HB Fuller Company Essay

H.B. Fuller Company is an operational company that deals with paints, adhesives, coating for manufactures and sealants that we find ourselves using everyday in our life. However, due to its activities mostly being underground or rather that it deals with behind the scene activities and that most of its products we can only see the results not the actual product, most common people may not know it or even have an idea that it exists. They would be surprised to know that it was founded back in 1987 and operates in around 34 countries in North America. It had net revenue totaling to $1. 472 billion in 2006 a 2. 5 percent increment from the previous year. The company is known to make a lot of profit though some of its money ends up in the public relation department in the dealing with cases concerning glue sniffing. It has over 3700 employees worldwide and at present, it reaches over 100 countries worldwide. It is operational and makes profit and was recently celebrated its 120th anniversary and it has been ranked by the Forbes Magazine in its Platinum 400 list of best big companies for two consecutive years. (www. hbfuller. com/about us) The company has Michele Volpi as the President and the Chief Executive Officer, Fabrizio Corradini as Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer, Kevin Gilligan as the Vice President, Asia Pacific, Timothy Keenan as Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary, James C. McCreary, Jr. s the Vice President, Interim Chief Financial Officer and Controller, Monica Moretti as the Vice President, Chief Marketing Officer, Jan Muller as the Vice President, Europe, Ann Parriott as the Vice President, Human Resources, Cheryl Reinitz as the Vice President, Treasurer, Jay Scripter as the Vice President, North America and Ramon Tico as the Vice President, Latin America. (www. hbfuller. com/about us/ directors) Michele Volpi is the President and the Chief Ex ecutive Officer from December 2006 to present. He holds a B.  A degree and a Masters degree in business administration form Bacconi University in Italy. He is also a certified Six Sigma Green Belt. He was the General Manager and Group President, Global Adhesives Group from 2004 to November 2006. he has been the director of many other companies such Global SBU Manager, Polymer shapes Business Unit, General Electric Company, Huntersville. He has also worked in Italy and Spain. (www. hbfuller. com/about us/ directors) Fabrizio Corradini is the Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer. He holds an MBA from University of Chicago and a Masters of management science from Solvay Business School in Brussels in Belgium. He has worked with HB Fuller as the Vice President and Chief Strategy Officer form 2007 to present. He has also worked with Luxembourg, Management Consultant, Boston Consulting Group, Italy, France, Germany, Spain (1996-1998). (www. hbfuller. com/about us/ directors) Kevin Gilligan is the Vice President, Asia Pacific. He holds a B. S. E. , industrial engineering degree from the University of Michigan and an M. B. A. , marketing & operations from Indiana University, Bloomington. He has been working with HB Fuller from 1994 to present at various positions as the Group vice president, General Manager, operational director, e-business director, product line manager, plant manager and management rotational program. He has vast experience in different fields and he has worked in Poland and Texas. (www. hbfuller. com/about us/ directors) Timothy Keenan is the Vice President, General Counsel and Corporate Secretary. He holds a B. A. economics degree from University of Notre Dame. He has worked in the H B Fuller since 2004 as the general and the deputy counsel and corporate Secretary. He has worked as the senior attorney and assistant secretary, International Multifoods Corp. , Minneapolis. (www. hbfuller. com/about us/ directors) James C. McCreary, Jr. is the Vice President, Chief Financial Officer Controller and Chief Financial Officer. He holds a business administration and accounting degree from Kent State University. He has also worked as the Administration, Product Manager and Controller Vice President of the Industrial Chemicals Division in Pittsburgh. (www. hbfuller. com/about us/ directors) H B Fuller is presented in a case where it is accused of using an intoxicating substance that is used by a street boy in the case where the dies after inhaling the substance. It has been accused that it has caused a number of people to die and that most of them are the youth or rather teenagers who sniff the shoe glue. Earlier on, business ethics was viewed as the compliance of the legal standard and the adherence the internal regulations and rules. However as time went by, this turned out to be a different case as the organizations has to consider the wellbeing of the goods and the services that they produce in their companies this would help them get the confidence and the respect of their customers. There is a high growth in demand for social responsibility and companies are held accountable for the actions that come out of their products. Companies are producing comprehensive ethics management systems in their work so that they can be able to deal with the complex ethical issue that they may encounter in their day-to-day life from the places they market their products as some of them pose environmental risks. ( www. pangaea. org/street_children/latin/fuller) There is the Ethics Compliance Management System Standard (ECS2000) that is the guideline for organization and corporations which would like to conduct businesses in a responsible and reliable manner. It offers the all the required standards to a good social responsibility and is made available to most of the ethics research project centers. It is through these codes or standards that H B Fuller was charged in the federal court for the case of the death of Honduras street children after they had sniffed the glue that was produced by the company. (www. pangaea. org/street_children/latin/fuller) On the part of the company, it wanted the case to be dismissed as it claimed that it has reformulated its products and the substance or rather the shoe glue no longer contains any serious intoxicant. It claims that it has replaced the sweet smelling toxic substance with a less intoxicated and not so nice smelling brand. It claims that it has also increases the price of the product and it expects that children may have turn into the other brand. In addition, there had to be the government intervention, as the main issue with the children was the availability of the chemical to these. Though the company has made a lot of profit from the sale of glue, executives claim that the issues relating to the public relation has outweighed the profits. Fuller also decided to pull out of the market as some of its resolution. It decided to pull some of its products such as the Resistol to see to it whether it will have an effect to the abuse by the children. However, this had very little effect and they decided to pull back as it did not have any effect. They resolved to be selling the products to companies and not to individuals. They also claimed that the issue of the black market was the one responsible for the tragic abuse of the children Central America. (www. pangaea. org/street_children/latin/fuller) Fuller also came up with a new provision for the prevention of the use of its substances. It came up with an advertising slogan â€Å"We work chemistry in to answers. † This would help the notion in the people that the glue has been intoxicated and that it is the killing people. Among those that are involved in the case was Linare’s lawyer who filed a case after her brother died of inhaling toxic glue as they called it. Then there is the involvement of the government that had to protect the Fuller Company in the cases that it was accused in most of those third world countries. Also in the case were the human rights advocates who fought for the cases of the children who majority of them were intoxicated and all that they wanted was justice be done for them. (www. business-humanrights. org/Links/Repository) According to Ethics Compliance Management System Standard (ECS2000), a company is supposed to be responsible of all the activities and the outcome of all its products and it should take the required measures to correct the problem. In case the company is sued for a poor product or a hazardous product, it is supposed to take full repercussion for the poor product. (Malachowski 2001, 10)