...Ethical Supply Chains 1. Is it important for coffee marketers such as Starbucks, Kraft, and Nestle to create “ethical supply chains” Why? In today’s global marketplace it is imperative for organizations to transform their brands and create an ethical supply chain. No longer do “old style” metrics depict the actual value of a brand. The world’s consumers have increasingly become aware of the true costs involved in the production and distribution of an item. Currently, there is a dire need to realize the historically ignored social, environmental, and personal impact throughout the supply chain. Ethical supply chain management in the coffee industry has been addressed through the implementation of the Fair Trade program. This program ensures that coffee bean growers in impoverished countries receive a reasonable wage for their harvest (www.globalexchange.org). In the past, market fluctuation, bean surpluses, and currency disparity severely affected growers’ income worldwide. With such an enormous global demand for coffee, it is sound business practice to compensate these workers fairly and encourage sustainable farming practices. This will decrease the environmental damage caused by the production of beans, leading to a more secure crop supply – positively impacting the coffee market at large. 2. A recent study by the UK’s Institute of Grocery Distribution determined that the majority of consumers do not buy fair trade products. The report noted, “self-interest is at the center...
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...Ethical issues that effect supply chain. LULULEMON ATHLETICA. Lulu lemon athletica commonly known as Lulu lemon is a clothing retail chain founded by Dennis Wilson in 1998. Originating in Vancouver British Columbia. The Canadian based company has stores in the USA, New Zealand and Australia with a total of 201. They mainly manufacture their products on home soil in Vancouver but have expanded to other countries, which include China, United States of America, Israel, Taiwan, India, Peru and Indonesia. March 2013 Lulu lemon put out the Luon black yoga pants. These looked like the typical lulu lemon yoga pants. They had the quality; the style but lacked the coverage of the usual product. This caused a huge controversy. Everywhere people were talking about lulu lemon see through yoga pants. The pants were too sheer to the point they were transparent. Almost every media outlet was talking about it, the sheer yoga pants from lulu lemon. This brought production to a halt. They had to do a recall. These particular pants totaled 17% of the all pants in all of lulu lemon stores. This was a huge loss of profit. On top of loosing profit this company lost their good reputation and stocks went down by 6%. Because of this costly mistake their expected 11% sales gain has been decreased by about 3 to 6 %.. There are customers who have turned away from the athletic clothing retailer because they no longer trust in their product. This is not the first time the Lulu lemon has had issues with...
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...Corporate and Ethical Social Responsibility Assignment Question: Is CSR just another form of PR for companies wishing to get an edge on their competitor? Discuss with primary reference to IKEA. Student Name: Pui Tung CHIU Submission Date: 3 April 2015 Introduction A business activity generates both positive and negative influence for both the corporate as well as the society. The growing expectations of social, environmental and legal responsibility gradually rise in the past decades for corporate. Organizations use corporate social responsibility (CSR) to set up activities in order to achieve and respond these expectations. Jamali and Mirshak (2007) state that CSR approach helps to attract global attention and acquire a new resonance in the worldwide economy. However, Frankental (2001) claims “Do CSR is a public relations (PR) invention?” and company focus on promoting itself, getting an edge on its revivals rather than being ethic to protect the environment or maintain human welfare. Therefore, in this essay, author is going to discuss about the different between CSR as well as PR. Moreover, it will apply an example of IKEA to examine the effectiveness of its CSR in supply chain and analyze CSR as a business strategy to maintain the sustainability of business, financial control and risk management. Afterwards, author will highlight the limitations of CSR policy and finally provide some recommendations to improve the CSR strategy for...
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...Chapter 2 Case Study 1. Corporate Social Responsibility challenges that companies in the apparel industry face in its supply chains around the world: Corporate social responsibility (CSR) has become a subject of increasing significance. Companies are usually faced with the benefits versus harm created by their operations around the world. In spite of the benefits a company may enjoy in their business venture, there are several social downfalls that they need to take responsibility for. Such downfalls include but are not limited to, lack of equality, employee safety & welfare, both of the home countries and the host countries. The opening profile highlighted the subcontracting of child labor by Primark. The case study highlighted the issue of work treatment & conditions by Nike. In addition, workers were underpaid & punished for refusing overtime. At this level, the ethicality of the companies are being challenged, with varying legal and cultural limits across borders. The main question a company should answer is how should their ethical standard be based? Should it based on the home country or the host country or can it be reconciled? If the company ignores its ethical responsibility to workers, how will that affect production and sales? Association in unethical business operations can be quite disastrous to companies. Another ethically challenging aspect is that companies are also limited by jurisdiction. In the instance of the host country, legislations may...
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...responsibly Responsible supply chain – Our approach We work with our suppliers to help them meet our ethical, health and safety, social and environmental standards and improve their performance through monitoring, assessments and engagement. We spend billions of pounds each year on equipment and services that enable us to operate our network and on products such as mobile phones, SIM cards and other devices that we sell to our customers. We demand high ethical, health and safety, social and environmental standards of all our suppliers. These are set out in our Code of Ethical Purchasing (http://vodafone.com/ content/dam/group/suppliers/downloads/VPC_Supplier Policy_A2_Code_of_ Ethical_Purchasing_(V3.0).pdf) and integrated from the initial qualification process all the way through to managing our suppliers’ performance. We conduct regular site assessments to ensure compliance with the Code and we work directly with our suppliers to help improve their sustainability performance. To target improvements further down the supply chain, we require our suppliers to demand similar standards of their own suppliers and check this through audits and performance management processes. We participate in industry initiatives to raise standards across the sector. Read on to find out more about our approach to this issue. Or go to the Performance section to read about our progress in 2014/15. Becoming a Vodafone supplier Vodafone’s Code of Ethical Purchasing and other...
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...Unit 37; P1 Explain the issues a business needs to consider in its operational activities. What is business ethics? Business ethics are moral principles that guide the way a business behaves. The same principles that determine an individual’s actions, it also applies to business. Read more: http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/anglo-american/business-ethics-and-corporate-social-responsibility/what-are-business-ethics.html#ixzz3XSqGf1O6 Outline some ethical issues facing a business of your choice. The business I’ve chosen is Tesco. Tesco faces a protest from the trade union Unite over the treatment of migrant workers in its meat and poultry supply chain at its annual meeting in Glasgow today. Another issue Tesco faced is the horse meat scandal. Tesco said the horsemeat scandal had a "small but discernible impact" on frozen and chilled convenience food sales. Some Tesco Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese contains 60% horsemeat, DNA tests by the retailer have found. The meal, withdrawn from sale on Tuesday, came from the French factory producing Findus beef lasagne, also at the centre of a row over horsemeat. Meanwhile, Environment Secretary Owen Paterson has told MPs of plans to test all processed beef in the UK. Tesco Group technical director Tim Smith said: "The frozen Everyday Value Spaghetti Bolognese should contain only Irish beef from our approved suppliers. The source of the horsemeat is still under investigation by the relevant authorities. He also stated that "The...
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...'we make what matters better, together” Philip Clarke, Chief Executive( www.tescoplc.com/interims2013) Our Three Big Ambitions Create new opportunities for millions of young people around the worldOpen Help and encourage our colleagues and customers to live healthier livesOpen Lead in reducing food waste globally * ------------------------------------------------- Our Essentials Trading responsibly: Tesco trade responsibly by putting our customers first and working with our suppliers to innovate and provide high quality products Reducing our impact on the environment: We are reducing our impact on the environment aiming to be a zero-carbon business by 2050 and using scarce resources responsibly, including in our supply chain Being a great employer: We are a great employer creating inspiring work that makes our colleagues happy and proud of what they do Supporting local communities: We support our local communities by being a good neighbour and running our business to the highest standards * Tesco has signed a £28 million deal with CA Technologies, adopting the vendor's systems management tools as a global standard. The UK retail giant has been a CA customer for 20 years, and has used its Unicenter systems management platform to support international operations since 2005. “We rely on CA Technologies software to tame a very big, distributed, heterogeneous infrastructure," explained Tesco CIO Mike McNamara in a statement. "We are very pleased...
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...Quality Issues in a Global Supply Chain: Who is responsible? There is not one entity to blame solely for the faulty capacitor. A supply chain that involves a lot of different stakeholders makes it harder to keep control over the process. In a case like this, there is more than one factor to take into consideration; financial, ethical, and contractual burdens are to be placed on the responsible corresponding parties. All stakeholders share some responsibility for the supply chain fiasco. It seems that placing the blame on one party would be unfair, which is why it is better to evaluate each entity’s responsibility and fault in the issue. As the OEM and final user of the capacitor before reaching the customer, Ford should have been more involved in the supply chain and quality control. With more than two tier suppliers involved in the production of the actuator it is important for the customer to be closely involved in order to minimize margins of errors. With better and closer involvement in the production process, communication in the supply chain could have been enhanced, allowing for a more efficient and effective strategic coordination between suppliers. However, Ford failed to pay attention and guarantee final quality checks, to evaluate for better suppliers, and lacked the drive to ensure perfect working conditions in the production line and decisions made throughout the process. Even though they had hired Automek to manage the supply chain on their behalf, they were...
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...IKEA Analysis Report Your Name Argosy University IKEA’s Marketing IKEA has a unique perspective with the approach they use in marketing. The starting point begins with customers’ needs (IKEA, 2013). The focus is on local marketing versus mass marketing and competitors. This differentiates IKEA from other home good suppliers by anticipating what consumers are seeking and many times providing exactly they desire before they realize they need it. The marketing task is simple, “To build the IKEA brand and inspire people to come to the stores” (IKEA, 2013). The marketing mix is a combination of items that work together; it is often referred to as the four p’s in marketing. Price, Promotion, People, and Process are the four p’s that IKEA has embraced. Price is within their controls, they offer quality home goods at low affordable costs. They are able to keep costs low with designing from within, sourcing raw materials for production, and selling in their own stores. Promotion is achieved with iconic bold blue and yellow colors signifying a brand with value. IKEA uses many forms of media in their promotional marketing strategy; the annual catalogue is the most popular. The catalogue highlights many new home goods and accessories with interior suggestions that are attention grabbing and captivating. The catalogue has become a staple of what is new and trending in the homes of many customers. IKEA’s website is another interactive way it reaches a distinct local market, along...
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...Since San Walton opened his first store in 1962, Walmart has grown into a global retailer with more than 4,000 store in the United States and more than 6,000 internationally. Walmart is comprised of three business segments, Walmart US, Walmart International and Sam’s Club. Walmart Global eCommerce works across all three segments. Walmart’s mission statement “We save people money so they can live better”, is not indicative of where its strategic focus areas are, but it does sound good for the average customer who has a limited budget. This mission statement leads directly into Walmart Global eCommerce goals which include combining online, social innovations with physical stores to give consumers “anywhere, anytime shopping experience” in addition to its organizational sustainability goal of creating zero waste, using only sustainable energy and selling products that sustain the environment which is important to all of Walmart’s segments including eCommerce. Walmart’s overall objective is to deliver shareholder value by increasing earnings per share, returns and maintaining strong stable returns on investment. According to Walmart CEO, Mike Duke, Walmart’s strategic focus areas are: •Making sure the company has the best retail talent at every level of the organization by recruiting, developing and retaining the best associates; •Delivering on the productivity loop that enables Walmart to operate for less so the company can drive prices even lower for its customers ...
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...decade. In the last 10 years, Wal-Mart has achieved strong and constant growth in sales and net income. It has maintained the leading position in the U.S. discount retail industry and has become the largest retailer in the world. With the maturity of the industry, coupled with the intense competition from rivalry companies, maintaining the current level of high performance becomes very challenging. The Porter’s Five Forces analysis reveals that the competition among rivals is the driving force of the industry, in which price is the most critical factor. The value chain analysis and resource based view analysis show that Wal-Mart has been very successful in implementing the strategy as the low-cost leader by inculcating cost efficiency in its corporate culture, management style, and operations. It has been the pioneer in adopting cutting edge technology to streamline its supply chain, and to understand and respond timely to customer demand. Wal-Mart has developed many strengths that help guard its leading position and open door to many opportunities for expanding the business. However, it also faces threats from growing too big and in many areas, which makes it vulnerable to losing control, weakened cooperation among stores and regions, and competition in multiple fronts. Wal-Mart should be caution in its growth strategy, especially in the expansion of its international presence. Although its financial strength, management skills, and operation efficiency...
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...Title of the Report: Zara Case Study Report Name: SeJun Lee Executive Summary Zara is one of the largest international fashion companies in the world, and it belongs to Inditex, one of the world‟s largest distribution groups. This study reviews Zara`s external environment and analyses its internal organisation to make recommendations for improving its core competencies against competitors such as H&M and GAP. This study first reviews the Zara enterprise in terms of PEEST environmental factors, Porter‟s Five Forces and the fast fashion industry life cycle (ILC). The liberalisation of European Union import quotas has had a positive political impact on the fast fashion retail industry. However, rapid style changes generate waste. In addition, recent financial crises have made customers more sensitive to price and tending to buy lower priced goods. However, young people and new Asian customers are more attracted to fashionable clothes. Also, new technology is quickly adopted to survive in a fast-moving market. Using Porter‟s competitive analysis of five forces, the threats of new entrants and substitution are low, and customers‟ and suppliers‟ bargaining power are moderate. However, the intensity of competitive rivalry is quite high because similar fashion firms are competing. Fast fashion has a shorter life cycle for products than most industries. This spurs both creativity and product innovation but demands more efficiency and advanced technology to reduce...
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...International Management Part 1: The Global Manager’s Environment Part 2: The Cultural Context of Global Management Part 3: Formulating Strategy Part 4: Global Human Resources Management The University of Western Australia Strategic Planning and Strategy Strategic Planning • The process by which a firm’s managers evaluate the future prospects of the firma and decide on appropriate strategies to achieve long-term objectives Strategy • The basic means by which the firm competes., that is, its choice of business or businesses in which to operate and the ways in which it differentiates itself from its competitors 63 How does globalisation, risk, political-legal-ethical and culture affect the value chain that a firm manages and operates to create ‘value’ = strategic planning +strategy = STRATEGIC FIT between ‘inputs’ and ‘outputs’ Porter, M (1985) Competitive Advantage: creating and sustaining superior performance. NY: Free Press The University of Western Australia Steps in Developing International and Global Strategies Mission and Objectives Environmental Assessment and Scanning (PEST, PESTEL, Risk) Internal and Competitive Analysis (SWOT) Global Integrative and Entry Strategy Alternatives (Export, JV, Strategic Alliance, CAGE) Strategic Choice, Implementation, Feedback, and Control (Governance) Copyright ©2014 Pearson Education Realize that much of international business is conducted through strategic alliances...
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...decade. In the last 10 years, Wal-Mart has achieved strong and constant growth in sales and net income. It has maintained the leading position in the U.S. discount retail industry and has become the largest retailer in the world. With the maturity of the industry, coupled with the intense competition from rivalry companies, maintaining the current level of high performance becomes very challenging. The Porter’s Five Forces analysis reveals that the competition among rivals is the driving force of the industry, in which price is the most critical factor. The value chain analysis and resource based view analysis show that Wal-Mart has been very successful in implementing the strategy as the low-cost leader by inculcating cost efficiency in its corporate culture, management style, and operations. It has been the pioneer in adopting cutting edge technology to streamline its supply chain, and to understand and respond timely to customer demand. Wal-Mart has developed many strengths that help guard its leading position and open door to many opportunities for expanding the business. However, it also faces threats from growing too big and in many areas, which makes it vulnerable to losing control, weakened cooperation among stores and regions, and competition in multiple fronts. Wal-Mart should be caution in its growth strategy, especially in the expansion of its international presence. Although its financial strength, management skills, and operation efficiency...
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...Wal-Mart Sustainability Strategy “Given the fact that Wal-Mart customers generally are unwilling to pay a premium for environmentally friendly products, how is the company deriving business value from its sustainability strategy, or if not, how can it ensure that it does?” Wal-Mart launched a sustainability strategy to dramatically reduce the company’s impact on the global environment and become “the most competitive and innovative company on the world”(Denend, L.(2007)).I believe the decision to launch a sustainability strategy was a brilliant move for the company because it takes advantage of the opportunity to significantly increase Wal-Mart’s reputation, thereby increasing consumer loyalty and profits in the long-run. Through this strategy, not only would Wal-Mart benefit, but the global environment as a whole. Wal-Mart responded to public concerns of the company’s global environmental impact by contracting a nongovernmental organization (NGO) to research the issue. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) compiled data regarding the impact in five areas: 1) greenhouse gas emissions, (2) air pollution, (3) water pollution, (4) water use, and (5) land use. From this research came Wal-Mart’s sustainability strategy. The company began to develop goals and objectives to reduce their impact on the environment (Denend, L.(2007)). During the process of developing goals and objectives, the organization’s culture shifted from an internally focused culture...
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