Investigation for changing the expiration dates on food resulted in the removal of Chicken McNuggets from the menus of Chinese Mcdonald’s.

The importance of the ethics of a business can be seen recently through McDonald’s decline in sales throughout the year. According to R. Edward Freeman in What is the Stakeholder Theory, the interests of the stakeholders of a business must align in order for the business to succeed. Currently, Mcdonald’s Corp is experiencing their lowest sales record since 2003 and their shares have dropped 6.1% this year.  This drop in sales can largely be attributed to the company’s Chinese meat supplier OSI Group LLC changing the expiration dates on food. In this case, the supplier of the business did not have the best interest of the customers in mind, which caused the customers to shy away from the company’s products. If McDonald’s supplier had not tampered with the food’s expiration dates, the company’s image would not have been negatively affected and the sales of the company may not have declined. Furthermore, the price of McDonald’s shares would not have declined and negatively affected the shareholders of the company. However, I agree with Milton Friedman’s article in stating that it is not always possible for the interests of all stakeholders to be aligned, but as long as the company has socially responsible ethics, they should have no problem maximizing profits.