The Corporation

The Corporation
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1. How can we ensure corporations are held accountable for their actions “ethically” and “legally”?

The truth is that we can’t fully ensure that corporations act legally and ethically, nor that they pay for their bad actions, because corporations have a lot of power (because they have a lot of resources) and are not willing to it up. But what we can do is try to stop these actions by taking an active place. How do we do that? Stop buying products of those Corporations, speaking to other about it, convince governments o other powerful parties to do something and more.

2.    Should individuals (directors, employees, shareholders) bear any responsibility for the actions of a corporation? If so, to what degree?

The corporations are group of individuals that work together to achieve a goal, that is why, those individuals who make decisions should be responsible for the consequences that comes from them. In my opinion, the degree to which those individuals should be responsible depends on the position in the corporation that he or she occupies.

3.    What are the benefits of the corporate form? Could an alternative model offer these as well?

There are several benefits of this business form, some of those are:

The protection of personal assets, growing profits and possibility of expansion, transferable ownership, the life cycle of this type of company is unlimited, legally empowered, and more.

The Corporate form is very beneficial and profitable, and so far there is no other type of business figure that offers the same benefits and drawbacks.

4.    Search for a foreign multinational corporation that has operations in Colombia. Research if they are run under Colombian rules or regulations or if they have special regulations?

UNILEVER that began as a merger of two companies is, today, one of the biggest Multinational Corporations with worldwide presence and more than 400 brands. This company is regulated by the Code of Business Principles,  which sets the operational standards that must be followed in all its subsidiaries around the world.

5.   Should economic efficiency (Main argument for privatization) be the primary concern for commons and public services? Are there other criteria to determine who should own or operate them?

The privatization can mean efficiency, and this is very important since a business main goal is to obtain high profits, but if this privatization is only going to benefit a few, then we have to ask ourselves if it is worthy. What I believe is that the most important criteria to determinate who should own this public services should be to compare how many are the people that will benefit and how many would be harm, if this action is taken.

Sources

• Carter, Christopher. "The Advantages of the Corporate Form of Business Organization." Small Business - Chron.com. Web. <http://smallbusiness.chron.com/advantages-corporate-form-business-organization-370.html>[05/03/2011]