PRINCIPLES OF RESPONSIBLE COMMERCE (COMM 101) TUTORIAL PREPARATION WEEK 3 NAME: Chang Yee How UOW NUMBER: 4387296 Case Study: Ford Pinto 1. What moral issues does the Pinto case raise? The Pinto case brought up issue of abusing human rights and behaved unethically in business. Ford had the design to reduce the possibility of Ford Pinto from exploding. However, the company refused to implement it, although it can prevent 180 deaths from happening at a cost of $11 per car according to the cost-benefit analysis.
By expand mass customization capabilities; companies can achieve a competitive advantage by delivering unique product according to customers’ wants and needs while still maintaining the cost efficiency of large-scale production. Besides, Canadian firms are also encouraged to capitalize on market niches through many offerings which include specialized products, and the ability to provide customers solution that can focus on products and services. In addition, Canadian manufacturers are considering multiple locations for critical operation so that they can avoid supply chain interruptions and increase their level of responsiveness and dependability. (International Markets, 2012) However, according to the Canadian Chamber of Commerce’s conclusion after comparing Canada’s performance with emerging
Lee Iacocca, who was in charge of the development of the Pinto, had specifications for the design of the car that were uncompromisable. These specifications were that "the Pinto was not to weigh an ounce over 2,000 pounds and not cost a cent over $2,000." Any modifications, even if it did provided extra safety for the customer that brought the car closer to the Iacocca’s limits were rejected. A report was prepared for NHTSA by consultant; Eugene Trisko entitled "A National Survey of Motor Vehicle Fires." His report indicates that the Ford Motor Company makes 24 percent of the cars on the American road, yet these cars account for 42 percent of the collision-ruptured fuel tanks.
The EV 1 was also fairly pricey so many people were not interested. Another killer of the electric car was the car companies. General Motors only made a certain amount because of the Zero Emissions Mandate (ZEM) was born. It required 2% of new vehicles sold in California to be emission-free by 1998, 10% by 2003. General Motors knew that this mandate would not last long, and they were more interested in selling gasoline cars.
Conventional wisdom has it that certain traits are (in the aggregate) inherent in American culture (and hence economic behavior). It's unthinkable that car consumers will choose fuel economy over "performance" (except of course as a passing fad in reaction to gasoline price spikes). It's common knowledge that no middle class American will choose to take the bus to work. It's assumed that commuting in America will always be done in private automobiles, most often one person per car. A similar logic is deployed around more generic questions of energy policy.
They are unable to determine the consumption of electricity by an average consumer based on what is being supplied to their consumers by them. The companies require consumption to distribution ratio information in order to develop a more efficient approach for electricity distribution. Furthermore, a customer may be consuming more electricity than required without knowing which could lead into high costs and less reliability. The customers are not able to get help from their provider if they are having problems with their electricity. The technology used for the Smart grids is more advanced compared to Canada’s current electricity infrastructure.
Task 1 P1 Describe the type of business, purpose and ownership of two contrasting organisations. In the first of a series of articles Helen Lyne looks at two contrasting business organisations that operate in the North West How different can two organisations be? The first business I will look at is Ford Motor Company .Ford is an international car manufacturing company that has been in business since 1903 and was founded in America by a man called Henry Ford, initially set up in Detroit. Ford soon became dominant in Americas manufacturing industry and at the time was one of America’s largest employers. With new efficient and cheap methods of production like the ‘production line’ Ford’s products (cars) became cheaper than anyone else’s and the Ford business soon came to Europe and other places around the globe.
With a strong Canadian economy and a higher influx of business travelers, particularly from the US, flight demands will continue to rise. The business expansions from the US into the Canadian market place (retail and finance at the forefront) make it particularly attractive for frequent business travel with such close geographic proximity. These factors combined with lower governmental regulations then other places in the world make it attractive for new entrants to take the risk of launching into the pool. If a new entrant is able to break into the market offering lower rates then it could pose a significant threat to an already competitive pool. Porter airlines can be an example of how a niche small airline can come into a competitive market and steal market share from a dominant national like Air Canada.
It is all too easy for a business to remain with what has always worked in the past. It is important to constantly assess who their customers are and offer what will appeal to them. The political context of the recession has also decreased the amount of trade, we are told in the case study that ‘the business faced an increasingly threatening external environment as the economy moved into recession.’ Customers are becoming more concerned with the corporate social responsibility, this is possibly one of the reasons that certain coffee house chains were taking customers from Lodge Bistro, Costa Coffee for example make it very clear they support the developing world, they state on their website that ‘We're committed to looking after our coffee-growers. That's why in 2006, we set up the Costa Foundation.’ As ‘the role of business is primarily economic’ Preston, D., Fryer, M., Watson, G. (2012) P28, it is important to keep the stakeholders in the form of Joyce Lodge and other investors happy by continuing to make a profit. In order
First of all, GM has shed nearly $40 billion in obligations to become debt-free. This gives GM a huge advantage competing with companies which did not bailout and is still paying off it borrowed to survive such as Ford. Second of all, GM is achieving a healthy margin. GM cut incentives and slim down. This movement causes a decline on sale but help company keep margin.