Businesses in many sectors have little knowledge of where their suppliers are sourcing goods from, according to a new poll. Almost one in five businesses holds no data about their suppliers’ suppliers, according to the poll of 131 directors, procurement managers and buyers by Achilles, a logistics management company. It was reported that small and medium-sized companies with a turnover of less than £25m were far more likely to lack knowledge on their suppliers’ suppliers than larger counterparts. Almost a third of SMEs have no information on their suppliers’ suppliers, compared with 13 percent of companies with a turnover of more than £1bn. Furthermore, despite the recent horsemeat scandal, the wholesale and retail sectors had the least information on their suppliers’ supplier, the survey showed. (Financial Times*)
Pressure mounts on manufactures as Disney exits Bangladesh
Walt Disney’s decision to pull out of Bangladesh is fuelling debate over whether other manufacturers should leave the country or stay to improve workplace conditions in the South Asian nation. Disney, the world’s largest entertainment company, removed Bangladesh in March from a list of countries where it authorises partners to produce clothing and merchandise. Whilst Disney’s contractors had less than 1 percent of the company’s production in Bangladesh, marketers with more activity there will have to decide whether to stay and spend to improve worker safety or go elsewhere and potentially see the costs of their products rise even more. (Bloomberg)
Diversity
Women still find it hard to smash glass ceiling
The average chief executive of a leading British company remains a 53-year-old male with a background in finance, according to the annual Robert Half CEO tracker. The research, published today, shows that there are just three female chief executives in the FTSE 100 index. The percentage of women joining boards generally remained steady, though there was a slight decline to 17.3 percent from 17.4 percent. The lingering inability of women to gain significant access to Britain's boardrooms comes despite efforts by the former Standard Chartered chief executive Lord Davies to get companies to voluntarily improve the situation. (Independent)
Social Innovation
Social media campaign continues to spread happiness
A social media campaign, promoting the welfare of underprivileged children in India has completed one year of spreading awareness on vital issues such as nutrition, health and education. Titled Khushi (happiness), the blog on the Facebook platform hosts success stories of people who have come forward and made a difference to the lives of marginalised children. Pavan Kaushik of Vedanta Resources who carved the campaign says it is a non-funding drive that encourages people to come forward and understand the problem faced by poor individuals and take steps for probable solutions. The campaign started with seven people but now has 25,000 members, and the blog is touching 58,000 page views. (The Hindu)
Environment
Waitrose to halve packaging by 2016
Waitrose, the UK supermarket chain, has revealed plans to halve the amount of packaging it uses against 2005 levels by 2016. The company said it expects to save 100 tonnes of packaging each year through a full redesign of all its 49 "Menu from Waitrose" prepared meal products. Around 33 tonnes of savings will come from shrinking sleeves on the outside of the boxes, while the introduction of recyclable aluminium trays will deliver further savings. Additionally, the supermarket made another 12 new environmental commitments, including pledges to continue reducing energy consumption and to power 40 stores using sustainably-sourced woodchips. (Business Green)
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