A small company that started off in a garage in Palo Alto, California is now worth (approx.) 450 billion dollars. A company that has sold over ten million iPhone 6s within four days of being released is running marathons around its competitors. Apple also released its new iOS 8 operating system for the older phones and it has already passed Androids latest operating system in downloads which was released October 31^st 2013!

Even for such a large company, those numbers are ridiculously high. The amount of loyalty Apple consumers have to the brand has become a somewhat addiction and there are no signs that this trend will slow. Even though the iPhone 6 is larger and bulkier than its predecessor, eager consumers rushed to line up for the release of the next “genius” Apple product.

http://www.vantagewire.com/2014/09/the-new-iphone-6-watch-apple-pay/

I believe Apple has managed to do something that no company has done before it, that is reduce practicality with the new iPhone 6 plus. The whole point of mobile phones when they were originally released was to be a “handheld” device. The new iPhone 6 plus will stretch that term to its limits as it comes in at a massive 5.5” screen size. People will have trouble placing the phone in their pockets or their hands for that matter. There comes a point where it gets to be enough. Yet the crowds go running when Apple announce its “next big innovation”.

References

“Apple’s IOS 8 Rapidly Overtakes Android’s KitKat In Under Five Days.”Forbes. Forbes Magazine, n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.

“Jay Haynes.” ‘Jay Haynes’ N.p., n.d. Web. 22 Sept. 2014.

http://www.vantagewire.com/2014/09/the-new-iphone-6-watch-apple-pay/

http://mashable.com/2013/10/29/steve-jobs-apple-garage-landmark/

Businesses have the responsibility to “make as much money as possible while conforming to the basic rules of the society” according to Friedman’s article on The Social Responsibility of Business. CVS has chosen to take their business plan another way. As difficult as it may be to see profits dip, they have chosen to eliminate cigarettes from all their stores across the U.S. This decision is “making it harder for people to get access to these harmful products” and allowing CVS to operate ethically in its practice. For a company that plans on expanding its “Minute Clinics” to almost double the amount by 2017, the decision to stop selling cigarettes really is “position[ing] the company for future growth”.

This decision demonstrates CVS’s ability to look past solely the profits and filling the pockets of stockholders and focus on benefiting the community and the other groups part of the Stakeholder theory. They recognize the growing amount of deaths related to smoking and are ready to make a change for the better and improve the society around them. All of this allows them to practice as an ethical business that no longer contradicts itself from the inside-out.

Reference:

Storm,Stephanie. “CVS Vows to Stop Selling Tobacco Products.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 05 Feb. 2014. Web. 10 Sept. 2014.

“Anti-Smoking Campaigns and Tobacco Bans – Goldsboro Daily News – Goldsboro News, NC.” Goldsboro Daily News Goldsboro News NC RSS. N.p., 11 Sept. 2014. Web. 11 Sept. 2014.

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