Tjx Companies Case Study

"The TJX Companies, Inc V.A.L.U.E. Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2013

Introduction

TJX Companies Inc. is a leading retailer of discount home fashions and apparel based in Framingham, Massachusetts. TJX discovered a security breach in December 2006 when unknown hackers illegally broke into the company’s payment system and stole more than 45.6 million credit and debit card numbers from customers (Vijayan, 2007). The company further revealed that the data was actually stolen over more than 18-months starting in 2005 (Vijayan, 2007). The breach resulted in many banks blocking and reissuing tens of thousands of credit cards (Vijayan, 2007). The case study, “The TJX Companies, Inc. V.A.L.U.E. Corporate Social Responsibility Report 2013” is a good example of why a company should develop a strategy for damage control and response to a crisis and understand the importance of its most important stakeholders.

Response to Compliance Issues

After the data breach in 2006, TJX notified government agencies including the U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Federal Trade Commission, and U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission about the data breach (Form 10-K TJX Companies Inc., 2007). TJX then hired IBM and General Dynamics Corp. to monitor and evaluate the data that was stolen, and strengthen its computer and security systems (Form 10-K TJX Companies Inc., 2007). TJX then informed stakeholders, banks, and payment and check processing companies and then publicly announced the computer intrusion (Form 10-K TJX Companies Inc., 2007).

Strategy

TJX’s strategy in their response to the data breach was to be ethically responsible, be as transparent as possible with stakeholders and comply with all regulations. This directly relates to the companies V.A.L.U.E. stance on social compliance and governance and valuing suppliers, customers and employees (Corporate Responsibility, 2016). Once they started honestly communicating information about the...