emphasized Public Relation stints to entice customers to choose them over the others especially when the well-educated consumers of today are slanted to environmental friendly campaigns but in reality do not sustain these activities especially after having earned customers’ trust. On the other hand, the biggest bad wolf would be the total indifference towards the environmental & physical damage caused by their business activities just as long as they get to increase on the efficiency of their business, have higher production meters, & most especially save up on additional costs. Psychopaths are defined as those who are characterized with shallow emotions and looking at the latter example, their shallowness hinder them from establishing their kingdom to the depths of whatever industry they are a part of, thus, earning only temporal gain and a lifetime of reparation. After being given a different point of view towards corporations through this documentary, I strongly believe that everyone who might be as lucky as I am to have watched it would make one a different kind of consumer – one who is more aware. They say innocence is bliss and applying this naive saying to a consumer’s purchase behavior would result to the many cases of unnecessary purchases, maxed out credit cards, availing of promotions that would even cost one more money than when a fully transparent price is offered, and also the deceptive purchase spawned by the illusion that products bought would enable buyers to donate to some “Go Green” projects or charities. Indeed, being a consumer is not only about getting what you need or want. It also puts consumers like us responsible for how we allow ourselves to be the prey of corporations’ tactics where the better we know ourselves, knowing what we are capable of buying, at the same time our ability to resist temptation would keep us far from meaningless purchases. This documentary also highlights the power of corporations in affecting people’s lives. As they are the source to which humans are able to satisfy oneself, they are strongly involved in shaping people’s health, spending activity, priorities, lifestyle, and mindset towards things. With this said, utmost liability on what they sell, how they sell, and how much they sell of a product or service is worthy of much thought. This also includes not only direct consumers who buy from corporations but also the internal staff that make up the company which is most of the time the least concern of businesses. Though the practice of utmost corporate social responsibility (CSR) could cost you at present, the consequences of taking it for granted is definitely going to be greater. Thus, looking at every investment in a long term view will give you the understanding of what CSR truly means. Bibliography: Bakan, Joel. "The Corporation (2003)." Youtube. N.p., n.d. Web. 30 Mar. 2013. . Read More