"Doing everything possible to avoid ..." is the catchphrase of modern day corporate compliance, like it or not. You won't believe how often I hear "we didn't know and it wasn't immediately apparent". No, not immediately, but if you had dug deeper it would. And companies today are expected to dig so much deeper than, say, 10 years ago. We live in the age of compliance.
Markets are markets and compliant behavior inevitably costs money. So if someone offers you "legal wood" at a cheaper price than other market participants can, that should already set off your alarm bells. There is no free lunch, certainly not in India. So what could have Gibson done that perhaps they didn't do? Regular control visits to their wood source, review of legal situation by outside counsel, direct contact to Indian authorities. And if the Indians had refused that? Easy. Change source. If they did all that, then indeed they are innocent. Did they?
And of course they could have passed the extra cost on to the market. Do you think that Gibson guitars that cost a hundred bucks more but feature a tag "Gibson stamp of eco-certification - only ebony and rosewood from Gibson-checked Indian providers was used to build this guitar, learn more at
www.where-we-get-our-wood-from-at-Gibson.com" would sell less?
And don't tell me that is asking too much, if you work by necessity with a product that is toughly regulated, then you have to keep on your toes about it if you are not a mom & pop store without the necessary means. Foodstuff industries (have to) do it all the time.
