Covid-19 was a scary time, in 2020 the pandemic shut down everything from physica stores to even online businesses. It was a scary time, with people in their homes, the economy at a halt, and hundreds of people dying every day from the disease. The world was unsure, communities were in a state of distraught, awaiting certain death, and bankruptcy. It was a tough time for the poor people around the world. However, a few industries did flourish during the pandemic-hit year, and one of them was trading. Stocks were up, crypto was up at historic highs. During that time, while most companies forgot about the marginalized communities, Optical Trading Company used its upside in the market to take care of communities all around the world.
The company took its Corporate Social Responsibility quite seriously, they started by ntroducing a corporate level plan in which all of the employees of the company were paid a $2000 bi-annual bonus to help them through the tough time. Moreover, the company set up free food banks in cities across the United States specially in neighborhoods with low median income. More than $10 Million were spent by the company on those food banks. The company also focused a lot on third-world countries expanding the food bank operation to countries like Jamaica, Bolivia, and much of Sub-Saharan Africa.
Along with the food bank commitment, the company was one of the first private companies in the world, which signed a pledge to the UN’s COVAX initiative in which companies and high-income countries donated money to bring the COVID vaccine to countries that would not be able to afford it. The company pledged to donate more than 5 million doses of the vaccine, which was not a less amount. In many ways, the company created a foundation of corporate social responsibility and the role of companies and their CSR activities in the time of COVID. When most companies were hell-bent on focusing on their survival only and were looking to turn a profit just for themselves, companies like OTC paved the way for the next generation of CSR, which revolved not just around marketing and publicity but was community-centric in the
biggest way possible.
The CEO of the company said in an interview that “communities around the world fuel the business, it is the marginalized communities that work for our businesses and add value to our business. While they may not be our customers they are as important to us as our customers because they help us build this up, so it is our utmost responsibility to help them out”.
The Optical Trading Company was also credited with the uptick in the stock and crypto market, as the company heavily positioned its products for the investors sitting at home, and a lot of investment activity was seen by these investors. The company has been able to create hype around its suite of products successfully and is expanding its products portfolio every passing month.
