Company Law Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words - 4

Company Law - Essay Example This is because ethical policies and codes of practice may only be seen as guidelines and at any given time, a company or a member of the board may do what is more beneficial to them rather than to do what is most ethical. If policies were enough to manage corporate governance, there would be no need for governments and regulatory bodies to make the laws necessary to keep corporate and personal greed in check. For instance, environmental degradation is a very important topic for the world today and governments as well as non governmental organisations are looking at various ways and means by which they can help the environment (Green, 2005). However, corporations often have to be forced through regulations and laws to minimize their impact on the environment (Schulte, 2006). Had a code of practice which encourages social responsibility been enough, no board member of a company could have agreed to a policy of the company which damages the environment regardless of the profits that could be made. It is only when the profits of a company are at risk when it can be made to apply the rules of good corporate governance. For example, Apple Inc. was forced to change the packaging for its famous iPod since Greenpeace objected to the amount of waste material that came with the iPod. Fearing angry customers, Apple altered the packaging to make environmentally friendly (Planque, 2006) When Steve Jobs (the CEO of the company) launched a new version of the product he focused on the subject and said, â€Å"Weve got some new packaging for the new Nano as well. And its 52% less volume. This turns out to be an environmentally great thing. Because it dramatically reduces the amount of fossil fuels we have to spend to move these things around the planet (Planque, 2006, Pg. 1)†. Of course, Apple could have changed the packaging and made it environmentally friendly from the start but only a threat of lost sales moved it to do so.