(+) Business and Ethics Part 2

(+) Business and Ethics (Part 2)

Previously mentioned in 01. Business and Ethics, McDonald’s advertisements and marketing strategies that target children may not be considered unethical since the firm may not be responsible for the high children obesity rate. However, the value propositions of McDonalds, including “quality, service, cleanliness and value for every customer, every time” (McDonald’s), may be incompatible with its advertisements since the value of their customers may be health. That indicates McDonald’s is responsible for promoting and offering healthy food products. Furthermore, value-based management requires strategies that do not take advantage of vulnerable people, including the children who have been targeted by McDonald’s advertisements; most of the children are unable to critically judge the quality of the products and thus are vulnerable to the advertisements.

Producing products to increase profit is critical to business management, yet it should not be the primary purpose of the business. Value-based management suggests that ethical and value proposition consideration is essential in business management as it not only benefits its customers through delivering its value propositions, but also benefits the firm by increasing revenue. Business should be the method of benefiting the both parties, but not the one which benefits and harms the other party.

References:

Picture published in August 10, 2013 by Mark Wheatley: http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/08/10/how-ethical-is-your-big-data/got-ethics/

Silver, David. Introduction to Business Ethics. September 2013. Powerpoint.

McDonald’s. McDonald’s. 2013.( http://www.mcdonalds.ca/ca/en/our_story/values_in_action.html). September 2013.