From what I found PepsiCo is one of the leading forces in Corporate Social Responsibility in the world. In the past several years, social responsibility has become one of the most important issues facing our world. In politics, business, and even the private sector, the call for social awareness has grown to a thunder throughout the globe, and Pepsi leads the charge.
Last year PepsiCo, one of the largest snack and beverage companies in the world, stepped forward to create one of the most unique and, in my opinion, risky programs in social awareness; to sponsor individualized projects, within local communities. The Pepsi Refresh Project has been a major success and will be continued on into the new year. According to the article I found, it seems as if even PepsiCo was unsure if the program would work. The project launched exclusively in North America during its premier year.
The ground breaking project, allows Pepsi consumers to submit their own ideas or vote for existing ones to improve their own communities. On ideas ranging from education to sports to media the program allows for innovations tailored to a community's specific needs. I found the idea brilliant that Pepsi would be able to send the money to communities where change is most needed. By Sep 1, 2010, PepsiCo has reported to have received 7,500 votes for 256 ideas, reaching over 200,00 people through the project. For its limit time the extent is remarkable. And PepsiCo is dedicated to the project; scheduled to fund around $20 million by the end of 2010.
And there lies my biggest concern. For the distribution of that much money there needs to be a strong accountability. While the idea is great on paper it makes for a very dangerous execution. For the oversight to watch for embellishment or theft would take a very dedicated committee.
Still, launched at the beginning of 2010, it met with enormous success during its initial introduction, proving the power of local change within local communities. The project is scheduled to expand to Europe, Asia, and Central America in 2011. I do have doubts though to the responsibility of the focus groups but its development seems to be going smoothly enough.
While this might be a problem later, it seems to be working for now, I found the article and Pepsi's progress encouraging.
I found your article about Pepsi and the Pepsi refresh project to be quite interesting, especially your own opinion. I appreciate your idea that the Pepsi refresh committee needs to be careful in its selection of the projects and their validity and where the money goes. However, I like the idea that people and grassroots organizations get to show an idea or problem and then potentially get funding from a large multinational company. I feel that this way hopefully money is going where there is a real need.
ReplyDeletePat A.