http://bgr.com/2014/10/02/blackberry-passport-vs-iphone-6-2/

The new BlackBerry CEO John Chen provides a honest insight on BlackBerry’s market. He doesn’t expect BlackBerry favors more customers than iPhone does.  Instead of trying to challenge iPhone head on BlackBerry Storm and BlackBerry Z10, which turned out to be a failure, Chen changes the company’s strategy back into what the company is always good at——”Making secure communications tools for corporate power users'” Chen positions BlackBerry as for “anyone that relies on their devices on their jobs.” (quoted by John Chen)  The company is now focusing on the more practical areas, such as battery life, keyboard and synchronization of information across devices.

I think Chen makes a very wise decision on focusing on the edges while avoiding direct competition against the magnates such as Apple and Samsung. Their focus strategy  on providing business smartphones which are tailored for the businessman gives them a distinctive position in the market. They avoid imitating Apple and Samsung’s strategy to make bigger, thinner smartphones with better screen resolutions. In that case, the BlackBerry can earn a part of the market share and make their profits.

In the article, the author Nayab listes several large corporations that show poor business ethics to customers and their employees. In the first instance, McDonald exploited their employees by reducing their minimum wages and forbidding workers unions.  In 1972, McDonald invested the USA federal government in order to gain permission of only paying their teenager employees 80% of the minimum wages. Furthermore, McDonald bans workers to form unions. In Quebec, all McDonald were closed because workers had unionized. Also, in the McLibel case, the court held McDonald was guilty of violating business ethics such as exploiting children and paying workers’ wages below the minimum wages.

Despite its worldwide popularity, McDonald’s reputation can potentially be destroyed by their non-humanitarian behavior.  People will question if McDonald is still paying their employees less money than they deserve, if McDonald is still using cheap but detrimental food, and if McDonald is still not allowing unions in any shape of form. With those doubts in mind, the costumers might turn their heads to KFC, Burger King or A&W. As a result, McDonald would suffer an enormous profit lost.

In conclusion, McDonald’s behavior of disregarding their employees’ rights and using detrimental food can have a disastrous impact on the company’s profit and reputation. In the worst situation, the money they save might turn out to be less than the profit they lost.

References:

Typical Examples of Bad Business Ethics: Companies You Know. (n.d.).Bright Hub. Retrieved September 10, 2014, from http://www.brighthub.com/office/entrep

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