Solving Social Issues: Business Model of Toms Shoes - Case Study Example

Mycoskie was touched on seeing that the children he befriended had no shoes to wear but the thing which distinguishes him from others is that on seeing poverty, he did not close his eyes but invented a genius plan to eliminate poverty by starting a charitable organization and motivating the public to become an active part of it. In terms of eliminating the social problem of poverty, Mycoskie brilliantly came up with a nice idea of suppressing the causes which lead to charity in the first place.

He not only pondered on the complicated issue of poverty, rather he took actual steps to apply a solution to the worsened situation. People may see poverty everywhere but most of the times, they have no solution in their minds for eradicating the problem and provide the suffering people with food or clothes. Having to live barefooted gives birth to many complicated diseases and social problems like not being able to get admission in schools. Keeping in mind all these problems, Mycoskie started up a smart plan which could not have gained much ground had it not been for the help of the customers (cited in TOMS Shoes, 2011).

The business model by TOMS can be linked to the lecture given by renowned philosopher Slavoj Zizek (cited in RSA, 2012) in context of what gives birth to reasons which lead to charity and why they should be abolished first. Both the business model by TOMS and Zizek’s philosophical lecture profess that the reasons which make up an environment in which charity becomes an essential feature should be analyzed first and this is a very wise implication for solving social issues. The action of directly applying a strategy does not work because the background context is not assessed first.

Most of the problems remain unsolved in spite of applying strategies because no actions are taken to analyze or assess the bedrock of a problem. According to Zizek’s lecture on charity, the need of the time is that the intricate ethical implications of charity should be observed first. Zizek admits that charity is good and should not be abolished just like Mycoskie did not condemn charity and motivated the common public to engage in this noble process. The lecture professes that the basic reasons leading the people to engage in charity should be eradicated.

But, it is a fact that though Zizek’s philosophical lecture may be full of many unobserved and riveting aspects about the noble process of charity and the role played by it in a society, it still does not offer any solution which might be because the social problem of poverty is much complicated and too badly understood by people.