Battling Boycotts Essay Example for Free

Battling Boycotts Essay 1) Question: What type of boycotts the article is addressing? Answer: The type for the boycott is the company’s nationality, it would seem that nothing could be done. The business is boycotted through no fault of its own. And a growing class of boycotts has very little to do with the actions or policies of an individual company. Instead they are related to the company’s country of origin. After all, it is neither easy nor desirable to change the nationality of a company to shield it from a boycott attempt. 2) Question: What are the two dimensions along which the four strategies are developed? Explain? Answer: The two dimensions along which the four strategies are developed are: the visibility of the brand and the intensity of the boycott. Brand visibility is defined as an extent to a brand which is related to a country in its customers’ minds all over the world. The more visible the brand, the more likely it is to be targeted by boycotters. In people’s eyes, visibility is very important. For example, the brand is very popular in a given country where the customers don’t strongly consider about its original country. However, another situation is that, the foreign brand is associated with a country in customers’ minds. Intensity can be measured in terms of size, duration and aggressiveness. Size which means how many people are boycotting the brand or product. Duration refers to how long the boycott is likely to continue. And aggressiveness takes into account whether, in addition to boycotting products, violent acts are conducted against the outlets or offices of the company being boycotted. 3) Question: What strategies does the article suggest for businesses to adopt to handle boycotts of this type? Answer: The strategies that the article suggest for businesses to adopt to handle boycotts of this type are: emphasizing their connections to the local community, to countering misinformation with advertising and public-relations campaigns, to simply adopting a low profile. McDonald’s is a high-visibility U.S. brand that has faced boycotts in different parts of the world. An anti-U.S. boycott was initiated in Egypt in recent years and has spread to other Arab countries. This action was because of the supporting to Israel by U.S.. Thus, local McDonald established some management to connect with their communities including tailoring menus to local tastes, including the introduction by McDonald’s Egypt of the McFalafel sandwich, which was launched with the help of an ad jingle by a famous Egyptian singer. McDonald’s franchisees in the Middle East and elsewhere also have long made contributions to local charities. What’s more, McDonald’s franchisees also presented a local face in Islamic countries, Argentina, and the Philippines, such as launched TV ads, wore traditional clothing, changed slogan and set charitable programs. For P&G, they also changed logo and set some slogans to respond quickly to the rumors. In the case of a high-visibility brand facing a low-intensity boycott we suggest a strategy of monitoring and blending in. in a high-intensity boycott environment, a company with low visibility may be better off adopting a strategy of lowering its profile, rather than actively trying to offset any potential damage by touting its local connections. For example, a Saudi furniture store in Khobar that sells American furniture has tried lowering its visibility by changing its name from the Saudi-American Furniture Store to the Saudi Furniture Store. Because furniture isn’t often distinctly associated with countries in the public mind, at least in the Middle East. A low-visibility company in a low-intensity boycott environment can simply maintain the status quo. But, they still must pay attention to the potential threats. 4) Question: In your opinion, what can companies do to influence their home governments policies that may affect their success in international markets? Answer: In my point of view, I think we can not leave our own national interests in dealing with foreign affairs of other countries. Of course, we are not only talking about the national interests, but also the fact of reason in a rational and favorable circumstances to select the struggle strategy. In addition, we must also realize that, in today’s globalization economic, countries in economic are interdependent which is extremely popular. To be successful, there are some factors. First, they must make sure they have an appropriate team, such as the CEO, the CFO, legal counsel, auditors, accounting. Then, they have to fit the actual schedule and the host countries’ customs. Secondly, they need to know some of the weaknesses in their own businesses, identify problems that may arise in other countries, employ a high-quality team, and improve operational efficiency. Finally, there is a high level of management support. Battling Boycotts. (2016, Sep 10).

Social Justice and Corporate Social Responsibility Essay

Social Justice and Corporate Social Responsibility - Essay Example The European Commission defines CSR as "a concept whereby companies integrate social and environmental concerns in their business operations and their interaction with their stakeholders on a voluntary basis." (A Business Contribution to Sustainable Development. n.d.) In an article by John Richardson (2008) pointed out that a company is said to be socially responsible if "it conducts itself reasonably with respect to: the workers it employs around the world; its investors as manifested in its corporate governance practices; local communities in which it operates; how it conducts itself ethically ion its domicile country and in other countries around the world; the environment" (section 2). The CSR is also advocated by authorities mainly because of the fact that CSR principles are in conformity with social justice. The essence CSR lies in the fulfillment of social justice to the various stakeholders. The companies, therefore, are socially obliged to deal with the societal, ecological and economical issues so that all the stakeholders including shareholders are satisfied and eventually results in economic sustainability. A firm which has obligations only towards its shareholders is socially irresponsible and will no longer survive in the modern corporate environment. This approach is not advisable as indicated by 'stakeholder theory' propounded by R. Edward Freeman. In one of his papers, he writes that "corporations shall be managed in the interests of its stakeholders, defined as employers, financiers, customers, employees, and communities." (Carson L. Thomas. 2003, page. No.1). The recent years have experienced many such cases which shocked the entire corporate world, which, later on, became the lessons for the rest in future. Enron Collapse The failure of Enron, the world Energy Giant, is an unforgettable incident in the history of corporate world. The company which became the seventh largest one in the United States of America in just 15 years has become the by-word for corporate irresponsibility. The issues raised were misrepresentation of accounting information, which resulted in unfair accounting, lobbying with politicians and misappropriation of employee savings. The profit figure shown by the company was not true and fair and company's massive debts were concealed from the financial statement. The company had political lobbying with many legislators and the highly paid executives pocketed the life savings of thousands of its employees. What made Enron to socially irresponsible even though it had taken some steps to adhere to CSR The self-interest. The company had not tried to strictly adhere to the guidelines of CSR. Rather, it tried to window dress its financial statements so as to achieve huge market support and high prestige and thereby protecting the interest of shareholders and a few executives. The Enron collapse taught the corporate community a lesson about which Sims responds (2003) "How a Failure of Leadership, Culture, and Unethical Behavior Brought a Giant to Its Knees" (p. 147) Apart from Enron collapse, corporates like Arthur Andersen, Philip Morris and Union Carbide also fell in the category of socially irresponsible companies. Arthur Andersen case is closely associated with Enron for which the former was the auditor. In the accounting scam

GE and Employee Training Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2250 words

GE and Employee Training - Essay Example As the discussion stresses a company can lay out significant amounts of money on training and teaching individuals in order to make them capable enough to be mangers. Yet the same individuals can leave the company soon after their training is complete to take up positions elsewhere. Effectively, what the company has done is to provide trained professionals to the competition which may not be in the best interest of the company. Additionally, any time which the human resources spend in training is time which is taken away from their other functions. These other functions have a direct impact on the bottom line but training is something which will only present results after a certain amount of delay.This paper highlights that to show the importance of internalising the training function and some of the ways to include it as a part of management, the example of GE is used since GE is one of the most admired companies in the world in terms of its management systems. These management syst ems include the concept of employee training and the development of human resources as a central part of the equation because GE uses training for a lot more than simply improving the HR.  The selection of GE as a focused company for this paper is important because GE has been used as an example of how a company should operate by many different analysts. By making training the primary function of HR, both Wilson and Welch show how the agreement between theory and practice helps a company become stronger than the competition.