The Nestle Company has been instrumental in addressing social needs throughout its corporate history. In modern times, it became a principal member of the World Cocoa Foundation expressly designed to assist cocoa farmers in areas of South America recover after the devastation of crop disease. That effort has included educating farmers in better farming techniques, sustainable approaches to farming, and better environmental management in general. Likewise, the Nestle Company has also been instrumental in the global response to illegal and immoral practices of forced labor, child exploitation for labor, and illegal child trafficking. In that regard, the Nestle Company is a founding member of the International Cocoa Initiative, established in 2002 in response to growing corporate ethical concerns in those areas.

Most recently, the Nestle Company's efforts in relation to global human welfare include its 2009 announcement of its financial support for the establishment and achievement of a more environmentally healthy and sustainable crop of cocoa plants in regions affected by crop disease. The company has set out a goal of replacing at least one millions plants within three years and of establishing a fully sustainable global cocoa supply within ten years.

Organizational Planning and Operational Management

The Nestle Company corporate culture and approach to management is defined by the commitment to ethics, integrity, honesty, and quality. Those values manifest themselves operationally through management flexibility and a management structural hierarchy based on fewer levels of management and broader areas of operational control and oversight. That structure is intended to ensure clear levels of operational responsibility, and well-defined objectives at every level. In general, the prevailing focus at Nestle is to maximize operational speed through emphasis on personal responsibility, and minimal non-essential corporate bureaucracy.

Toward that end, the Nestle Company encourages all of its employees (especially those in management) to avoid any unnecessary exercise of formal authority. Instead, it expects that employees at all levels will embrace personal initiative, flexibility, open two-way communication and honesty, and the appropriate and efficient management of necessary change.
The Nestle Company is structured in a very decentralized manner, expressly to support the relative priority of ensuring the quality of its products and the benefits they contribute to the human community over the systems necessary to accomplish corporate objectives. Moreover, that concept also emphasizes a corporate and operational management culture of continuous improvement over one-time changes. Finally, the Nestle Company corporate values promote the establishment of both internal and external credibility through coherent action, leadership, and a meaningful record of achievement.

Sources Consulted

George, J.M. And Jones, G.R. (2008). Understanding and Managing Organizational

Behavior. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Robbins, S.P. And Judge, T.A. (2009). Organizational Behavior. Upper Saddle River,

NJ: Prentice Hall.

Nestle Corporation. (2009). The Nestle Management and Leadership Principles.

Retrieved September 28, 2010, from:

http://docs.google.com/viewer?a=v&q=cache:n0Ufjdhn2VIJ:www.Nestle.com/Resource.axd%3FId%3D1353AE38-2F44-4F5F-A31F-72D57EE0CF35+Nestle+management+and+leadership+principles&hl=en&gl=us&pid=bl&srcid=ADGEESh4Vvx2b9a2Ak4LexDNIkUeAGrLmroiajbNGvMMs6BVL7f_Ygx6BiG0D6aoQWBYKsNQWmKfnDvEyc4F18sfqAKAPum3_QaM8Sa9ENIPpLVJ32ctSGg5WhmhQ0MAHR7ffYuHbxxk&sig=AHIEtbQs3HhG3cRTdAbc6i1uPTjexKAROQ