Why or why not? The chapter defines global corporate citizenship as committing to serving various stakeholders. I think that Apple did demonstrate good global corporate citizenship. Even though many of the tragedies could have been avoided long before the audits were performed, I think that Apple responded well after learning of the mistreatment of its indirect employees. The company understood that corporate citizenship is increasingly important for their long-term success and took action by commissioning a month-long, independent investigation of the labor conditions at its suppliers’ factories in China.
Credit crunch and recession are great examples of external factors influencing the business. If the people are suffering from recession, they will not have money to spend money and this is how it affects the businesses. The current instability in Iraq is a good example of what may happen to businesses. In business it’s very important to understand, monitor and adapt to the political environment, because it crucially affects every business. Some of the very important factors are: Government stability effects businesses in a great range by competing with businesses to lower their costs, transparency is another important factor where anything the business does is revealed to the government and the government know exactly what they are up to.
They have even recovered costs from waste through scrapping. Their location is greatly beneficial in reaching many potential customers. They are within close proximity of the U.S. Navy, Air Force, Coast Guard, and Gulf Coast municipalities. This is an advantage because of easy communication and transporting resulting in less costs. It also benefits in marketing, as their primary means of marketing is word of mouth, and boat shows.
Knowing the internal and external factors as a manager can make the difference between success and failure of a business. Managers should be flexible when making decisions within an organization. The organization I have selected is my friend’s business, a local automotive shop. His shop is growing and business is very busy. Constant improvements are being made in all areas of his business in order to help it succeed.
Technically, China does have some laws against taking bribes but there is a fine line between bribes and gift giving. It is an acceptable practice to give gifts to the officials that a company works with because it shows respect and that you value their friendship. The problem is that the gifts are becoming more and more expense to ensure the company gets everything that is needed to open a division in their country. The Chinese government is getting more aggressive with cracking down on officials taking bribes in order to fast track business licenses, but there is still a long way to go. According to FCPA, it is illegal in the United States to bribe or accept a bribe in return for favors, and most statewide business will abide by these laws.
During the product life cycle marketing teams must revisit the marketing mix and either reposition the product or get scrap the whole product together. The four stages of the product life cycle include market introduction, market growth, market maturity, and sales decline (Kotler & Keller, 2012). As to the simulation, the product life cycle was still in effect for the Thorr motorcycles. There were many customers that would remain loyal to the brand and product as well as those that felt that the Thorr brand represented a type of life style that wanted or enjoyed. Because the product was in the market maturity, the perception of the brand was very positive which required the marketing team to keep the price the same but introduce it to a younger age group and offer product
By earning international acclaim for the plastic bottle designs will give Riordan manufacturing the reputation as a leader in the plastic bottle manufacturing industry. The use of computer aided manufacturing will enable Riordan to reduce the cost of producing plastic bottles and will limit the amount of usage of labor from human operators with the further use of the Computer Aided Manufacturing (CAM) system will reorder parts automatically and update information to the machines instantly while creating a consistent product. This makes both requirements mandatory for manufacturer ideal. (www.bestpricecomputers.co.uk,
Gap Analysis: Riordan Riordan Manufacturing opened a production facility in China. Because it flourished, Riordan's CEO wanted to add another facility. By adding another facility, Michael Riordan hopes to provide the company with additional international opportunities. The competition in China results in a lack of skilled labor; however, labor from nearby countries is available to Riordan Manufacturing. Using workers from these other countries requires Riordan Manufacturing to consider cross-cultural issues.
Hiringthe foreign workers may interfere with the policies of China¶s political and legal environment.Prior to Riordan¶s plans to expand the facility in Hangzhou and hire additional foreignworkers, the management should consider the political and legal climates of China to eliminateinterference with the goals of the company. China is a communist state but embraces a freemarket economy (Hodgetts, Luthans, & Doh, 2005). Presently the political environment is stablein comparison to Latin America or the Middle East (Hodgetts, Luthans, & Doh, 2005). However,Riordan needs to investigate thoroughly the legal and regulatory aspects of expanding the facilityand hiring foreign workers in China.The legal and regulatory environment in China needs investigating. Planning to expandthe Hangzhou facility must be approved by the government.
Fords benefits from unionization because the union contracts can be negotiated and any work issues can be resolved, such as workplace safety, wages, and benefits. As a unionized company, the management at Ford will also benefit from UAW to keep its workers online to avoid low productivities. Another benefit of Ford Motors as unionized company is employees work satisfaction because of high wages, more fair practices, and guaranteed employments that leads to less company turnover. With the recent economic downturn many American businesses suffered losses, but with the help of the UAW Ford could overcome the economic barriers. In 2011 Ford and UAW agreed on a new contract approving profit sharing and signing bonuses in lieu of annual pay raises in setting the wages and benefits for 112,000 workers.