The Cheesecake Factory
The cheesecake Factory has an established code of ethical conduct that is needed to factor in maintaining a balance in the human aspect of ethics and the link to the business success for The Cheesecake Factory. Leaders in the upper management need to be careful about their actions, and how they address other employees and how they make important decisions to help the company.

Even though the areas of the Cheesecake Factory’s code of ethical conduct is important for the success of the company, there are a few specific areas of the company’s code of ethical conduct that are of substantial importance for The Cheesecake Factory. The first key area is in Article IV, in the “Conflicts of Interest,” section that talks about transactions and investments. This directly states that an officer or a director,” Should avoid participating in any transaction or investment that conflicts with, or gives the appearance of a conflict with, the interest of the company. It’s important in maintaining ethics because a person who is in a management position must be devoted to one company. All decisions that are made are suspect to the integrity of the , company especially when it comes to the financial decisions. Another key area of The Cheesecake Factory’s code of ethical conduct that is of significant importance is in Article V, in the “Compliance with Company Policies and Procedures,” section that talks about confidential information. It is important for the success of any company, especially one as huge as The Cheesecake Factory that the confidentiality of information, especially for the third parties, be maintained. There’s another key area in Article V of the company’s code of ethical conduct is in the section that talks about prohibiting insider trading. In the part that deals with prohibiting insider trading it talks about, “ An officer or director shall observe the Company’s policy prohibiting trading on the basis of material, non-public information. Any problems that come into question regarding insider trading that are found to have valid importance can bring a company to an end. There’s so many company’s that try to trade things between each other. Plant’s try to trade out the back door more often than you think and if anyone were to get caught there would be in huge trouble.

Key steps that a company should take, like The Cheesecake Factory could take in order to guarantee the employees follow the code of conduct. First step is to have a customer service department that takes care of all problems and investigates code of conduct issues. Another step that The Cheesecake Factory can take to make sure the employees follow the code of conduct is to have all employees sign the code of conduct when hired and to make sure the employees have a copy they can keep and make sure to keep a copy in the employees file. Also need to make sure employee’s get a handbook on all these topics. This will make it possible for the employee to know all the code of conduct rules and regulations.

One way that The Cheesecake Factory can engage in socially responsive activities in the community like during Christmas employees could sign up to ring the salvation army bell. That’s an awesome way to give back to their community. Companies could donate food to the local food banks and homeless shelters. There are so many families and veterans that are homeless and can’t afford homes more less food would be so thankful for that. A second way for The Cheesecake Factory to engage in socially responsive activities in the community would be to help raise money for local small businesses. The importance of that the company is giving back to the small community that it’s apart of. The last way the Cheesecake Factory could engage in socially responsive activities in the community would be to charity events such as a art gallery showing where you raise money for the community. Any kind of charity fund raiser would work but everyone loves art and think it could raise lots of money for the community.

References:

1. http://investors.thecheesecakefactory.com/phoenix.zhtml?c=109258&p=irol-govconduct.

2. John Fraedrich. “Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making & Cases.” Cengage Learning, 9th edition.