Current Efforts for Social Responsibility
Activision Blizzard is an industry leader for producing and designing video games. They have annual revenues of 4 billion, annual income of 2.2 billion and total assets of 5.5 billion. Activision, as they are commonly known, have great customer support and even better technical support, despite having to deal with one of the most impatient and finicky customer bases, the gamer.
So how do they stack up in social responsibility?
As a video game company Activision does not have the usual responsibilities that other companies have. Petrol companies and other mining/energy companies have a responsibility to the public to not do unnecessary harm while pulling resources out of the earth. As a company that does little in the way of manufacturing, they do not have to worry about the state of their factories over sea or the political implications of hiring non-American workers.
Instead they focus on the education side of CSR. They have partnered up with great companies like Intel, Time Warner, Xerox, and The White House in Change the Equation. Activision wants to ensure that every child has the opportunity to actively learn the science, technology, engineering, and math subjects. George Rose, the Chief Public Policy Officer at Activision Blizzard, reflects the company’s policy on this new program, “STEM literacy is a business imperative for our nation's economic excellence, success and citizenship. Our collaboration will not only help students, but will revive our economy, fuel our competitiveness, and ultimately empower our nation”. In that statement Mr. Rose points out all of the goals of the Change the Equation movement, that that there are children who are not getting the education they require in science and technology fields, and that they need our help.
Change the Equation is an evolution of an older program called Educate to Innovate which was focused on encouraging student