Corporate Social Responsibility †McDonald’s Essay

McDonald is one of the most renowned fast food restaurants across the globe. The vision of McDonald’s was coined by Ronal McDonald who identified the need of its target audiences and tailor made the products as per them. The organization has established a value proposition for the target audience on the basis of a penetration pricing strategy that has appealed to the people in almost every country. Being a tough competitor to many fast food retailing giants such as the Burger King, KFC etc, the organization has implemented an adaptation approach for every country that it enters. This implies that McDonald is willing to change its product portfolio and other strategies as per the expectations of the customers in the newly entered market. This allows McDonalds to create a link with the target audience 1 McDonald and synchronize with their taste and preferences. For instance, when McDonalds entered the Indian markets in 1996 with its famous beef burger, it never expected that the Indian people will boycott the product because of their cultural norms and tradition. This forced the company to re-evaluate its strategies and introduce a new product â€Å"Aloo tikki† burger (Burger with potato stuffing) which was in line with the Indian sentiments. â€Å"Aloo tikki† has been one of the most preferred snacks for the Indian markets. Although it is not at all a healthy product but still it is in the taste and preferences of the customers. Therefore, the product was customized according to the customers. In the Australian market, the organization has even changed its brand name recently and is opening its outlets by a new nick name ‘Macca’. This is the extent of the adaptation strategy that the world has witnessed. Previously no organization has taken the initiative of changing its brand name to appeal to the target audience but McDonald has undertaken the same only to create a relationship with the target audience. The notion of corporate social responsibility has gained a lot of popularity in the recent past because of the increasing involvement of the organizations in the day to day life of the people. The concept states that an organization also has a lot of responsibilities towards its stakeholders that includes its employees, customers, suppliers, banks, financial institutions, government and the society on a whole. Therefore, the organizations should not undertake any activity that goes against the interest of the society. In fact, every organization should undertake activities that create some kind of welfare for the entire society. For instance, many organizations goes to the backward areas and provide free medical checkup for the people, distributes medicines, provides education to the children, spreads awareness regarding the women empowerment etc. All this constitutes of the corporate social responsibility activities of an organization. This also helps an organization in creating positive brand image in the 2 McDonald minds and hearts of the target audiences because they might feel high of an organization and its activities. However, in the last few years, a lot many social groups and institutions have doubted the ethics of the company and have clearly stated that McDonald does not follow the concept of corporate social responsibility. This is mainly because the organization has been introducing numerous products in the market that are harmful for the health of the customers and increases the obesity level in them. In anticipation of higher profits, many a times, the organization might not follow the ethical code of conduct that might affect their sustainability in the near future. The same has been talked about McDonald’s because its products are just for the profits of the company and has a negative impact on the obesity level of the consumers. It is a very transparent fact that obesity has become a major problem across the globe and the same should be controlled in order to have a healthy life. However, many experts and doctors have identified obesity, blood pressure and diabetes as some of the rising problems amongst the Americans and amongst the people across the globe. Not only obesity gives rise to several serious diseases in a human body but it might also affect the confidence level of an individual. This is the main reason because of which many experts have imposed serious allegations against the corporate social responsibility of McDonald’s. In this reference a lawsuit was also filed on McDonald’s in the year 2003 when an obese man named ‘Ceaser Barber’ filed suit against McDonald’s for the unhealthy products that it sells that has led to high level of obesity. However, the judge denied the law suit and McDonald’s was relieved of the case. However, in another case McDonald was considered as guilty and unethical when Stella Lieback spilled coffee (purchased from McDonalds) on her pelvic area and filed a case against the company for selling such hot coffee. The court of law found the company guilty because the lady had suffered a three sixty degree burn. 3 McDonald Nevertheless, keeping the above discussion into consideration, I must state that the concept of corporate social responsibility does not states that the organizations can not develop a product portfolio as per the needs of the target audiences. McDonald’s has rightly identified the needs of the customers and have developed these products as per their taste and preferences. Since it is the need of the customers, it cannot be ignored by an organization manufacturing the similar product lines. The key concept of marketing states that an organization has to understand the needs of the target audience and develop the products to satisfy the unsatisfied needs (Azad, 2011). The same task is being followed by the organization. The competing brands such as Burger King, KFC, Domino’s, Pizza hut and many others are also manufacturing the fast food items as per the taste of the target audiences. Therefore, McDonald’s also has to remain in the competition for obtaining a sustained growth in the market place. Above all, McDonald’s is not forcing any individual to purchase the product. It is the free will of the target audience to purchase the product from the organization and consume the same. If the consumers have deep respect for the organization’s effort in the past few decades and have a liking towards its product, the same cannot be categorized as unethical or against the concept of corporate social responsibility. As a consumer I have deep knowledge about the product that McDonald’s sell and its impact on the health of the consumers. The law of many countries states about the provision of ‘caveat emptor’ which means let the buyer beware of the products or services that they buy. This implies that the consumers are themselves aware of the products and if they are purchasing it with free will, the organization cannot be held responsible for it. In a nutshell, I feel that corporate social responsibility does not mentions anything in black and white in reference to the product’s quality. It just states in broad that the organization should not go against the interest of the society. McDonald’s, by no means, is going against the society. Rather the organization is undertaking a genuine attempt to serve to the needs and 4 McDonald wants of the target audience (Sharma, 2012). This should be appreciated by the stakeholders to encourage the efforts from McDonald’s in the future. I would like to conclude that there cannot be a universal standard for developing the product. It is highly dependent from situation to situation and should not be blamed on corporate social responsibility of the organization. References Azad, P. (2011). Marketing Management. APH publications Sharma, S. (2012). McDonald’s strategic management.

The Tumbling Down of Rates Across the Globe

Even months after the repeated unfolding of events that have led to the continuing global crisis, the economies worldwide are still reeling from its disastrous effects. The downfall of some of the icons in the financial industry – Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual, Merill Lynch, AIG, Wachovia, to name a few – followed by the similar fate of the automobile giants all served to transform the once thriving business landscape of the country into a sullen territory of besieged by unemployment, home foreclosures, and an ominous recession.These days, central banks from country to country have been slashing their Treasury rates in their attempts to revive their respective economies. Benchmark Interest Rate The benchmark interest rate, also referred to as the â€Å"base interest rate,† is the minimum interest rate that investors are willing to accept for investing their money in instruments that are relatively riskier than the gover nment-issued Treasury securities.(Farlex website) It is the â€Å"yield that is being earned on the most recent on-the-run Treasury security of similar maturity plus a premium. † (InvestorWords. com) Needless to say, the benchmark interest rate fluctuates in unison with the Treasury yield. An increase or decrease in the prevailing Treasury yield will prompt a mirrored reaction from the benchmark interest rates. The benchmark interest rate varies from one country to another. These interest rates are actually indicative of the investment and economic climate that is currently in place.

Excel-based Candidate Short-lister Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Excel-based Candidate Short-lister - Essay Example The intelligent rule is based on the numbers of ‘A’ grades in the essential criteria requirements which is then sorted again by the number of ‘A’s in the desired criteria. This gives a more scrutinized level of sorting, for selecting the most qualified candidates in case of huge number of candidates satisfying the requirements. Moreover, each page is enhanced with a ‘Save’ and ‘Print’ option so as to ease the operation of saving the work and printing them whenever required, during the process. The below screen shot shows the initial screen of the tool. Figure1. Initial screen of the Candidate short-lister tool For easy navigation, View application data and view shortlisted data options are added in the initial sheet, which when clicked will take us to the respective sheet. The desired and the essential criteria for the job description are added in the respectively columns without any space between the cells and also between the head ing and the data as shown in figure 2 and ‘Generate Application_data Sheet’ is clicked. This will create template for the Application data sheet for entering the application data (shown in figure 3). Figure2. Entering the essential and desired criteria for the job description Figure3. ... p, which when clicked will shortlist all the candidates satisfying the given requirements based on their grade and creates a report in the shortlisted Candidates sheet(figure 5). The minimum qualifying grade used in this selection process is also given in the Shortlisted Candidates sheet in pink line. If the user is not satisfied with the number of shortlisted candidates and want to maximize or minimize the result, they can edit the field and refine the search (figure 6). Figure4. Data are entered manually in the application data sheet In case, if we want to sort the report to choose a required number of candidates, we can use the Intellisort option in the shortlisted candidates sheet, which will internally perform a sort based on the number of ‘A’ grades in the essential criteria and again on the number of ‘A’ grade in desired criteria. This is shown in figure 7. Figure 5. Short-listed candidates Figure6. Refine search by editing the options in pink line Fi gure7. Sorting the candidates using Intellisort If we want to shortlist only the top 5 candidates for interview scheduling, we can click the Shortlist Top 5 button on the Shortlisted Candidates sheet which will internally perform an intellisort and selects the top 5 candidates and creates a report on the Top 5 Candidates sheet (figure 8). Figure8. Selecting the top 5

Art Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2750 words - 1

Art - Essay Example 2) Duration - this was observed through rhyme, length of the notes, and the speed. Through the nursery rhymes, different notes such as the short notes and long notes was seen to make the nursery rhyme more meaningful. 4) Pitch – this was observed through ‘Mary Had A Little Lamb,’ as it involved the high and low notes of the keyboard. When playing the keyboard, the faster notes demonstrated the pitch while shorter notes displayed lower pitch. Belly Dancing consumed ten hours, which involved attending lessons from a family friend, who is a belly dancer, as well as watching belly-dancing videos on YouTube. I met with instructor, the family friend, once a week for nine weeks with each session being one hour, in length. The last hour was done by practicing on the YouTube videos in which demonstrated the different moves of belly dancing. Eventually, through these lessons, I learnt the different belly dancing movements. 4) Space - through dancing, I was taught how to use the space and specifically personal space, an aspect that links to relationships. Additionally, I managed to use the space optimally, and safely to avoid the occurrence of any accident. All the elements of dance are linked, and successfully organise a well-structured dance. The music played along the dance demonstrated that fast beats of the songs meant fast dance movements resulting in a fast structure, while slow beats meant that the movements were slower. The number of hours completed in this art form is twenty hours. Before I began knitting, I thought of either a scarf or a beanie, which were the items I intended to knit. After evaluation of the exercise involved in knitting of both items, I decided to do a scarf. Due to lack of sufficient practice in the past, I was very slow at the onset of the process but gradually improved my speed as I progressed. Within the stipulated twenty hours, I was glad to have successfully completed two Yarn rolls; one has tints

Valuing People in Financial Statements Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Valuing People in Financial Statements - Essay Example This is because their respective annual financial reports do not reflect the financial position of the customers to their business. This paper will discuss whether companies should have a financial value for their employees with reference to Mark Spencer’s annual report. Most businesses consider their customer base to be their most valuable asset. This is a myopic consideration since behind every satisfied customer there is a hard working staff who contributed to their satisfaction. This indicates that employees should be beyond the customers of the company since they are responsible for successful products and satisfied customers (Hart, 1995, p. 56). Therefore, the value of employees can be measured from the quality of the products that they are responsible for and, the level of customer’s satisfaction resulting from their efforts. Being of financial significance indicates that workers are assets to the company and the company has the responsibility to account for them . Companies consider their workers as expenses due to the salaries that they receive at the end of the month or the end of a given trading period. In this case, workers would appear in the right hand side of their balance sheet. However, this is not a valid reasoning since salaries or wages is a return or compensation for labor (Vygotsky, 1978). Labor has economic value to a business. This indicates that workers or the source of the labor also has economic value to the business. Indeed, workers are assets of a company due to the economic value of their efforts to the company. However, shareholders and other stakeholders of a company fail to consider the financial value of workers when evaluating a company. This evaluation does not give the actual position of the company since workers too have a financial significance to a company. According to Paul Herman the CEO of HIP investments, most companies fail to consider their workers as their assets. Layoffs are the main reason that quali fies workers to be expenses of a company. A company can increase its profit through various ways. The main method that companies use to increase their profit is reducing their cost of operation. Cost of operation includes fixed costs and expenses. In this case, fixed costs are costs that are incurred during the production process, and are invariable. On the other hand, expenses are cost incurred by the company due to factors that facilitate production or distribution of finished products. Layoff is considered as a method of increasing profits since it enable companies to cut down their expenses and hence their cost of operation. Laying-off workers has positive returns in the short term since economic downturns are not permanent (Kalb, 1993, p. 198). Economic downturns are followed by economic recoveries that force the companies to hire more employees to compensate for laid-off workers. In this process, the company spend money in hiring and training of new workers to compensate for t he laid off workers. Hiring new workers is critical to a company’s success. The abilities of a company to outsource for the best workers in a particular field determine the competence of its products in a given market (Ellen, 2009). This process has financial significance to the company since it is a form of investment. In addition, the company needs to train its employees in order to achieve

Clinical update on the most effective sequence to first responding to Essay

Clinical update on the most effective sequence to first responding to unresponsive patient for optimal patient outcomes - Essay Example This should be done to the patient so that the unresponding patient can be revived from the coma state. The cause of unresponsive state of the patient is mainly caused by the low blood supply in the body of the individual which is insufficient to reach to the brain and to the heart thereby causing the individual to be unresponsive or otherwise faint. Throughout the study, some practices should not be done to the patient for example slapping the patient , giving of drink and food to the patient who is unresponsive should not be done among others will lead to other complications. When a patient is not responding or unconsciousness, it is impossible for one to talk or do any activity and this is commonly known to be a coma state or in other word comatose state. It is important for one to be aware of do’s and don’ts concerning the patient either a grown up or a child. Other patients have changes in awareness where they do not become unconscious where their mind is altered thus being termed as altered mental status or changed mental status. The patient becomes confused leading to yelling, production of foam from the mouth among others. The change of mental status should be treated as a medical emergency since it is a condition that can lead to death in a quicker manner (Cooke, 2009). In other times the patient may be awake but less alert where if asked questions like their name may lead to inability to answer the questions which indicate a change in the mental status. When a asleep, the patient can respond to noise and other disturbances like shak ing of their head or hands thus leading to waking up but in the case of an individual who is not responding or otherwise who is in unconscious mood the individual will not cough or clear his or her throat. This condition can lead to death if care and other medical attention are not conducted quickly since in most cases the patient airway may be blocked thus leading to instant death if first aid is not

Rewrite Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Rewrite - Essay Example Customer satisfaction is seen as our companys top most priority. Our company responds and adapts quickly to customer requirements. Not only that, but our company goes beyond the expectation of defect and error reduction, merely meeting specifications, and minimizing customer complaints. Prestige International, Inc. works to constantly improve product and service attributes that meet basic requirements. This helps them to gain a competitive advantage. Ongoing improvement of all operations, activities and tasks is highly valued by Prestige International, Inc. Once it is realized that a product’s top quality is demanded by a customer, continuous development is immediately put into effect to assure the highest level of customer satisfaction. We also recognize that the quality of our product is a direct result of the process involved. As a result, there is a strong focus on continuous improvement of our companys processes. Improvement cycles are encouraged and maintained for all the companys activities like, product development and the proper management of customer relationships. Eliminating waste is another component of the continuous improvement approach. The customer-driven approach helps to prevent errors, decrease mistakes, and achieve defect-free production. Prestige International, Inc. adopted TQM as a code of life for the company. It was introduced and directed by top management where commitment, dedication and personal involvement has always been a top priority of theirs. This has efficiently helped in creating and deploying clear quality values and goals consistent with the objectives of the company while at the same time ensuring and deploying well-defined systems, methods and performance measures for achieving those goals. These systems and methods put in place actively guide all quality activities and encourage employee participation. Prestige International,

Why has it become necessary to ask moral (ethical) questions in the Essay

Why has it become necessary to ask moral (ethical) questions in the present global economic conditions - Essay Example This is attributable to the fact that when making business decisions, managers have to take into account the views and beliefs on the working of the world and the social consequences of development, with particular significance in developing countries. Companies are not merely faced with issues about the morality of their actions and practices but also have to consider the impact of the actions on the reputation, legal exposures and competition amongst other aspects (Feigenbaum). Businesses are faced with moral quandaries from various levels of organizational decisions. The wage and labour conditions are critical factors in the economic growth of the company. Businesses that have maintained high standards of worker conditions and have paid the workers well are met with challenges in maintaining the same standards when they expand. For the long-term profitability of business ventures and continuing profitability, managers need to consider the impact of the business on the local workfo rce. Ethical issues may arise on the grounds of discrimination, rights of the workers and their tasks. Businesses are also starting to give more importance to the effects of their activities on the environment in particular reference to the pace and effects of economic globalization (Panayotou 2000). As public awareness rises and there is increasing pressure for social corporate responsibility, businesses who fail to comply with the standards for environmental sustainability are meeting grave consequences in national and international media. Business decisions also have political implications, with differing opinions amongst theorists on the effects of business on the political and economic framework of the country (Feigenbaum). This paper looks into the moral issues of a corporation and seeks to analyse them using moral frameworks including the social contract model and deontology. The Moral Problem: Enron Ethics is defined as the art of guiding the actions of men towards the produ ction of the maximum degree of happiness (Bentham 1823). People who run the business or an organization are responsible for conducting the business in a way that is yields the maximum benefits to not only the company but also the employees and the stakeholders. The ethical practices of Enron became a high-profile ethical scandal because the executives at the company did not give any regard to the interests of the employees and the stakeholders. The unethical practices of the executives of the company led to the company going bankrupt, with all of the shareholders losing their money and the employees being deprived of their jobs. Kenneth Lay, former Enron CEO, and Jeffery Skilling were involved in unethical activities that led to the fall of the entire company. The Executives were involved in manipulating the financial statements of the company (Collins 2006). Amongst other ethical issues, one issue also was whether it was ethical of the women, who took the case to the media, to whis tleblow on the Executives (Kinicki & Kreitner 2009). The Enron crisis gave rise to the â€Å"infallibility of the capitalistic economic system† (Conrad 2010). Analysing the Moral Problem According to a business ethicist, Manuel Velasquez, the reasons for ethical shortcomings of Enron can largely grouped into personal, organizational and systemic causes. Personal causes tend to explain the intent behind the actions that the executives took. The executives appeared greedy and interested in increasing their personal wealth. They did not give any consideration to the ethical implications of their actions and their actions represented a lack of compassion to the employees and the stakeholders (Santa Clara University 2010). When analysing their actions from a moral

Evaluation Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 250 words - 3

Evaluation - Essay Example This will require the audience to have basic knowledge on how relationships are made and maintained over the internet. Obviously, the readers will be familiar real relationships and, hence they will be interested in the comparison element of the evaluation. The audience is also expected to prefer face-to-face relationships. Consequently, the readers expect an evaluation that condemns cyberspace relationships. Responses to issues of increased fraud and cybercrime will be highly appreciated by the audience. The audience will also prefer an evaluation that handles the problem from an impact approach. Credibility of information will also be a requirement for the evaluation. It is evident that the audience will be moved by statistical facts particularly those associated with a government agency. Visual aids such as charts and graphs will provide an excellent comparison of both relationships. A recent incident in which a woman named Miller was coned thousands of dollars and valuables throu gh an online dating site by a man who posed as an Afghanistan based soldier, will be a sufficient motivation for my audience. The review will focus on both relationships from a non-partisan approach with the intentions of identify credible facts. Therefore, the readers should expect an evaluation that is solely composed facts, criticism and free of