Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) Policies And Practices Of American Express

Four Different Types of CSR Responsibilities of American Express

The contemporary companies keep their focus on maximizing the shareholder values as well as meeting the needs of the associated stakeholders. Maintenance of the effective corporate social responsibilities is one of the most fruitful ways of achieving such purpose (Korschun, Bhattacharya & Swain, 2014). The responsible attributes of the companies towards the stakeholders and business communities ensure the long term sustainability in the competitive scenario. The CSR process is categorized into four different types, such as ethical responsibilities, economic responsibilities, legal responsibilities, and philanthropic responsibilities (Cheng, Ioannou & Serafeim, 2014). The study will focus on the CSR responsibilities performed by American Express in order to maintain the effective CSR practices. The implication of the global CSR practices will also be discussed in this study.

American Express is the remarkable multinational financial service provider based on American market. The company provides the commendable financial services to the global customers by establishing the entity in several countries (Americanexpress.com, 2017). The major aim of the company is to make the financial dealings easier and safe. The company is also focused on rewarding the customers and businesses to get the best solutions for the financial services. American Express is concerned about evaluating the innovative business payment services. The Amex Credit Card is helpful for the customers who are dealing with the online medium of paying their bills. On the other hand, the company has been maintaining the effective corporate social responsibilities. The detailed information received from the annual report of the company signifies that American Express is committed to offer the safer approaches to the financial fields and managing the customer base by providing them effective customer services (Di Giuli & Kostovetsky, 2014). The further study will provide the clear insights related to the financial responsibilities maintained by the organisation for managing the sustainable position.

It is reported that the business outlook worldwide on the economic expansion has tremendously softened. The 2016 annual report of American Express indicates three major approaches, such as reset, rebound, and return. The company has set the approach of resetting the economic structure, rebound the challenges, and returning to the sustainable initiatives. As per the new survey report presented by American Express, it is confirmed that the company has been focusing on challenging the global economy. In 2016, American Express has earned almost $5.4 billion and the diluted EPS was almost $5.65 (Christensen, Mackey & Whetten, 2014). The major focus of the company was to accelerate the revenue growth, reduce the expenditure, and optimizing the investment ratio. The major priority of the company is to structure the effective leadership attributes and historic preservation as well as the community services. The company ensured that the Amex card holders will receive the proper commercial services as per the high quality standards. The company has set the natural vision by maintaining the effective CSR activities that will lead towards becoming the most respected service brand. In this frequently changing world and amidst of all environmental imperatives, the company tries to restructure the brand with proper security and trust. In fact, expanding the merchant acceptance will be much beneficial in capturing the attention of more customers who have been using the Amex Card for transaction purposes. It is important to mention that in the year of 2016, the company made many progress.

Approaches towards Resetting Economic Structure, Rebounding Challenges, and Returning to the Sustainable Initiatives

It has acquired more than 10 million cards during 2016 that was aided by high level of investments for the marketing promotions. It improved the digital acquisition capabilities as well. Another major progress was noticed in the growing number of the expenditure on the Amex Cards. By adjusting the foreign exchange and Costco rates, the company could grow the spending on the cards up to 8 million. During the year of 2016, American Express has launched more than 10 million cards to increase the investments on the digital acquisition capabilities and marketing and promotional aspects.

Chart 1: Revenue Increasing Rate

(Source: Americanexpress.com, 2017)

The above report explains that senior finance executives become more committed towards the progressive attributes of the company. The survey report reveals that almost 87% of the executives are planning to increase the profitability parameter of their companies by spending almost half of the overall investments. However, the unstable economic as well as political conditions are also much concerned as the major obstacle for their business growth. American Express has also concentrated on driving growth of the revenues by acquiring the high quality card members and establishing the commercial businesses. The significant expansion of the merchant acceptance is fruitful enough in capturing the attention of the existing customers.

The company has been maintaining the economic responsibilities in a commendable way. It is notified that the in the year of 2016, the company contributed almost $36 million to the nonprofit organisations worldwide (Americanexpress.com, 2017). The company has ensured growth of the loans by almost 11% worldwide. It is to be mentioned that the company has been quite concerned about maintaining the credit quality as higher as the industry-leading capacity (Haggerty et al., 2015). It is considered as the most strengthened aspects for surviving in the international ground. The customers even received more benefits in taking the loans by issuing the Amex Cards. The growth rate surpassed as per the average rate of the industry. It has been noticed that the large base of the customers has been depending on lending small amount of borrowing needs by using the Amex Cards (Americanexpress.com, 2017).  The growth of the global merchant network is also remarkable since it added more than 1 million new merchant locations. American Express paid the attention on growing the global merchant network by engaging almost a million of merchants from US in the year of 2016. Simultaneously, the company even ensured the stable expansion in the international markets as well. The major focus of the company was to engage the small businesses for using the American Express Cards that was set to inspire the aggressive goals. The major priority of the company is to structure the effective leadership attributes and historic preservation as well as the community services. With the implementation of the employee gift machine, the company has been supporting over 6,000 organisations.

Contributions towards Maintaining Economic, Legal, Philanthropic, and Ethical Responsibilities

Apart from maintaining the economic responsibilities, it is reported that the company has undertaken the proactive participations in maintaining the legal, philanthropic and ethical responsibilities as well. The company has kept the record of strong expense controls by undertaking $1 billion out of the total amount of expenses (Schlegelmilch, 2016). The effective value system of the company emphasizes the trust and integrity at all levels of the organisation. The establishment of the longstanding policies and practices is helpful for the company to manage the interests of the shareholders. In fact, the sound principles of the corporate governance as well as maintaining the federal government laws are ensuring the long term sustainability of the firm. It triggered the interests of expanding the economic structure worldwide and serving the CSR activities in a significant way. The huge business potentiality and strengthened customer base is the major weapon for establishing the financial base.

American Express is committed to treat everyone with utmost care and responsibilities. It was noticed that as an approach of CSR, the company comprised more than 50% of the women among the global workforce. It is thus signifying that the company has the true potentiality to create an untapped position for the sustainable future. In order to develop the economic responsibilities, the company decided to lend products for both the consumers and the businesses (Alexander, Havercome & Mujtaba, 2015). In fact, almost 30% of the senior executives are women. The company even provided the flexible work environment to the US employees to ensure improvements of their performance. American Express granted over 350,000 volunteers and continued the effective growths for the upcoming years. The environmental report also highlighted that the company has been using the proper environmental resources for maintaining long term sustainability.

Conclusion

The study focuses on the maintenance of the corporate social responsibilities by American Express. In the year of 2016, the company contributed almost $36 million to the nonprofit organisations worldwide. The major priority of the company is to structure the effective leadership attributes and historic preservation as well as the community services. With the implementation of the employee gift machine, the company has been supporting over 6,000 organisations. The growth ensured in 2016 helped in making the company more ethical. It was noticed that the company was quite focused on maintaining the ethical parameter. The customers of American Express have received more securities in using the Amex Cards.. The improvements in the growth rate of the loans were also noticed. The society was also benefitted by the maintenance of the ethical responsibilities by American Express. The company is committed to provide the high quality services to the customers and retain the competitive position in this business scenario. The maintenance of the fruitful ethical services is the driving force for ensuring the continuous growth in this competitive market.

References

Alexander, V., Havercome, C., &Mujtaba, B. G. (2015).Effectively Managing Employees to Get Results in a Diverse Workplace such as American Express. Journal of Business Studies Quarterly, 7(1), 13.

Americanexpress.com, 2017. American Express Reports Full Year 2016 EPS Within Guidance Range; Fourth Quarter EPS of $0.88 Reflects Solid Loan Growth and Card Member Spending Along with Higher Investment Levels; Revenue Performance Improves Sequentially; Company Expects 2017 EPS of $5.60 to $5.80. [online] About.americanexpress.com. Available at: <https://about.americanexpress.com/news/pr/2017/amex-reports-full-year-2016-results.aspx> [Accessed 30 May 2017].

Cheng, B., Ioannou, I., &Serafeim, G. (2014).Corporate social responsibility and access to finance. Strategic Management Journal, 35(1), 1-23.

Christensen, L. J., Mackey, A., &Whetten, D. (2014).Taking responsibility for corporate social responsibility: The role of leaders in creating, implementing, sustaining, or avoiding socially responsible firm behaviors. The Academy of Management Perspectives, 28(2), 164-178.

Di Giuli, A., &Kostovetsky, L. (2014). Are red or blue companies more likely to go green? Politics and corporate social responsibility. Journal of Financial Economics, 111(1), 158-180.

Haggerty, K., Okoh, B. O., Williamson, P. L., & Yuan, C. M. (2015). U.S. Patent Application No. 14/947,511.

Korschun, D., Bhattacharya, C. B., & Swain, S. D. (2014).Corporate social responsibility, customer orientation, and the job performance of frontline employees. Journal of Marketing, 78(3), 20-37.

Saeidi, S. P., Sofian, S., Saeidi, P., Saeidi, S. P., &Saaeidi, S. A. (2015). How does corporate social responsibility contribute to firm financial performance? The mediating role of competitive advantage, reputation, and customer satisfaction. Journal of Business Research, 68(2), 341-350.

Schlegelmilch, B. B. (2016). Global Marketing Ethics and CSR.In Global Marketing Strategy (pp. 195-220).Springer International Publishing.

Servaes, H., & Tamayo, A. (2013). The impact of corporate social responsibility on firm value: The role of customer awareness. Management Science, 59(5), 1045-1061.