Question 1: Public Issues, Stakeholders and Expectations * Public issue: Corporate impact on water quality, availability and access around the world * Water is pertinent to Coca Cola because they use 80 billion gallons of water worldwide each year. 2/5 went into finished beverages and the rest went into the manufacturing process: to wash bottles, clean equipment, and provide sanitation for employees. However, Coca-Cola’s extensive use of water adversely impacted the surrounding communities * The Center for Science and the Environment, a think tank in India, charged that Coca Cola products there contained dangerous levels of pesticide residues. * Activists in India charged that the company’s bottling plants used too much water depriving local villagers of supplies for drinking and irrigation * Primary Stakeholders: Coca-Cola, local villagers, non-governmental organizations and India’s government * Expectations v. Performance: Stakeholders expected Coca Cola to use their resources responsibly and to protect consumers from harmful contaminants however, the emergence of pesticide residue in the product along with the depletion of ground water from local villages created a performance-expectation gap, that left Coca Cola fighting to save it’s image Question 2: Strategic Radar model * When applying the strategic radar screens model to this case, the geophysical environment plays a factor here because the company is faced with concerns of how they are using the Earth’s natural resources inefficiently * Another stage that plays a role is the technological environment because there is a need to implement a new system that could save water * The social environment applies in this case because of the concern surrounding the water access was shared among people in the societies where Coca-Cola conducts business * The customer
These roll over accidents resulted in the deaths of at least 174 and injures to more than 700 people. The result of these accidents is that Firestone and Ford became involved in a public relationship battle as each one blamed the other for the accidents. As this battle continued to escalate both companies reputations began to suffer severe damage. This inevitability resulted in the end of a business association that had lasted over one hundred years. 2) Major Overriding Issues/Problems After reading the case study and doing some additions investigation, it appears that both companies had made decisions that contributed to the accidents and the resulting deaths.
"; "Can business have a positive impact on the planet?" Gap Inc. based in San Francisco was one of largest retailers of clothing, accessories, and personal care products. The company revenues were high ($14.5 billion in 2009). In 1999s and early 2000 Gap Inc. was the target of protests by the human rights groups because of its products that were made in sweatshops that are factories where underage, underpaid worker, unsafe working conditions. Rather than denying all of this, Gap stepped up by developing one of the most comprehensive monitoring programs.
Dollar General in owned by Koldberg Kravis Roberts & Co. L.P (KKR) who own more than 79% of all shares in Dollar General. Some argue that part of the reason Dollar General has been so successful as of late is attributed to the economic crisis the United States experience during the second half of the 2000s. Economist believe that consumers will not shop at the Dollar General as much as the economy improves. In an effort to retain their existing customers and recruit new ones as the economy strengthens, Dollar General has begun to stock name brand items. Some analysts also believe that even when the economy improves, your average consumer will still look for ways to save money and continue to frequent the dollar discount stores.
This pollution has since affected their health and has resulted into more cancer deaths, miscarriages, defects in births, dying of livestock and the sick fish. The attempts to solve the problem and prosecute those involved have proven futile since the county‘s judicial system is marred by corruption. The company was required to clean up its mess and pay for the damages. The toxic waste dumped in the area is believed to be of an estimate of 18 billion gallons, and its remains are still present to date.The company that took over the ownership from Texaco was later ordered to pay eighteen billion dollars for the damages. This was to act as the reparations for the
Unlike other organizations, BP was also changing with the dynamics of today’s business environment and was adopting new business strategies and management practices (BP and Verenium announce pivotal biofuels agreement, 2010). With this changing environment, the company faced an accident in the Gulf of Mexico situated in United States of America where 11 workers were dead. This is one of the biggest failures in the history of modern era, which cost near about 43 billion dollar and is continuing. Due to this disaster, company has to pay huge amount of fine to various authorities. This essay discusses about the situations of the company and tries to reveal what are the reasons are responsible for this failure.
This unfortunate choice of Toyota’s incurred a huge cost among taxpayers, whose tax dollars would be utilized to provide $2.3 billion to replace the thousands of lost jobs. “What was the reason behind NUMMI’s closure?” one may ask. Certainly it was not due to slow-selling products, financial troubles, or a deteriorating factory, for Toyota’s Corolla was the second best-selling car in the United States in 2009, and Toyota is the wealthiest automaker in the world. Toyota’s argument was that NUMMI was no longer feasible without General Motors as a partner, but the 15% of production formerly produced by GM could easily be compensated by an increase in production from NUMMI. For a plant that exuded solidarity and had the potential to revolutionize the way cars are created in this country, the closure of NUMMI was more than a mere shock.
According to Bloomberg Business Week, Coca-Cola remains the best globally recognized brand across all industries for years, while Pepsi’s brand ranked number 25 in the year 2008. Thus, Coca-Cola is able to charge premiums for its syrup concentrates due to its larger market shares and better brand name recognition. In order to compete against Coca-Cola and increase revenue, Pepsi has diversified its businesses as I stated above into other markets such as snacks, chips, and breakfast foods, with its core business focusing on soft drinks. Undoubtedly, the company’s strongest and most identifiable brand is indeed Pepsi but it has a certain advantage over Coca-Cola since it is more diversified. On April 9, 2009, Coca-Cola Company reported cash and cash equivalent to be $6,816,000,000 and on December 26, 2009, Pepsi reported cash and cash equivalent to be $3,943,000,000.
Huge initial investment: The high cost of setting up manufacturing plants, transportation channel and distribution channel is a big barrier for new entrants. Coca-Cola has huge market share Economies of scale: Coca-cola enjoy large economies of scale that help in keeping the costs down. A new entrant would not be able to match the cost . The threat of new entrants is considered low in the automobile industry. The industry has been in operation for a relatively long period of time and in several companies, such as Volkswagen and Ford have successfully reached economies of scale.
How has Wal-Mart created value along the supply chain through introduction of sustainable and green supply chains? Wal-Mart, the global retailer has been one of the most successful and most profitable companies in the world, and a large part is due to its supply chain management. Heying and Sanzero (2009) describe it as the cornerstone to the company’s success and a major competitive advantage in the retail/ department store industry. However as successful as the company was, it still had a major issue with environmentalists who saw the company as a vast multinational conglomerate polluting the earth. It was not until in October 2005 that the then CEO of Walmart Lee-Scott decided to lead the multinational company in another direction, and launch a sustainable green strategy in order to dramatically diminish the companies impact on the global environment.