A Chinese farmer collect eggs at a chicken farm in Hefei in eastern China’s Anhui province in November 2009. (STR/AFP/Getty Images)
Recently, a poultry supplier to fast food chains KFC and MacDonald was discovered to have accelerated the growth speed of chicken by using a chemical called “instant chicken”, which is harmful and can cause health concerns for consumers.
As we know, the fast food chain giants KFC and MacDonald captured most of the market shares of the industry in China. As clear leaders of the industry, KFC and MacDonald multiple scandals including the Sudan food chemical scandal, the illegal cooking oil scandal, and many other food safety concerns would affect the behaviors of other restaurants who look up to them and damage the whole industry’s reputation.
KFC and MacDonald had done lots of great marketing campaigns that can be written or have already been written into case studies for business students to learn from. Being customer-oriented and socially responsible companies have frequently advertised by the two. Disappointingly their profit-driven behavior formed by the stock market and management has caused the company to go across the line and disregard the health of consumers.
It’s much faster for a company to go under than for them to make their way up; as reflected by the share price of Yum! Brands.Inc., the stock price of the company dropped by over 12 percent from the date of the scandal being publicized to today, which is less than a month, due to the loss of sales and loss of people’s confidence about the company.
This ethical issue reminds us the business students that, being unethical is not the good option for operating business. As we can see from the case, just a small mistake made in KFC’s supply chain caused the company billions of dollars. And, it’s important to remember that product safety is highly valued by customers.
http://www.theepochtimes.com/n2/china-news/chinese-kfc-chicken-supplier-in-feed-scandal-319725.html