...Chipotle's CSR: Mission or Marketing? Megan Rehkemper Webster Abstract Companies with CSR stated standards tend to make the headlines when their actual business practices are contrary to those standards. Chipotle, one of the fastest growing chain restaurants, is no stranger to this controversy. The company has made great strides in offering “Food with Integrity” yet it still lacks in credibility. This paper will analyze Chipotle’s CSR and how its standards have led many to question the company’s core values. Chipotle's CSR: Mission or Marketing? The heightened media attention on CSR is at least partially in response to society’s interest in socially conscious businesses. Consumers are willing to pay a premium price for environmentally-friendly brands. At the same time, there is much skepticism as to whether companies are intentionally or accidently misleading consumers. Chipotle, one of the fastest growing fast-casual restaurant chains in the world, declares it serves “Food with Integrity”. What does that mean? The company’s reputation has taken some hits in recent years due to lack of transparency. Lessons have been learned along the way yet there is still a credibility gap. Many wonder if Chipotle is telling the public a feel-good story or the truth. This paper will take a look at the company’s CSR: intent vs. execution vs. depiction. Genetically Modified Organisms GMO’s are plants or animals who have been inserted with a gene from an unrelated species...
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...REACTION PAPER In the introduction of conscious capitalism, John Mackey gives us a brief history on how he established Safer Way which is now known as Whole Foods Market with no prior business education background. His intention was to create a business that was ethical and purpose driven. His insight on free enterprise capitalism is much focused throughout the introduction and first chapter, its importance and how it has changed the world. I agree with the findings because, it free enterprise capitalism has led to innovations and social cooperation that any other system. It has freed millions of individuals from extreme poverty and enabled businesses to open up around the world that have contributed to the welfare of humanity. Raj Sisodia, the co-author of the book together with Mackey, have pursued to change the way business is thought about, taught and practiced through their movement. This is both noble and I believe it’s our human responsibility to find solutions to the world and innovations that can take us to the next phase of how business is done. Capitalism has been misunderstood and has been tagged with bad titles such as crony capitalism, profit maximization for investors as top priority and unethical business activities as inferred by products from its activity. Crony capitalism is one of the most tagged names of big corporations because they have the financial resources to corrupt and bribe the government and inturn use this power for their own enrichment. Although...
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...shareholder focused? Wal-Mart is the world largest retailer and successful retailer in US market that offer low prices to customer. Wal-Mart is a company that focuses on it shareholder. Wal-Mart most definitely makes shareholder money. Since the establishment, Wal-Mart has served the public interest by creating wealth, primarily by selling worthwhile goods and services for a profit. This encourages Wal-Mart expand their business to international markets. Today, Wal-Mart’s customer base no longer targets only low income customers and has expanded into targeting African-Americans, the affluent, empty-nesters, Hispanics, suburbanites, and rural residents. As such, Wal-Mart took a holistic approach to changing its mission statement to “we save people money so they can live better” to appeal to a broader customer base. By expanding the target customer base, the retail giant has strategized to appeal to a mixed demographic which out performs other rivals. Wal-Mart’s net sales over the last 3 years have increased consistently with an increase in 2012 of 5.9% year over year. Wal-Mart’s performance and shareholders are inter-related, shareholders are concern about company performance because it will affect shareholders interests if company not doing well in their business. Wal-Mart main focus is to uphold and maintain it responsibilities to shareholders and follows free the market libertarianism model. Milton Friedman model was that Corporate Social responsibility a corporation...
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...Organizational Behavior at Whole Foods Introduction This paper will discuss the organizational behavior concepts that relate to Whole Foods. These concepts include Theory X and Theory Y, human and social capital, the profile of the 21st century manger, Carroll’s Global Corporate Social Responsibility Pyramid and the seven moral principles. Whole Foods Market is a supermarket chain that functions through several completely maintained divisions. The supermarkets are located in the US, Canada and the UK. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas and employed about 72,700 people as of September 30, 2012, of whom 16,400 were part-time employees and 3,200 were seasonal employees (“Company Profile”, 2013). McGregor’s Theory Y Role at Whole Foods In 1960, Douglas McGregor wrote The Human Side of Enterprise, which framed two sets of molds about human nature. The first one is Theory X is unenthusiastic and negative. It assumptions people don’t like working and must be forced to do their work, avoid responsibility and have little motivation. As Kopelman and et al. (2012) stated “the manager who holds Theory X beliefs may unwittingly engineer a low level of employee motivation and (ironically) lament to a colleague that you can't get good workers nowadays” (pg. 451). Theory Y is the counterpart. In this Theory, mangers assume employees can be self-motivated, committed, responsible and creative workers. Whole Foods hires people that are well-trained who flourish in their workplace...
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...maximize these opportunities and evaluate the threats that Kudler may encounter given their current systems and offer your suggestions, in terms of using technology. Computer Information System Brief When it comes to the Kudler account after months of review the company needs an accounting information overhaul because their way of doing business is outdated. Thare are some strengths and weaknesses associated with this old way of doing business. However the company needs to be updated to compete with its major competitor Whole Foods who is becoming the corporate giant in the health food industry. The company needs an updated inventory accounting system and a system that incorporates this information so it can be interpreted. This brief will explain how Howard & Co. will facilitate this transition. Strengths and weakness We feel that your strengths are in the realm of customer service even though Kudler fine foods have more than one location it still has the feel of a family business, which is good, and we advise you to keep this feel. However when it comes to your current accounting system some weakness were found because the company books are done by hand and then put into excel spreadsheet which is effective if you know what you are doing. Even the stores inventories are accounted for once every two weeks for some products which it can virtually...
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...groceries,” Walmart executive vice president of grocery Jack Sinclair told reporters on Wednesday, April 9th, adding that customers “have been asking for this.” Wal-Mart’s sheer size will likely thrust the retailer into the organics industry and also force organic mainstays like Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods to consider cutting their own prices in order to not lose customers to the lower prices of their largest competitor. The price cuts that Wal-Mart is boasting for these organic products is no small matter. The products will cost a game-breaking twenty five percent less than competitor’s products! The prices alone will likely pry even some of the most avid Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods customers to shop at Wal-Mart for their organics to see what the fuss is about. Wal-Mart is no stranger to branching out and getting its feet wet in new industries. One such venture is the Wal-Mart Neighborhood Markets, which can be likened to grocery stores such as Randall’s, Kroger and H-E-B. At these Neighborhood Markets, Wal-Mart strips itself of many of its retail items and focuses mainly on produce, food, and cosmetics. Wild Oats, the company in partnership with Wal-Mart for this organic food campaign, is set to grow exponentially with the global exposure that...
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...Whole Foods Market: A Strategic Analysis Adrienne Lee Richard Linowes Spring 2009 General University Honors 5/6/2009 1 WHOLE FOODS MARKET: Strategic Company Analysis EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Whole Foods Market, Inc. has long been admired as an innovative company with quality standards, a devotion to community and environmental responsiveness, a healthy growth model and highly-regarded employment practices. However, the company has faced recent difficulties as a result of the economic recession, increasing competition, and complications from acquisitions. To revitalize the company from historical lows in its toughest year in history, Whole Foods Market must reassess its costs, refocus its expansion strategies, and promote its brand to compete for the diminishing consumer spending dollar. During the changes in strategic initiatives, it is also important for the company to keep Whole Foods Market’s mission and its brand value intact. The chain is known for its high standards, quality, and ethical practices; this image is at stake when any changes in brand or reputation are made. It is of utmost importance to balance the positioning in order to increase awareness and sales, but at the same time avoid diminishing the brand and message of the company. Without the value behind the Whole Foods brand, the company will not survive—recession or not. If Whole Foods can successfully complete these initiatives that include major restructuring while also generating public relations...
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...1. Does the company’s strategy reflect the company’s mission? Explain. Whole Food’s mission is based on three categories, the food, the people and the planet. They believe in providing natural whole foods through highly trained and passionate employees with the company taking active responsibility for the planet. It is apparent, when examining the company, that their business practices reflect their mission. Using their Product Quality Standards documents as a guideline, it is clear Whole Foods carefully considers which products they do or do not sell. Their buyers often visit the manufacturing plants of suppliers to ensure high standards. In addition to their commitment of only carrying foods that are “free of artificial preservatives, colors, flavors, sweeteners and hydrogenated fats” (Whole Foods Market, 2012), they also maintain a list of unacceptable ingredients which include standards like “artificial colors, artificial flavors, hydrogenated fats and high fructose corn syrup” (Whole Foods Market, 2012) and they do not carry products that contain those ingredients. Within the store, Whole Foods takes a team based approached to individual store management and success. Team members are organized around team leaders, which are responsible and empowered to make decisions such as merchandising and operations. Team members are also provided with other avenues for feedback such as an annual survey on employee benefit packages and survey on team leaders. Employees...
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...Unit 5-Whole Food Market Case Study Analysis Kaplan University School of Business MT460 Management Policy and Strategy Author: Andrea Reed Professor: Dr. Marian Leerburger Date: November 21, 2012 Whole Food Market Case Analysis Introduction In 1978, John Mackey opened a natural foods grocery called Safer Way that focused mainly on vegetables. The store was not very successful and in 1979 Mackey joined with Craig Weller and Mark Skiles and they started Whole Foods Market. What Craig, Weller and Skiles wanted to do was change the world’s diet to a healthy one. Whole Foods not only has markets they have several other business; Allegro Coffee company, Pigeon cove seafood processing and Produce Field Inspection Office and Select Fish (Harasta and Hoffman, 2007). Whole Food Markets looks forward to one day providing the highest quality good tasting foods available. Synopsis of the Situation Whole Foods Market is a leading seller of natural and organic food. With over 100 stores their goal is to become one large store instead of a number of small ones. Whole Foods Market would like to make shopping for food into a pleasant, fun experience. It is the desire of Whole Foods to make the customer think of home when they enter one of their markets. The vision of Whole Foods is to have a brand known worldwide, and to introduce the future generation to a healthy diet and be the best in food retail( Key Issues With the growing demand will World Food Market be able to...
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...Whole Foods Market, Inc. (Whole Foods Market or 'the company') is a natural and organic foods supermarket chain that operates through several wholly owned subsidiaries. The company's supermarkets are located in the US, Canada and the UK. It is headquartered in Austin, Texas and employs 64,200 people, of which 13,300 are part-time employees and 2,700 are temporary employees. The company recorded revenues of $10,107.8 million during the financial year ended September 2011 (FY2011), an increase of 12.2% over FY2010. The operating profit of the company was $547.6 million in FY2011, an increase of 25% over FY2010. The net profit was $342.6 million in FY2011, an increase of 42.5% over FY2010. Strengths Whole Foods Market is the world’s leading retailer of natural and organic foods and America’s first national “Certified Organic” grocer. The company is the 10th largest food retailer overall. This is an attractive company to work for as Whole Foods has been named by Fortune Magazine as one of the “100 Best Companies to Work For” in the U.S. for 15 consecutive years. Whole Foods has a strong focus on creating the right size for their stores. The company is focused on the right sized store for each location. Since FY2008, the company has downsized 20 leases by an average of 13,000 square feet each. They reduced approximately 1.4 million square feet from its development pipeline, downsizing 20 leases for stores in development and terminating an additional 22 leases...
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...CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION The term paper is based on different types of works of a Super Shop named Whole Foods. There are nine types of jobs given in the question without any job title; it says what the jobholders need to do, and what requirements the jobholders need to have. We need to assign titles to each job and do job descriptions and job specifications for all the job positions, and conduct Job Evaluation of all the jobs using the Point Method. To do the point method we need to identify and define the compensable factors on which we will do the evaluation, then justify why we have chosen those factors, decide the scale for the factors, assign weight to the factors, then justify why we gave such weight. At last, from the result, we need to prepare a job structure. 1. Objective: The objective of the report is to have the real time experience of preparing the following things: ✓ Job Description ✓ Job Specification ✓ Job Evaluation by using Point Method ✓ Job Structure. We have prepared these things from information provided from Whole Foods Market. 2. Scope: The report contains detail job description, job specification, job evaluation using Point method of Whole Foods market. And from the results of job evaluation, we have prepared the job structure. It helped us to develop these things by our own which would help us later in our jobs. ...
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...Case Study Assignment One (1) Student name: _Noria Hadfeg_ MGT- 3620- Organizational Behavior Prof. Castro WHOLE FOODS MARKETS Pages: 534-538 Case Questions 1. How would you assess the emotional intelligence of Mackey? -He is known for being casual, opinionated, and very direct. On a scale of CEO directness, Mackey might rate an 8 or 9 . On a scale of CEO competitiveness, he is off the charts as judged by most observers. Current and calculating, forthright and aloof, humble and arrogant, good-natured and prickly, rebellious and open-minded, and impatient and impetuous. Mackey calls himself pro-customer but acknowledges that he runs a store with higher profit margins and prices, often than almost any other grocer. 2. How would you evaluate Mackey in relation to model of goal setting and performance? Identify specific behaviors and decisions to assess Mackey with respect to the dimensions of this model. Mackey is a strong supporter of free market economics. He is one of the most influential advocates in the movement for organic food. Mackey is a major philanthropist who has contributed up to $1 million a year to animal welfare groups and other charities. 3. What model of leadership does Mackey best represent? Identify specific examples of Mackey’s behaviors and decisions to support your interpretation. Transactional leadership model, involves motivating and directing followers primarily through appealing to their own self-interest...
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...Organizational Behavior 18 February 2013 Belief and Support of Human Capital: Case Study Analysis of Whole Foods What role, if any, does McGregor’s Theory Y play at Whole Foods? Explain? The primary focus of this case study analysis shall be to examine the methods of Whole Food’s distinctive approach and development to the implementation of creative management strategies and how they can continue to successfully help them to maintain growth in their company. The underscoring premise of McGregor’s Theory Y primarily rest on the assumption that that the role of management is develop the potential of their employees and help them to realize their potential to meet the common goals of their organization (Steward, 2010). With this underlining thought in mind McGregor’s Y Theory plays an intricate and crucial role at Whole Foods. According to our textbook, Organizational Behavior, by Robert Kreitner and Angelo Kinicki, and the company’s primary mission directives, Whole Foods goal is for upper management to share the responsibility with their frontline managers in the development of a successful work environment (Kreitner & Kinicki, 2013, p. 30). Whole foods promotes their employee teams to be self-directed and take initiative and responsibility for operating together for the benefit of their entire business organization. To this end John Mackey, Cofounder and Co-CEO of Whole Foods Market promotes through the application of McGregor’s Theory Y the happiness and growth of all employees...
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...“Corporations should not exist for purposes other than simply maximizing profits”. What is the purpose for a operating a business? On most of the investors’ perspective, a business indisputably is a tool for gaining profits. However, after a business has been established, its stakeholders are no simply the owners or investors themselves but also the customers, employees, suppliers and the outer society that will be affected by the conduct of the company. To make a response to the statement, “Corporations should not exist for purposes other than simply maximizing profits”, I studied two articles written by Milton Friedman and two responses written by John Mackey, the CEO and founder of the Whole Foods Market. In Friedman’s point of view, Friedman believes that “The social responsibility is to increase its profit.” Whereas, Mackey argues that “the enlightened corporation should try to create value for all of its constituencies”. I agree with Mackey’s statement. I think once a corporation is developed, there is a responsibility to value for all its stakeholders other than solely maximizing profits for its investors. Of course, I am not suggesting that making profits to the business is not important; indeed it is just as important, because if you are not making profits to your establishment, you are being irresponsible to the shareholders. However, in a business, we must not be always egocentric; there are multiple stakeholders in a business therefore there is also a responsibility...
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... Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s Comparison Report | A report that compares two health food stores to see if they are true to their company’s core values. | This report attempts to explore the mechanism of two health food stores – Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s. Included in this report will be the similarities and differences of each store and the quality of each store’s mission statement. This account will also determine how the mission statement defines or does not define each organization and how it drives strategic decisions. Contained in this report will be a detailed recommendation to the leadership team to improve the quality of each store’s mission statement. There will also be a discussion of each store’s vision statement, determining if they are both headed in the same direction and why. By analyzing both stores’ mission and vision statements, information will be obtained to show how each store relates to their customers, employees and stakeholders. Both stores present store mottos that express what they will give to their customers. Trader Joe’s motto is “Great Food, Great Prices, Great Choices.” This means Trader Joe’s will give their customers exotic foods, like buffalo burgers and cookie butter, at a remarkable price. Trader Joe’s succeeds in elevating routine grocery shopping to a Tiki-themed cultural adventure (McNeal, p. 41). While, Whole Food’s is intent on giving their customers more than just a supply of foodstuff, because their motto is “Whole Food...
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