Byte Products is a leading manufacturer of specialized electronic components used in computers for business and engineering. With their main headquarters located in the Midwest, they are the largest volume supplier with 32% of the market and an industry leader with annual sales of $265 million and for the last six years sales have been increasing every year an average of 12%. Operating at its maximum capacity, Byte has three facilities in the United States and they are all running three 8 hour shifts, 24 hours a day. The increasing demand for the computer components, has created an immediate need to increase production but Byte lacks the physical space to do so. With competitors entering the market due to high profit margin and consumer demand, Byte fears that buyers will go elsewhere if the demand is not available. THESIS…..
Strategic Alternatives
Stakeholders
Stakeholders are those that have an interest in the business and are directly or indirectly affected by the success of the company’s objectives. In any one strategic decision, the interests of one stakeholder group can conflict with those of another. Analysis of the company’s relations with its stakeholders, provides conclusions based on how Byte engages in corporate social responsibility. Specific stakeholders of focus are on employees, customers, government, suppliers, shareholders, community, and competitors.
Employees
In relation to corporate social responsibility, the employees of Byte Products Inc. are affected directly by the operations of business. In the expansion of the company to meet market demands, Byte’s employees carry out a significant role. Without their initiative and drive for success, the company would not be able to provide electronic components at a re...
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...g a solution to maximize demand, than by the impact of closing the plant in three years for the Plainville community and stakeholders.
Milton Friedman’s traditional view of business addresses that the responsibility of a business is to solely maximize profit. He believes,
“There is one and only one social responsibility of business – to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud” (Wheelan & Hunger, 2012, p. 72).
Byte Products, Inc. is an example led by Friedman’s theory because its main priority is to maximize profit, by increasing the supply of computer components. Byte is not concerned with the hardships the community of Plainville will encounter if the temporary plant is left abandoned in three years.
company should be, which the answer is to make money. The book is about transforming
Both Milton Friedman’s and John Hook’s primary purpose is persuading the audience. However, while John Hook tries to convince audience that ethics are necessary for business, Milton Friedman tries to induce them to that one and only purpose of business is to increase and maximize profits.
Milton Friedman’s view is that in a capitalist economy, there is one and only one responsibility of business: to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits. Business does not have a social responsibility to promote desirable social ends. A corporation is an artificial person. The corporate executive is the agent of the individuals who own the business and their main responsibility is to them. The directors of companies have a fiduciary responsibility to act in the best interest of the shareholders. The managers are agents of the shareholders and therefore have a moral obligation to manage the firm in the interest of the shareholders, which obviously is to make as much money as possible and maximize shareholder wealth. The shareholders are the owners of the organization and therefore the profits belong to them. In conclusion, Friedman believes that business is to maximize profits. He suggested a healthy corporation has to be not only ethically good, but also being economically good. Overall, as he stated in the article, business must gain profit without break the rules of game (D. Murphy, Class Lecture, January 17, 2014)
The Hefty Hardware case study presents multiple critical issues that will impact both short-term and long-term growth and development of the company. The first issue is the communication gap and lack of integration between stakeholders in business and the Information Technology division. The second critical issue is the lack of shared knowledge and each department working on projects in essentially silos. The third critical issue is internal company politics driving the executive-level decision making process. Solutions to the above issues will need to be addressed with utmost urgency to ensure Hefty Hardware’s foothold in the marketplace.
Hence, the stakeholders which are described as those who are affected by the organisation performance ,actions and duties and those actions includes employees, clients, local community and investors as well. The theory of stakeholders also suggests that it is the responsibility of firm to make sure no rights of stakeholders are dishonoured and make decisions in the interest of stakeholders which is also the purpose of stakeholder theory to make more profit and balancing it while considering its stakeholders (Freeman 2008 pp. 162-165). In the other words organisation must also operates in a more socially accountable approach by carrying out corporate social responsibility as (CSR) activities.
“There is only one and only one social responsibility of business- to use its resources and engage in activities designated to increase its profits so long as it decides to stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.”
Every business has a social responsibility toward society. That means to maximize positive affects and minimize negative affects on the society. Social responsibilities includes economic-to produce goods and services, that society needs at the price, that satisfy both-business and consumers, legal responsibility-laws that business must obey, ethical responsibilities-behaviors and activities that are expected of business by society, but are not codified in the law, philanthropic responsibilities-represent the company’s desire to give back to society (charietys, volunteering, sponsoring).
The corporate social responsibility is a commitment by a business to contribute to economic development while improving the quality of life for employees and their families’ as-well as contributing to the society. Walmart is a well-known company that offers customers the items they want and need at a low cost, with nearly 4,000 stores in the United States. According to the Fortune 500, Walmart was ranked number 1 in 2015. Just like any other superstore Walmart needs to continue the use of social responsibility by recreating a relationship between business and the community especially if they want to dominate the competition in 2016. The use of sustainability, strategic philanthropy, causing market, shared values, stakeholders and global perspective will help readers understand the purpose of social responsibilities in the corporate world.
An organization’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) drives them to look out for the different interests of society. Most business corporations undertake responsibility for the impact of their organizational pursuits and various activities on their customers, employees, shareholders, communities and the environment. With the high volume of general competition between different companies and organizations in varied fields, CSR has become a morally imperative commitment, more than one enforced by the law. Most organizations in the modern world willingly try to improve the general well-being of not only their employees, but also their families and the society as a whole.
Milton Friedman presents a compelling argument in “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase Profits” by arguing that businesses need to focus only on increasing their profits and integrating social responsibility will only hurt them as a company. Since “only people can have responsibilities” (Friedman 52), Friedman argues that businesses as a whole do not have any type of real responsibilities because there is not a singular person for these responsibilities to fall on. Corporate executives are people as well and may feel they have social responsibilities to society but these “are the social responsibilities of individuals, not of business” (51). In terms of corporations, the businessmen are the ones that hold the responsibility of the company. Friedman argues that the only responsibility these managers hold is to those who own the corporation, the shareholders. If the individuals themselves want to contribute to social responsibility they must do it with their own money in their personal lives, but they should not use social responsibility in
Carroll (1979) states, “business encompasses the economic, legal, ethical and discretionary expectations that society has of organization at a given point in time”.
Stakeholders want to be associated with socially responsible companies, and as such expect them to adhere to a certain standard of behaviour in order to gain their trust. Companies are under strong pressure to behave ethically. They have to earn a ‘license to operate’.
The XYZ Corporation was established in 2004 and their main office is located in Vancouver, BC. The company’s main objective is to create new innovating technology for media devices, computers, and digital music players. They deal with the design, manufacturing and marketing of the products. XYZ Corporation has been providing Canadians with groundbreaking technology throughout the years and continues to create new technology to provide others with top-level technology. Although, recently their success rate has appeared to drop rapidly due to a number of factors that will be explored throughout this case study. Their main objective is to target the problems so that they can work towards having the issues resolved as quickly as possible. If they do not take any course of action, the state of the company may be in extreme danger. This case study is designed to explore the areas of the company and discover the problems blocking the XYZ Corporation from success.
Corporate Social Responsibility is an organisation’s obligation to serve the company’s own interest and the one’s of the society. Moreover, Corporate Social Responsibility has a definition of a concept where the companies integrate social and the environmental concerns into their own business operation and also on a basis of voluntary with their interactions they have with the stakeholders. Corporate Social Resp...
Now-a-days it is considered that CSR is one of the major concerns of organization’s business ethics. Companies increasingly increase their corporate social responsibility (CSR) and ethical management accepting the positive impact on the bottom line. The vast bulk of Standard & Poor’s 500 companies publish sustainability reports unfolding their program challenges and achievements. These pre-emptive efforts can pr...