Toyota’s European Drive

Toyota’s European Drive

After reading the case, the Europeans tried to protect their auto industry from Japanese imports. The Europeans wanted to limit/prevent competition from entering their domestic auto industry. The Japanese automakers adopted efficient production technologies and were able to produce high quality vehicles at a lower cost compared to their European counterparts. This put the European car manufacturers at a disadvantage when compared to Japanese automakers. To protect domestic European automakers as well as the hundreds of jobs affiliated with the auto industry, the Europeans placed restrictions on Japanese imports so that the domestic auto industry can survive.

I believe it was not fair to European consumers for only being able to buy vehicles the government made available for sale. By denying consumers a larger variety of cars, the consumers in Europe were forced to buy from European automakers. This could have resulted in high customer dissatisfaction since consumers were not initially given the opportunity to purchase vehicles of high quality at a low cost.

Walmart

Comerci attempted to compete with Walmart by collaborating with two other Mexican chains Soriana, and Gigante. The three companies formed a purchasing group called Sinergia. The purpose of this venture was to lower the costs for each of the retailers by buying supplies together in bulk and negotiating the prices afterward. The advantage of this endeavour was that retailers like Comerci and Gigante could now effectively lower their prices to better compete with Walmart. By lowering the cost of supplies, Comerci and its partners will not significantly lower their margin when they decrease prices for consumers.

If Sinergia’s strategy is carried out effectively and all three parties are honest in disclosing and being transparent with purchases, then they have a chance to compete with Walmart in the retail market. Walmart’s low costs of supplies have been one of their keys to succeed in the retail market. The low supply costs to the members of Sinergia will ultimately allow them to be on a more level playing field with Walmart. Although factors like differentiation of product and creating a more appropriate environment for consumers may attract more business, at the end of the day lower prices will outdo other factors in holding a strong market share in the Mexican retail business.

Managers Responsible

Corruption is defined as dishonest or fraudulent conduct by those in power, typically involving bribery. Almost every company is exposed to some degree of corruption risk no matter what industry or country they operate in. Corrupt practices constitute a destructive force that undermines fair competition, stifles economic growth and ultimately undercuts a business’s own existence. Majority stakeholders and other key players inside corporations abuse their entrusted power for personal gain, to the detriment of owners, investors, employees, and society as a whole. When corruption occurs within a company, top managers should be responsible and held accountable. Top managers take on a leadership role and it is up to them to set a standard as to how all stakeholders of the company should act. They laydown the framework for how the company should act ethically. If top management is not performing in an ethical manner, other stakeholders in the company may think it is okay to act in the best interest of themselves rather than the company. If the company has a strong code of ethics against corruption, chances are it would not cause significant problems within the company. As we can see in the Point-Counterpoint, the culture at Siemens was one that accepted bribery and corruption as a means for doing successful business. Everyone knew what was going on but chose to continue with the status quo since it was believed that it helped benefit the business. Since there were no repercussions from upper management, it could continue even though it is very likely upper management knew what was going on. The challenge for top managers is to implement anti-corruption training programs and make sure all employees abide to ethical practices when making business decisions including upper management.

GE

General Electric is a multinational conglomerate specializing in several segments including aviation, global research, healthcare, lighting, renewable power, and transportation. In 2005, the company started a program called Ecomaginations. This initiative was created to demonstrate that an ecologically conscious conglomerate can cultivate the bottom line while doing its duty to help the environment. Revenue from these Ecomagination products had significantly increased from 2005 to 2011. Some investors championed the initiative as a great business decision while others were skeptical this type of growth would continue. Currently, stocks of GE are at lows not seen since the Great Recession of 2008. GE stocks have plummeted 18.4% in 2018. I believe this is not the result of the Ecomagination initiative and its push for global greening. The idea is a good CSR (Corporate Social Responsibility) practice that created positive publicity and generated solid revenue. Mismanagement and bad use of debt have the been the greatest contributors to this freefall. Accounting errors created investor confusion leading to many uncertainties. Upper management is being held accountable by not be getting bonuses for the first time in company history. The pressure is mounting on them to turn the company in the right direction. Top executives need to make better business decisions and manage the company’s finances better if GE is going to be restored to its former glory.

Anglo American

Anglo American should not adopt the policy of not hiring migrant workers. They should continue to hire migrant workers under the following conditions:

1. Mandatory participation in health and wellness programs with job impacting consequences for not participating.

2. Registration of migrant workers in a company database including all personal information such as fingerprints for identification purposes.

3. Incentives for testing and participating in health and wellness programs.

Migrant workers are a critical component of AA’s success and these migrant workers are also in desperate need of the work. Eliminating these workers from the workforce would be detrimental to the South African economy. Furthermore, AA may face repercussions from ethical shareholders as this may be seen as unethical and