Company Communications - Review of Behavior - Critical Essay Assessment Answers

Introduction

Siemens may be described as one of the largest engineering company with a portfolio that spans over a number of sectors within the economy. Its main divisions include Power and Gas, Wind Power and Renewables, Energy Management, Building Technologies, Mobility and the Digital Factory. It has activities in almost all countries around the world making it a very popular technological company across the globe. It is incorporated under the Siemens AG group, a stock corporation that operates legally in Germany and its corporate headquarters are based in Munich. As at 2015, Siemens boasts of having about 348,000 employees and an annual revenue of €75.63 billion as indicated in their 2015 annual report (Siemens,2015:3). Through its various technological advancements, it has managed to inspire and touch people’s lives all over the world through the production of items that are truly beneficial to the whole society. Through its various divisions, Siemens has continued to be a global leader in service delivery across various aspects of society such as Electricity generation, provision of healthcare products, provision of automated building technologies, the Power and Gas among others. This study seeks to gauge the Company’s social performance by critically analyzing 2 aspects namely Community Development and Unethical Practices exercised by Siemens as it strives to achieve its goals and objectives.

Community Development activities conducted by Siemens

It is paramount that Siemens upholds the concept of community development as a means through which welfare within the society is improved and advancements in various aspects of life such as electricity generation are made. Through the Power and Gas Division, Siemens has managed to generate electricity by fully utilizing fossil fuels and is also a leading supplier for oil and gas to various sectors around the world. Through power generation, it ensures that consumers have readily available electricity and also assists in powering engineering companies, construction companies among others that may require a large supply of electricity current over a given period of time. Electricity generation through fossil fuels is convenient as compared to hydro-powered electricity which may be influenced by weather patterns overtime and water levels prevailing in the dams. This has greatly assisted in community development as it ensures production of electricity at a cheaper price and ensures continuous supply since power blackouts account for major losses in industries across the globe (Arthur, 2005:27).

Health Care Delivery

In every society, healthcare is an essential component without which no community or nation would stand. A good and efficient healthcare system ensures that individuals are able to perform efficiently within their respective occupations. Siemens, through its Healthcare Division has identified a need for new and improved healthcare equipment to ensure the timely detection of ailments and conditions that may affect humans in the course of their daily lives. They have continuously provided new healthcare equipment to various health facilities across the globe and accompany with software packages suitable for use for the efficient running of the equipment. In addition, they provide means through which various stakeholders pertinent to the running of healthcare equipment are properly trained on handling the equipment provided for efficient service delivery (Max, 2000:40). The equipment are meant to carry out various functions to an ailing individual ranging from diagnosis of a particular ailment, treatment and prevention thus ensuring immediate community reaps benefits from the establishment of the health facilities and the equipment that has been set up. Most of the machines which are provided by Siemens for the purpose of health improvement include Imaging equipment such as X-Ray machines, Laboratory Diagnostics equipment and Ultrasound equipment among others. A majority of the clients who make orders for these items include health departments on behalf of governments across the world. However, in a bid to improve healthcare especially in low-income nations where a vast majority of the populace are affected by extreme poverty, Siemens through its various subsidiaries has undertaken to provide as donations some of the equipment to health facilities in such countries. These concerted efforts ensure that people living within poverty stricken areas are able to access good health care facilities at little or no cost. It has done so in most African Countries in a bid to ensure sustainable growth and development for these nations through healthy human capital.

Unethical Practices in Business: A Case for Siemens

However, every corporate entity across the world is affected by the business environment within which it exists. In an attempt to combat these problems, corporates make use of various means aimed at achieving target profitability levels Inspite of the prevailing market conditions.The means utilized in achieving maximum efficiency should be such that they follow ethical practices in society. Siemens is no exception to this having stemmed itself in a number of nations across the world thus has undergone various challenges in ensuring continued and sustained growth and development for all nations. However, some of the practices used by companies and especially Siemens have been deemed to be illegal and outlawed by the various nations where operations take place. An example where Siemens Company has found itself on the wrong side of the law is in 2007 where the European Commission found conclusive evidence implicating Siemens to a cartel of companies involved in the dubious business of fixing electricity prices. Evidence found alluded to the fact that Siemens led a number of companies in market distortion practices such as illegal acquisition of contracts and fixing prices within the electricity sector in a bid to make huge profits over the period 1998-2004. As a result, Siemens ended up paying a huge fine of €396 million as damages for the illegal transactions. These actions by Siemens highly contravene good ethical practices within the society (Lichtblau and Dougherty, 2008: 48).

Another case within which Siemens Company did not adhere to ethical standards is in 2008 where it was accused of having offered bribes to Greek officials in a bid to advance Siemens’ interests with regard to provision of certain goods and services to the country. As a result of the bribes offered, Siemens supplied mechanical and electrical machinery to Greece thus diversifying its market portfolio within the country. Various investigations were conducted and the contracts issued for the supply of the equipment were subsequently cancelled. Later, Siemens was fined €330 million as a result of these findings and the officials involved were taken action against (Mc, 2012:2).

Impact of Siemens Company to Society

In light of the above, it is clear that Siemens as a company has undertaken in various activities all of which affect individuals from across the world in one way or another. The activities of Siemens through its various divisions have affected the lives of many people. The development of appropriate healthcare equipment has ensured the continued improvement in the provision of healthcare services thus communities greatly benefit directly from the equipment offered by Siemens. Within the Building Technologies Division, many stakeholders in the construction industry benefit directly from various expertise and equipment offered by Siemens within the construction process so as to ensure the establishment of safe, secure and efficient buildings across the world. Some of these equipment include fire safety products, heating equipment, ventilation, air conditioning among others. Society has also benefited greatly from the railway advancements made by Siemens’ Mobility Division through the establishment of the Rail Electrification Systems which allow efficient transportation of goods and human capital from one region to another thus ensure improved productivity within an economy. An efficient transportation system ensures that fresh produce from one region reaches the processing centres faster thus minimize losses due to transportation. The Financial Services Division has also benefited individuals in a society through provision of Investment advice geared towards making sufficient returns on Investments by various stakeholders and investors. This division also encourages potential investors to make direct investments into the shares and stocks of the company in a bid to obtain healthy dividends at the end of every financial period. This improves the welfare of individuals in a particular society thus sustainable growth and development.

Siemens as a global brand has also impacted society through the development of new innovations and technologies over a given period of time. These advancements undertaken through a rigorous process of Research and Development ensures the following; that improved means of production are realized that are low cost, reduced emissions especially through Power generation and Gas extraction through the use of low-emission gas turbines and that increased data collection on all products is conducted on a regular basis to ascertain an efficient feedback mechanism by customers of Siemens’ products.

Conclusion

From the foregoing, Siemens has proven itself to be a global influencer within various sectors namely the Building and Construction sector, the Energy Sector and the Financial Services sector among others. This has ensured that Siemens continues to have a diversified investment portfolio spanning across various countries globally thus guaranteeing good returns for potential investors. Siemens has widely been accepted all around the world as indicated by its strong presence in a number of countries across almost all nations of the world. Through its wide network, it has impacted people’s lives either through improved healthcare activities or improved service delivery by transformation of the transport systems. However, the study has also identified various weaknesses within which Siemens as a company should improve on. This includes in the unethical practices experienced by Siemens and its subsidiaries in other countries that have cost the company losses in paid fines and cancellation of contracts that lead to reduced revenue earnings for the affected subsidiaries. It is highly advisable that companies undertaking in any business activities should do so within the set laws of the nation within which they conduct business and should not contravene any laws.