DOSQUEBRADAS’S CHAMBER OF COMMERCE A VIEW TO CORPORATE

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

SEBASTIAN BETANCUR

SEBASTIAN VILLADA

JULIANA GARCIA

DIANA TAPIAS

CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF PEREIRA

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS

PEREIRA, 2012

DOSQUEBRADAS’S CHAMBER OF COMMERCE A VIEW TO CORPORATE

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY

I. INTRODUCTION

In the globalized economy of the present day, it is not only important to gain major

profits and monetary benefits, but it is also very significant to contribute to the society

and to the environment. In this new era, the gaps are bigger, this means that the richer

are richest and the poor are poorest, this is why the companies have to give their share

to the community and try to reduce the breach of the society. This new form of

contribution is known as corporate social responsibility, according to Stanwick and

Stanwick, (2009) can be defined as the obligation that companies have to develop and

implement courses of action that aid social issues that impact society.

The purpose of this present document is to elaborate an analysis of a Corporate Social

Responsibility of the Dosquebradas’s Chamber of commerce, to describe and study

how this company provides education, technology, promotes environmental care and

housing development. First it is mainly important to provide a short history of this

company and know general aspects to further on introduce the readers to the analysis

of the social contribution to this company mainly to Dosquebradas and the

surroundings.

I. OBJECTIVES

General objetive

Analyze the importance of corporate social responsibility of the Chamber of Commerce

of Dosquebrada's and evaluate their macro-economic, socio-cultural and political

variables.

Specific Objectives

Evaluate the actions and programs of the Chamber of Commerce of

Dosquebrada’s.

Analyze the internal and external politics of the Chamber of Commerce of

Dosquebradas.

Review internal issues related to business ethics and triple Performance

Indicators (GRI).

II. COMPANY DESCRIPTION

The Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas was founded on April 23 1990, by

decree 874 of the ministry of economic development on initiative of the private sector

with the aim to strengthen the small, medium and great company by means of the

creation of Industrial Development programs and works with national and international

entities.

Later to this process of installation of the Chamber of Commerce Dosquebradas it has

had a whole of four managerial meetings with a whole of 44 members that have

represented such sectors as the wood, metal, food, distributors, confections and

textile, plastic, trade to retail, department stores, construction.

The mission of The Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas is a nonprofit

organization that seeks to represent the different companies and the community in

general in the satisfaction of its principal needs inside jurisdiction and those that

require it.

By the other hand, the vision of the Chamber of Commerce is to be leaders in the

social, cultural and economic development of our region satisfying the different needs

of the companies, supporting the operation and construction of new organizations, in

successful form, which one result is the generation of employment and a harmonic life

for its habitants and a city with conditions ideal to live together.

a) Political variable

The chamber of commerce of Dosquebradas has both national and local policies which

implement in order to promote and govern every step it makes, in the competitive field,

strategic; such as strategic plan of the Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas,

commission and regional competitiveness plan.

a) Legal variable

In the Colombian Commercial Code in Title 4 from Article 78 to 97 deals with provisions

to be met by chambers of commerce in Colombia and which should govern its functions,

affiliations with international institutions, among others (Colombia’s Commerce code,

1971). Moreover, there is a regulation which makes up the laws, decrees, and unique

circular that governing each step that makes a chamber of commerce of Dosquebradas,

following you will see it (Camado, 2012):

• Decree 622 of 2000 - jurisdiction of the chambers of commerce.

• Unique circular

• Law 1429 of 2010 - formalization and employment generation

• Rates year 2012

• Decree 4463 of 2006 regulations for the establishment of new companies.

b) Socio-cultural variable

Social Action Camera "SAC” is a transversal program and social responsibility of the

productive sector, which seeks to impact the different levels of society and its needs,

strengthening public-private synergy in the municipality, department and region, through

the Culture, Recreation and the environment; culture projects and recreation such as

music the poem and the coffee and the bambuco municipal contest message are made

at the chamber of Commerce Dosquebradas, and for the environment the project

planting for life which is done as long as people buy a tree for a special date like

marriages, baptisim and birthdays.

c) Environmental variable

The chamber of commerce of Dosquebradas has a program for the environment that

calls planting for life, it consists in make activities that are aimed at selling the seed

certified for life. Planting activities are carried out which are the advice and guidance of

the Regional Autonomous Corporation of Risaralda. It has sold 8 trees have been

planted and 10 which are located in the village of Santana High (Strategic Plan

Chamber of Commerce Dosquebradas, 2011).

III. DEFINITION OF SERVICE

The Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas offers to the community in general, the

services of registration and enrollment to all economic entities established in the

municipality, likewise it allows the entities already established to disintegrate legally by

meeting the requirements to the government and controlling entities. By the other hand,

the Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas offers a variety of services providing

assistance to the entrepreneurs to the public in general of the region, from legal advice

to meeting rooms for social events.

The services offered by the Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas are specifically

technical assistance to all entrepreneurs of the region, It also has become an obligation

to regulate trade in the region not only statistical purpose, but informative, so that the

users can have references from those companies incorporated in the municipality and

as such ultimately those unfold in the specific sectors of the economy and its impact on

business dynamics.

By the other hand the chamber of commerce of Dosquebradas, through this strategic

line is encouraged and contributes to entrepreneurial formalization according to legal

regulations in force in each of the components: tax statute, trade registration, legal

consulting and mediation center and affiliates.

In the area of trade register are carried out a series of procedures that complement the

rationale of this area, such as: enrollment, renewals, mutations, registration, labeling,

stamping, inscriptions and registration of books, scanning, archiving and storage,

considered one of the most important, it has implied the responsibility that have the

officials on the documentation that enter daily. The annual reports, semiannual and

monthly and statistics contribute to accomplish the quality objectives proposed for the

area. Carrying out the activities set forth in the quality plan, procedures RUE

(responsible-receiving), fingering and quality control of the constitutions of commercial

companies and nonprofit entities, and transverse to the above activities on their

participation in nature almost mandatory legal advice runs the personal assistance

activities, telephone and in some virtual cases, all merchants that require it in addition of

those that their form and contents fully comply with the standards established by the

law for this faith the law.

CONCILIATION AND ARBITRATION CENTER: The Center for Conciliation of

the Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas to date has a total of 41 facilitators

registered and endorsed by the Ministry of Interior and Justice, all qualified

lawyers and suitable to celebrate the conciliation hearings for which they are

appointed, have been held so far this year 40 conciliation hearings, leaving as a

result 15 in agreement and 25 failed. Among the activities that have been made

in 2010 can be emphasized two free workshops that by law we make, these were

held in June and September 2010, in addition to the academic seminar update

for registered conciliators the center and trial lawyers interested in benefiting

from the issues raised in this, given by experts.

LEGAL CONSULTING: Given that this area is transversal to the procedures

performed in trade register, it is necessary to establish that some of the

consulting offered are before the documents that the traders will subscribe, some

of them allowing to correct the errors in the form or bottom of this, based on the

above, it may reveal a total of 641 documents reviewed and recorded in

compliance with current legislation.

With the services offered, the chamber of commerce aims to streamline and control the

creation and registration of companies in the region so that the paperwork required for

this is concentrated in this entity, obtaining the information necessary to maintain

accounting records, statistics and make the corresponding analysis.

The Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas, as a private organization with public

functions assigned by the state, has the power and the ability to offer the main object of

the entity, the commercial register of companies in Dosquebradas, where as the

Registrar, but with economic entities, is responsible for registering all entities constituted

and when these disintegrate they have to register the disappearance. This is the main

service offered by the Chamber of Commerce.

Last but not least, the project area Chamber of Commerce is to promote and conduct

initiatives for the community, including sectors of municipal economy which seek to give

sustainable development for Dosquebradas.

IV. COMPETITION

The chambers of commerce in the national level are private and nonprofit organizations,

focused on the same objectives, for this reason, it’s difficult to say that the Chamber of

commerce of Pereira could be a competition for the Chamber of commerce of

Dosquebradas, however; some of the different services that this entity offers are the

same than offer the other one, for this reason there is a grade of competition.

According to the municipal jurisdictions the people who resides in the area of

jurisdiction, can only register as natural and legal persons in the chamber of commerce

that belongs to their municipality. Thereby, Dosquebrada’s chamber of commerce can

only register the natural and legal person of the municipality, in this case

Dosquebradas. By the other hand, the services in corporate training that offer the

Pereira’s chamber of commerce are the direct competition for the Dosquebradas’s

chamber, because could decreases the public or the market for the local chamber of

commerce.

This means that the chambers of commerce represent competition with each other,

regardless they only have a specific area of action; but the other services are offered for

all the public that would go. However they complement each other thru capacitating the

community, employees, and clients, among others, directed to any person residing in

the department or the nation, who is interested in the conference.

IV. CORPORATE GOVERNANCE

a. Principles

This chamber of commerce is based on the following principles:

Teamwork and the solution of problems are the basis of the success of the entity.

The quality of our services is our constant concern.

Education, training and training of our staff are the foundation of human resource

development.

The constant search for mutually beneficial relationships with our customers and

community.

Strict compliance with the provisions established by the state and control entities.

b. Code of ethics

The code of ethics of the Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas (according to the

attendant woman of human management, Juliana Marin), is fully structured and which

only need to be approved by the board of directors. In this code there are relevant

topics such as: how should be the behaviors of all employees from the organization and

the organization to the employees, how they should be the dismissal and the

permissions of the staff, among others.

c. Board of directors composition

The board of directors of the Chamber of Commerce Dosquebradas 2010-2012 is

formed by the same entrepreneurs, government representatives, auditor and advisory

committee

d. Quality policy

The Chamber of Commerce Dosquebradas Quality Policy is to provide services that

satisfy the requirements established highly by their customers. Also, the Chamber of

commerce is committed to this policy, to comply with requirements and continually

improve the effectiveness of the System of Quality Management implemented in the

state.

V. STAKEHOLDERS

a. Community

Through the programs carried out by the Chamber of Commerce, the purpose is to

strengthen the weaknesses of the community to improve the economic and business of

the municipality. Thus, training programs created for the certification of certain sectors

of the economy takes care of training people to contribute to the community in an

academic sense or technical training, which in one way or another promote business

development and with this the municipality's economy.

On the other side and with a focus purely social, the chamber of trade has programs

through which improves the quality of life of the community in a specific age and

somewhat vulnerable in the municipality. The contribution made by the chamber of

commerce, goes beyond the economic to the management of resources to finance part

of the social activities carried out by this entity, thus social programs focus on improving

the life of the community are divided into different programs with different forms of

financing which together are part of corporate social responsibility of the Chamber of

Commerce.

Within the programs of outreach to the community include:

The night of music, the poem and the red (Dancing, singing, music, poetry,

theater, painting)

Corporate Gala Night

Support for social and civic committees

Safety parking

Also, using the corporate responsibility program develops different activities within

which are:

Breast cancer Campaign: is being developed to support a group of women who

are at high risk of developing this disease, which have an order of mammography

over 2 years and that for economic reasons have failed that examination

performed. It is supported by the Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas,

Santa Monica Hospital, Venus Foundation and Mrs. Margarita Medina, consists

in raise money to make the ladies Mammography through a bond that has a

value of $ 20,000.

Bank of Time: the consultants and trainers hired by the agency is asked to

donate two hours per month of their time to advise and train a select group of

business people and students on topics of general interest (Strategic Plan

Chamber of Commerce Dosquebradas, 2011).

Plastic covers in exchange for smiles campaign: This project has been

developed to help children with cancer, and to support the SANAR Foundation

which is located in San Jorge Hospital, the campaign consist in recollecting

plastic covers and sell them for 1000 pesos to support the children economically,

providing grants for transportation and food for those children that have low

resources to assist to their chemotherapy and radiotherapy appointments. The

aim is to sensitize the students, community and companies, and to link them in

the campaign.

b. Environment

As social programs carried out by the chamber of commerce, this has like all entities

engaged in economic activities today, a commitment to the environment, which must be

covered by any of the programs carried out by this, so the Chamber of Commerce

seeks to contribute to local reforestation through the planting of trees rather than legal

sense of environmental awareness and aims to finance other social action programs,

compliance with environmental commitment.

c. Employees

Like its outreach to the community, the Chamber of Commerce works for the welfare of

their employees seeking the improvement of the quality of work and this condition

survey, thereby the chamber evaluates the performance of workers to detect the failures

and strengthen the competencies of each to optimize their job performance through

internal training to employees.

For the chamber of commerce is primary a good working environment, since it is clear

that better work environment becomes more enjoyable and more productive, this is how

the tests are done to detect any problems that may damage the harmony among

employees. Similarly, the coexistence between employees promote good working

conditions making these more compact equipment, working in a better way, so this is

why the "novena" is planned as a team in December, also around the year there are

celebrations held on particular dates in the year, it has a employee of the Month and

more.

The legal working conditions for employees are met to perfection, as provided in the

quality plan, thereby, the Chamber has education grants to employees who has been

part of the company for longer than one year, also theres an encourage to the

employees to enter their severance into the National Savings Fund to gain access to

housing loans and to achieve grants from the compensation funds such as Comfamiliar.

d. Suppliers

The Chamber of Commerce, as a private entity with state delegated functions has no

providers as it’s an entity that provide services, those who in one way or another could

be considered providers of the Chamber of Commerce are those skilled that are

contracted to provide chat, conference or training specific to the particular audience.

Thus the ratio of the Chamber of Commerce is through contracts for services which are

organized under the laws in force and with the guarantees given.

e. Government

The relationship between the chamber of commerce and government is quite narrow,

the registration function of the chamber of commerce is precisely where delegated by

the government that should be in control, accounting, and statistics for all economic

entities are formed in the municipality in accordance with government requirements.

Thus the Chamber of Commerce meets the government to perform the functions

delegated, on the other hand, it helps with tracking and collection of tax through the

information provided, likewise promotes a government together with development

economic and business dynamics.

f. Share holders

As a private entity, the Chamber of Commerce should have few shareholders or owners

to whom or accountable to show results, but in the case of chambers of commerce

nationwide, these are non-profit, so it will only get income to carry out the projects set

out and cover the payroll of its employees. However, as close to the share holders

found in the Chamber of Commerce is the board, which is responsible for ensuring

compliance with the targets set for the entity and its internal functioning.

VI. SOCIAL DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMS

a. Education

The Dosquebradas’s chamber of commerce, aims to develop education to the

community thru assessment, chats and conferences provided to a specific audience

depending on the topic of the conference. There are some of these seminars that are

free and any person interested in the topic can access to it and receive a certification,

however there are others that have costs because they require hiring professional

personal that can extend their knowledge to the entrepreneurs and people assisting to

it.

b. Housing development

The chamber of commerce of Dosquebradas, doesn’t have a program that aims

housing development, however as we mentioned before they encourage their

employees to record their severance in the National Saving Fund to receive benefits

and grants, to acquire their own house.

c. Science and technology

The chamber of commerce has a Chamber of Technological Action which, according to

their website, it has a structural strengthening program in advanced technologies in the

productive sector, powered through and Micro-cluster Metalworking Cluster Robotics

and Automation sector companies, with a range of:

Development technology solutions

Technology training

Business participation national and international

Through this strategic objective seeks to incorporate science, technology, innovation

and technological development in the business, contributing to the reduction of

technological breakthroughs of the companies for the competitiveness and productivity.

To this end, develop different actions: identification and formulation technology

development and innovation, technological monitoring, development of technology

solutions, technology training and consulting relevant intellectual property.

d. Donations

The chamber of commerce of Dosquebradas, has its own Chamber for social action

“CAS” which aims to impact different sectors of the society and their needs. In this

development program, as it has been already mentioned, the main campaigns and

activities they develop are for the community (such as Breast cancer Campaign - Bank

of Time - Plastic covers in exchange for smiles) and the environment (such as seed for

life program). With these projects they also seek to link students, community and

entrepreneurs to be interested in the social matters, but also to collaborate however

they can so that the social development can be sustainable.

VII. TRIPLE RESULT INDICATORS (GRI)

Financial indicators

ENTERPRISE CLASIFICATION

At 30 of July of 2011, there were 6.894 enterprise

Micro 95,07%

Small 3,81%

Middle 0,87%

Large 0,25%

COMPOSITION BY ECONOMIC

Retail and wholesale commerce 56,16%

Manufacturing Industry 18,14%

Other activities and community, social and personal services 9,64%

Restaurants and hotels 9,38%

Transport, storage and communication 6,68%

CLASIFICATION OF THE ECONOMIC SECTOR BY INVERSION LEVEL

Manufacturing Industry 48,88%

Retail and wholesale commerce 41,49%

Other activities and community, social and personal services 4,75%

Transport, storage and communication 4,19%

Other sectors 0,68%

Source: V statistic newsletter of Dosquebradas

The chamber of commerce of Dosquebradas’s registered a total of 6.894 enterprises in

the first semester of 2011. This classification shows that the commercial sector is

composed mainly of micro enterprises with 95,07 percent, this compared to the minority

of the large enterprises in Dosquebradas’s which has a percentage of 0,25. Also, the

most important economic sector is the retail and wholesale commerce, which has a

participation in the economy of 56,16% and the transport, storage and communication

has a 6,68% of participation, however the manufacturing sector has the major

percentage in inversion.

This financial indicators lead to conclude that the major enterprises in continue develop

and creation registered in the municipality of Dosquebradas are the micro-enterprises.

Regarding the social and environmental participation, there are no rubles within the

financial indicators or indicators that can show the results and the contributions for

social responsibility.

CONCLUSION

The Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas was created with the goal to strengthen

the enterprises through the creation of industrial development programs and collective

work with national and international entities, also satisfies the main requirements into

the jurisdiction to develop and promote the functions the state delegates. Is a leader

in social, cultural and economic development of our region, satisfying

the different needs of the enterprises, creating employment generation and a city

with ideal living conditions.

The Chamber of Commerce Dosquebradas provides specific technical assistance to

all employers in the region and become an obligation to regulate trade in

the region, with the employments in specific sectors of the economy and

its impact business dynamics. To finalize, the Chamber of Commerce of

Dosquebradas promotes and carries out initiatives to seek sustainable

development in Dosquebradas in political, social and cultural development. And despite

the fact that the Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas was founded 22 years ago,

and it has still subjects that can improve.

The main recommendations to the Chamber of Commerce Dosquebradas against

corporate social responsibility project are:

The code of ethics should be established almost from it own creation -in 1990 - it

is an essential tool for development and function of the entrepreneurial activities

of the camera, and more to base the behavior of the personal who work there.

The Chamber of Commerce of Dosquebradas should specify wich percentage of

money are aimed to the projects of social responsibility, discriminating them in

social indicators and environment which this camera lack.

REFERENCES

Stanwick, P., and Stanwick, S. 2009. Understanding Business Ethics. Pearson

Prentice Hall: Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Strategic Plan Chamber of Commerce Dosquebradas. Extracted March 23, 2012

from the website:

http://www.camado.org.co/prueba2008/archivos/plan_estrategico.pdf

Chamber of Commerce Dosquebradas. Extracted March 23, 2012 from the

website: http://camado.org.co/mute/page/?page_id=1074

Colombia’s commerce code. Extracted March 23, 2012 from the website:

http://www.secretariasenado.gov.co/senado/basedoc/codigo/codigo_comercio_pr

002.html#91