Monthly Archives: September 2012

Amidst the global economic downturn, there seems to be no consolation for companies. Plummeting share prices, deepening debt and increasingly dependent workers are one of the main reasons that companies are declaring themselves bankrupt.  There seems to be an industry that hasn’t been affected that significantly by the global recession. That industry is Transportation and Logistics.

People depend on these services to whisk them away to some far off place in hours. Just like a company needs their supplier send them raw goods to be processed.  There is a understanding that without transportation, we wouldn’t be able to survive.

Garuda Indonesia is an Indonesian based Airline with 28,6 % of the domestic market share. Compared to it’s competitors, Garuda Indonesia has the highest growth with up to 10% difference.  Garuda Indonesia has also undergone specific refurbishments as to accommodate the ever growing demand for air travel.

The newest expansion is the re-opening of US and European markets.  After a string of crashes back in 2007, Garuda Indonesia was blacklisted by the EU and that hit the blow with the airline.  In 2009, after deliberations from the EU, Garuda was taken off the black list. And in 2010, Garuda launched it’s first maiden flight–after the hiatus–back to Amsterdam.

The question remains if the expansion that Garuda Indonesia is conducting viable in the long run or will it cause Garuda to go back into recession. Whatever the answer, Garuda is a testament that an airline–or company–can be at the top of their game if they have a sound business plan and by actually sticking up to those plans.

While most other companies are doing their businesses in a clean manner, Wal-Mart seems to be doing it in a slightly less clean manner.  An article from The New York Times  reports that Wal-Mart Mexico has been bribing officials to get their building licenses.

Wal-Mart is a very large company, encompassing 8,970 stores around the world and expanding more and more. Wal-Mart Mexico is it’s largest subsidiary outside the US.  The problem arises when a senior Wal-Mart lawyer received an alarming e-mail from a former executive. In the e-mail and follow-up conversations, the former executive described how Wal-Mart de Mexico had orchestrated a campaign of bribery to win market dominance. In its rush to build stores, he said, the company had paid bribes to obtain permits in virtually every corner of the country.

Wal-Mart dispatched investigators to Mexico City, and within days they found evidence of widespread bribery. They found a paper trail of hundreds of suspected payments totaling more than $24 million. They also found documents showing that Wal-Mart de Mexico’s top executives not only knew about the payments, but had taken steps to conceal them from Wal-Mart’s headquarters in Bentonville, Ark.

In my opinion, the main issue in this article is the fact that Wal-Mart de Mexico has gone to such lengths to hide the evidence of their infarction.  Bribery is also a breach of business ethics. Businesses, should run in a clean, respectable and reputable manner in which all parties can be accounted for their actions. This news story has showed us how businesses can easily get what they want, whenever they want. Moreover, many competitors who do not use bribes to get government approval may be at a losing side. Wal-Mart could potentially run a monopoly on the supermarket scene in Mexico if this continues.

In the end, There are many companies that pride themselves in their correct business ethics, but in this competitive world, they are becoming very few and far between.

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