McDonald’s announced this Thursday that starting early 2014, fruit and salad side dishes will be included into its Value-Meal. This decision foreshadows a series of others that is yet to come.

When analyzing an established company in relation to its environment, the Porter’s 5-Forces is an excellent tool. The quick service restaurant business is unstable since the barrier to entry is low. The profit margin is already at its thinnest, so slashing prices is not an option. to maintain its competitive advantage McDonald’s must seek product improvement and differentiation. Most likely, it  has realized through industry sales reports that its customers (who have absolute buyer power) are slowly moving away from “high calorie foods” in the US. The proposed changes will help differentiate McDonald’s from its main competitors in the race to offer healthier menu options.

However these early promises lack both impact and speed, and McDonald’s should really consider ramping up its commitments swiftly. Promoting healthy products will likely have minimal effect on the sales of its traditional goods which rely primarily on brand loyalty and cultivated tastes. The faster McDonald’s can “own” the image of a healthy yet hearty fast food, the stronger it will be in the future restaurant scene.

In the last quarter, Canada Post reported a $104 million loss in revenue. The chief culprit?  The Crown Corp readily points to the drop in transaction (paper) mails over the past decade. Not so fast! Perhaps the real problem lies in the company’s incompetent accounting and operations management.

Since the Digital Revolution swept through the Canadian households in the last decade, Canadians have rapidly taken up emails as the default means of communication. Canada Post’s management accounting must have foreseen the doom of its traditional business model from the revenue trends. Being based 51% on transaction mail meant low margins but heavy costs – vehicles, retail locations, and mailmen. However, they failed to communicate the urgency of this situation.

Image taken from CBC news

After years of revenue dip, finally Canada Post announced their plan for a makeover. The decision is to shift the main focus toward parcel delivery to capitalize on the growth of e-commerce. At the same time transaction mail services will be downsized.

The lesson here is simple,  if the values offered don’t align closely with the values sought by consumers, then the company model must be changed, and changed fast. Waiting is not a viable solution.

Not every business practice can be neatly classified as either ethical or immoral. A recent article published on Fortune by Roger Parloff discusses the current issue of insider trading in the US. Whenever a shareholder trades stocks “based on material nonpublic information” (Parloff, 2013), he is participating in insider trading. Nevertheless, there is actually no federal statute directly addressing this practice. As much as insider trading is often ethically grey, the regulations regarding it are just as murky.

Fortune Magazine Cover

The question becomes: where does ambitious research end and insider trading begin? It’s imperative to keep in mind that analysts are always searching for competitive advantages against rivaling firms. While not all of them would dare to blatantly and illegally procure non-public material from corporate executives, some do seek out, say, ordinary employees for casual feeds. And in a sense they must, or else they risk losing their edge against more aggressive competitors.

We argue that these analysts seem to be gaining unfair advantages, but realistically, aren’t all advantages “unfair” to a certain extent? So long as they don’t step into the illegal realm of true insider trading, who are we to question their judgements on ethicality?