In Peiqi Zhuang’ blog, she mentioned that McDonald would ends the partnership with Heinz. Competition in the market ended this partnership and replaced Heinz by Brazil-based 3G Capital. She also states that this action taken by McDonald makes both businesses and consumers get impacted. Especially for Heinz that will lose revenue from the reduction in demand. Generally she thinks business should make decision after taking consideration of all the potential results and conflicts that might have on different groups of people.

Personally, I agree with her. For McDonald, changing the ketchup supplier may lower the cost to increase the profit. However, this may also result in disappointing consumers who may decide to switch to other fast food restaurant. Therefore drive down the revenue. In COMM 101 class, we learned the concept of “stakeholders” which are people or groups of people who can be affected by, and therefore have an interest in any action by a business. We also know that when a business makes a decision, all of the stakeholders may be impacted. So conflicts may occur between different groups of stakeholders. Taking into account the potential conflicts, coming up with solutions and making decision that contribute to the goal of the business is responsibility for managers.

Resource:

https://blogs.ubc.ca/spainie/2013/11/17/mcdonalds-breaks-the-partnership-with-heinz/