Recently, a large concern in the world has been the deadly disease Ebola, and its effect is not only limited to people or governments, but to firms as well. Ebola presents itself as an unexpected external factor or problem that a company must adhere to within their Model Canvas. This article here states that both WestJet and FlyFrontier have made the appropriate changes to this external factor, such as requiring their employees to wear gloves and masks.

Source: http://assets.nydailynews.com/polopoly_fs/1.1975381.1413397266!/img/httpImage/image.jpg_gen/derivatives/article_970/aptopix-ebola-ohio.jpg

Ebola brings up many ethical issues within a business, such as how they should value and protect their employees or how the ethical expectations of the public will affect the business as a whole. Here, an external factor like Ebola can disrupt business plans, cancelling flights and creating loss of revenue. It can also threaten public image if appropriate measures are not taken, forcing firms to spend more money on employee welfare, money that could have otherwise been spent elsewhere.

Ebola is not the only kind of external factor. Linking to my previous blogs, environmental and cultural issues are also gradually increasing their impacts on business decisions. Running a firm in reality isn’t as simple as one would have thought in theory, as there can be so many external factors that can show up unexpectedly. A good company should be prepared for this and be able to react swiftly to any external changes in society.