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QUESTIONS
FOR
CASE
STUDY ASSIGNMENT
Business
Ethics & Corporate Governance
Licensed
for use by the students of the
Executive MBA Program,
The Icfai University.
Not to be reproduced.
Executive MBA Program,
The Icfai University.
Not to be reproduced.
QUESTIONS FOR CASE
STUDY ASSIGNMENT
Business
Ethics & Corporate Governance
ANSWER
THE QUESTIONS FOR ANY TEN CASE STUDIES
Questions
for 18 case studies are given below. Each case study assignment has 2 questions.
Students are required to answer questions for any 10 case studies (20 answers).
Students are advised to submit answers for all 10 cases in one go, for results
to be adjudged in one instance.
1. The
Chinese Tainted Milk Scandal
a. The Chinese tainted milk scandal
raises doubts on the safety of food products in the country as well as the
ethical standards of the companies involved. Discuss the situation from the
perspectives of different ethical principles that stakeholders, namely, the
company, the consumers, and the government, might have adopted (or ignored) in
the situation leading to the scandal.
Answer: The 2008 Chinese milk scandal was a food safety incident in China.
The scandal involved milk and infant formula along with other food materials
and components being adulterated with melamine.
China reported
an estimated 300,000 victims in total. Six infants died from kidney stones and
other kidney damage with an estimated 54,000 babies being hospitalized. The
chemical gives the appearance of higher protein content when added to milk,
leading to protein deficiency in the formula. In a separate incident four years
prior,
b. Do you think the corrective actions
taken by the government after the revelation of the scandal were timely and
sufficient? Explain with reasons. What steps should the government and
regulatory agencies take to prevent the occurrence of such incidents in future?
Answer: China's eggs exports in the first eight months of 2008 were valued
at USD92.7 million. More than 90% went to Asian countries, and 6.5% went to
North America, according to the Ministry of Commerce.
International
agencies: Jorgen Schlundt, head of food safety at
the WHO criticised China's food-safety system for being "disjointed",
saying that "
2. Bhopal
Gas Tragedy: Revisited after Twenty-five Years
a. Discuss the Bhopal gas tragedy – its
reason and consequences (short- and long-term). Discuss the stand taken by the
main stakeholders (namely, UCC, Dow, the government, and the survivors) of this
industrial crisis. Who, according to you, should be held responsible for the
human tragedy caused due to the disaster? Justify. Do you agree with critics
who claim that this disaster and its outcome show the dark side of contemporary
capitalism? Give reasons for your answer.
Answer: On the night of 2/3 December 1984, a major accident occurred in
Bhopal, India, at a pesticide plant owned by the Union Carbide Corporation
(Bogard 1989). This accident triggered a long-term industrial crisis for the
entire population of Bhopal, for government agencies in India, and for the
Union Carbide Corporation. Industrial crises are processes of severe disruption
and harm that originate in industrial activities and
b. Even 25 years after the disaster,
the survivors continue to struggle as they have not been adequately compensated
and the disaster site had not been cleaned up. Dow too refuses to take
responsibility for the disaster and the clean up of the site. Since Dow acquired
UCC, should not it accept the public liabilities of UCC? Clearly state the
ethical principles and reasoning underlying your stance.
Answer: A multiple-perspectives approach also acknowledges the complexity
of causes and the importance of contextual factors. It interprets causes in
systemic terms (Mitchell, Devine, and Jagger 1989). Technological,
organizational, and societal systems are susceptible to multiple, simultaneous,
and interacting failures. A main limitation of the traditional systems view of
causation is that it does not indicate which causes are more or less important,
and from whose point of view. The multiple-perspectives approach addresses this
limitation and accepts the impossibility of unambiguously fixing blame for
industrial crises. Attempts to affix blame are reductionist: they merely divert
analysts from proper
3. Treading
on that Fine Line?: Caselets in Marketing Ethics
a. In the light of the two caselets,
critically examine the strategies adopted by these companies in marketing and
promoting their products, which raised ethical concerns. Discuss whether the
companies were justified or not. Suggest the steps the two companies can take
to overcome and avoid ethical breaches in marketing their products and
services.
Answer: The profession of business ethics has long needed a highly
practical resource that is designed particularly for leaders and managers --
those people charged to ensure ethical practices in their organizations.
Unfortunately, far too many resources about business ethics end up being
designed primarily for philosophers, academics
b. Discuss the role of celebrities or
professionals (doctors) in reinforcing stereotypes and encouraging „disease
mongering.‟
Answer: Although there is a growing number of policies, at least in Spain,
aimed both at increasing women's presence in the population forming part of a
CT and encouraging analysis of the results by sex, women are still
under-represented in CTs. The first of the articles identified gender bias in
the context of rationale, based on the under-representation of women in CTs of
etoricoxib, particularly in the initial phases. These initial phases are
important for detecting sex-related differences regarding pharmacokinetics and
4. The
'Bernard Madoff' Financial Scam
a. Discuss in detail how Madoff
operated the Ponzi scheme and the methods he used to conceal it. Explain the
events and the factors that led to the disclosure of the fraud?
Answer: Bernard Lawrence "Bernie" Madoff is an American fraudster
and a former stockbroker, investment advisor, and financier. He is the former
non-executive chairman of the NASDAQ stock market, and the admitted operator of
a Ponzi scheme that is considered the largest financial fraud in U.S. history.
Madoff founded
the Wall Street firm Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC in 1960, and
was its chairman until his arrest on December 11, 2008. The firm was one of the
top market maker businesses on Wall Street, which bypassed
"specialist" firms by directly executing orders over the counter from
retail brokers. He employed at the firm his brother Peter, as Senior Managing
Director and Chief Compliance Officer; Peter's
b. What were the affects of the
financial scam on its many investors? What were the red flags or indicators
that were ignored by regulatory authorities such as SEC and FINRA? How could
have SEC handled/acted in order to prevent the scam and its ripple effects?
Answer: Madoff was chairman of Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC
from its startup in 1960 until his arrest on December 11, 2008.
The firm started
as a penny stock trader with $5,000 ($40,000 today) that Madoff earned from
working as a lifeguard and sprinkler installer. He further secured a loan of
$50,000 from his father-in-law which he also used to set up Bernard L. Madoff
Investment Securities LLC. His business grew with the assistance of his
father-in
5. Gap Inc.'s Ethical Procurement
Practices
a. Critically examine and comment on
Gap‟s journey towards implementing ethical procurement practices. In spite of
comprehensive guidelines and compliance checking, violations were reported
among Gap‟s suppliers, as the incident in North India brought out. What
measures should Gap take to ensure adherence to the VCC by the suppliers?
Explain.
Answer: (Gap), one of the largest specialty clothing retailers in the
world. Founded in 1969, Gap witnessed rapid growth in its business soon after
its inception. To meet the growing demand, Gap started procuring garments from
several countries. In 1992, Gap laid out sourcing guidelines for the suppliers
covering labor, environment, health and safety standards. The responsibility of
implementing these guidelines was on the suppliers.
b. If you were a compliance officer at
Gap, how would you conduct assessment of factory conditions of the vendors?
What according to you will amount to serious violations? Explain.
Answer: Monitoring continues to play a key role in our strategy for working
with factories. While we recognize that monitoring alone is not
6. Facebook's
Data Privacy Controversies
a. Discuss the utility of social
networking sites like Facebook. Do you think the very nature of social
networking puts the responsibility of protecting users‟ privacy on the users
themselves? Substantiate your answer.
Answer: Social network is a social structure made up of a set of social
actors (such as individuals or organizations), sets of dyadic ties, and other
social interactions between actors. Privacy concerns with social networking
services is a subset of data privacy, involving the right of mandating personal
privacy concerning storing, re-purposing, provision to third parties, and
displaying of information pertaining to oneself via the Internet.
Social network
security and privacy issues result from the astronomical amounts of information
these sites process each day. Features that invite users to participate
in—messages, invitations, photos, open platform applications and other
applications are often the venues for others to gain access to a user's private
information. In addition,
b. Critically examine the features of
Facebook which attracted criticism from its users as well as industry experts.
Do you think by introducing these features, Facebook tried to control user‟s
information and the content they created? Take a stand and justify. Bring
forward the facebook‟s dilemma in sharing information versus ensuring privacy.
Answer: There are several reasons why invasion of privacy occurs among
social network sites.
Various
levels of privacy offered: Social networking sites
vary in the levels of privacy offered. For some social networking sites like
Facebook, providing real names and other personal information is encouraged by
the site(onto a page known as a ‘Profile‘). These information usually consist
of birth date, current address, and telephone number(s). Some sites also allow
users to provide more information about themselves such as interests,
7. Success
at What Cost? - A Case Study in Managerial Ethics & Compliance
a. What, in your opinion, are the
factors that contributed to the unethical practices in SuperDrugz? Why do you
think Sanjib was not ready to be part of the unethical practice being followed
by his colleagues? Suggest alternate measures Sanjib could have followed to
bring out the ethical lapses in the company. If you had been the MD of
SuperDrugz, how would you have handled Sanjib?
Answer:
b. Do you think forming an ethics
committee will be enough to ensure that the employees followed ethical
boundaries? Justify. What else can be done to ensure that such a situation does
not arise in the future? Discuss the role of various stakeholders of the
company so that such a situation does not arise in the future.
Answer:
8. Some
HR Dilemmas in Information Technology and Business Process Outsourcing Firms
a. Discuss the underlying cause(s) of
stress in the workplace and the strategies that organizations could adopt to
cope with stress. Are the employees in IT and BPO industries more likely to
suffer from stress than in other industries? Justify.
Answer:
b. Assume that the top management of
your (IT or BPO) firm has asked you to provide an action plan to prevent data
theft by employees. What would your action plan be? Keep in mind that your plan
should not have an unacceptable level of adverse impact on the morale of
committed employees.
Answer:
9. Think
Global AS: In Search of the Triple Bottomline
a. Critically analyze Think‟s product
offerings and its business model. Discuss the challenges ahead of Richard Canny
in taking Think to profits and in creating a platform for sustainable growth.
Answer: Think Global was an electric car company located in Oslo, Norway,
which manufactured cars under the TH!NK brand. Production of the Th!nk City was
stopped in March 2011 and the company filed for bankruptcy on June 22, 2011,
for the fourth time in 20 years. The company was bought soon after by Electric
Mobility Solutions AS and production ceased in August 2012 with no more
announcements regarding future production. As of October 2010, a total of 2,500
units had been manufactured at Oslo-based TH!NK’s production facility.
Think Global AS
(Think), a Norwegian
b. Suggest ways by which Think can gain
economic stability and grow its sustainability-driven business model to become
„the car company of the 21st century‟.
Answer: “Our delivery today is part of a larger effort to help transform
the U.S. light-duty vehicle fleet from one that is mostly dependent on imported
oil, to one that is fueled entirely by domestically produced electric energy,”
said Barry Engle, THINK CEO. Engle continued, “As part of that goal, we’ve made
a strategic decision to target initially the many millions of fleet vehicles in
operation in the U.S. market…These fleets can jumpstart vehicle electrification
in America’s cities and help push the industry past early
10. The
Coca-Cola – Honest Tea Deal: Promoting Sustainability or Corporate
Greenwashing?
a. What is sustainable business?
Explain Honest Tea‟s sustainability practices. Do you think Honest Tea is
running a sustainable business? Justify your answer.
Answer: Seth Goldman’s HONEST Tea is one of the most successful companies
around today. They championed a business model that incorporates both social
good and corporate consciousness — making them part of a revolution that is
changing the way we think about and do business. And Seth is an exemplar from
this new
b. Honest Tea is built on the
principles of environmental sustainability and social responsibility. Do you
think its sale of 40% stake to Coca-Cola means that it has compromised on its
values and principles or it was creating next level of impact through higher
reach? Justify. What impact can Coca-Cola‟s acquisition of 40% stake have on
Coca-Cola?
Answer: The Honest Tea case is about an entrepreneur, Seth Goldman, who
built a successful social venture in the alternative beverage industry. After
building Honest Tea to become an industry leader, Seth faced with the decision
of whether to merge with Coca-Cola and how to successfully manage the
post-merger transition. Information about the alternative beverage industry and
Seth’s use of social media is presented to help determine how Honest Tea can
continue to grow after merging with Coke yet maintain
11. Environmental
Sustainability at Wipro: 'Green IT' and 'IT for Green'
a. Transnational corporations such as
IBM, who were pioneering environmental sustainability initiatives, were
increasingly focusing on business from emerging economies. Moreover, Wipro‟s
Green IT and/or IT for Green initiatives are liable to be imitated by its
Indian competitors. Given this context, will Wipro be able to derive
sustainable competitive advantage and long-term profitability from its green
initiatives? Justify your answer.
Answer: Wipro Cares is focused on certain key developmental issues faced by
communities, such as, but not limited to, primary health care, education,
environment, disability and providing rehabilitation to communities affected by
natural calamities. It is a trust formed in the year 2003 that seeks to work
with communities proximate to Wipro’s center of operations. Wipro Cares is
currently engaged in 16 projects across India.
b. According to
Ashok Tripathy, General
Manager and Business
Head, Systems & Technology Division of Wipro, “Wipro is
pushing for e-waste legislation so that there is a level playing field in the
market. Today, Wipro is doing it out of its own initiative and cost, while most
competitors don‟t.” On whom should the responsibility of taking up
e-initiatives rest --- the Government, the stakeholders, the organization, or
all the three? Justify pointing out the pitfalls/benefits of standalone
initiatives by any of the parties.
Answer: Hitachi Data Systems Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of
Hitachi Ltd. (NYSE: HIT) today announced that it has entered into a strategic
technology collaboration with Wipro, a leading provider of IT and business
transformation services, to offer co-branded products and services on Hitachi
Technology. The charter is to jointly work on technology insights early in the
cycle, co-develop products for the Indian market, and build strong solution
sets, practices and services on core Hitachi technology. Commencing with
Hitachi’s Adaptable Modular Storage 2100 (AMS 2100) range, this alliance will
open up
12. Wal-Mart's
Sustainability Initiative: The Packaging Scorecard
a. Critically analyze Wal-Mart‟s
Packaging Scorecard? Do you think, with the Scorecard, Wal-Mart will be able to
achieve its goal of reducing packaging by 5% by the year 2013? As of November
2008, a total of 250,000 products had been entered into the Wal-Mart Packaging
Scorecard system. Analysts opined that the high costs involved with hiring a
packaging and supply chain solutions provider and changing packaging were the
reasons behind the poor response. In your opinion, what steps must Wal-Mart
take to achieve its goal of reducing packaging? Explain.
Answer: Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. today released a packaging scorecard to
continue its commitment of reducing packaging across its global supply chain by
5 percent by 2013, helping Wal-Mart and its suppliers improve packaging and
conserve resources. The company first announced this packaging initiative at
the Clinton Global Initiative in New York City in September 2006, but did not
reveal the specific metrics until today’s PACK
b. Wal-Mart along with ECRM staged a
„Virtual Trade Show‟ in which suppliers could find packaging and supply chain
solution providers who could help them to improve their score. However, the
suppliers were required to pay a subscription fee to avail this facility. In
your opinion, was Wal-Mart unethical in putting pressure on its suppliers by
asking them to comply with its Packaging Scorecard and also charging them while
educating them about the Scorecard? Justify your stance based on the underlying
principles of business ethics.
Answer: As part of Wal-Mart’s continuing efforts to address its
environmental footprint, the company established a goal to reduce packaging
used by suppliers by 5% by 2013. In an effort to achieve this target, the
retail behemoth has announced an innovative scorecard system. The scorecard
will allow manufacturers to rank their current use of packaging. Scores will be
given on several relevant categories including: greenhouse gas emissions
produced per ton of packaging, raw material use, packaging size, recycled
content, material recovery value, renewable energy use, transportation impacts,
and
13. The
Le Clemenceau Controversy: Business vs. Safety
a. Discuss the future of the
ship-breaking industry at Alang in the wake of the Le Clemenceau controversy.
In your assessment, is there any basis to perceive the action of environmental
activists as unethical from the perspective of one or more stakeholder(s)?
Explain.
Answer:
b. Imagine that you are the MD of
SRV/SDIC and detail the measures that should be taken from the perspective of
your firm to avoid repetition of this kind of controversy in the future.
Answer:
14. Corporate
Social Responsibility Initiatives at ExxonMobil – The Good, The Bad and The
Ugly
a. Do you agree with the criticism that
CSR initiatives undertaken by organizations like ExxonMobil are nothing but
public relations (PR) strategies? Take a stand and justify your answer.
Answer:
b. ExxonMobil faced lot of criticism
for the environmental impact of its operations, especially that it promoted the
use of fossil fuels. As the largest publicly traded petroleum and petrochemical
company in the world, how could ExxonMobil address these issues? Discuss.
Answer:
15. Corporate
Governance Issues at Satyam Computers
a. Discuss the constitution of the
board at Satyam. What were their roles and responsibilities? If you were an
independent director on the board of Satyam which planned to acquire another
company in an unrelated field, what factors would you consider before agreeing
for the acquisition? Considering the facts given in the case, do you think the
board at Satyam failed to fulfill its duties? Take a stand and justify your
answer.
Answer:
b. The Satyam fiasco had a wide range
impact on the corporate governance in Indian companies as a whole. What steps
should the regulatory agencies take to safeguard the interests of its
shareholders, especially minority shareholders? Elaborate.
Answer:
16. Corporate
Governance Issues at Refco Inc.
a. The Refco scandal happened in spite
of several strict rules and regulations. What can investors learn from the
Refco scandal? Answer the question with specific emphasis on the limitations of
investor protection laws in preventing fraud.
Answer:
b. Was the Refco board too hasty in
going public with the news about the accounting scandal? What else could the
board have said or done to avert the crisis that put the company on the road to
financial collapse?
Answer:
17. Governance
Problems at Royal Dutch/Shell
a. Critically examine Royal Dutch/Shell‟s
twin-board governance structure. Explain how the structure enabled the company
to effectively control its global operations.
Answer:
b. Comment on the circumstances that
necessitated the organizational restructuring of Shell. Was the merger proposal
of Royal Dutch/Shell Group of Companies under a single parent company the best
solution to Shell‟s governance problems? Justify. What alternate methods can
you suggest to tackle these problems? Elaborate.
Answer:
18. Bonnier
Group – Sweden’s Leading Family Owned Business
a. Under the sixth generation, the
governance practices and governance structure of the Bonnier Group was changed
significantly. Critically analyze the changes made and comment on their impact
on the Group‟s operations.
Answer:
b. Bonnier Group‟s operations have
largely been restricted to Sweden and other nearby European countries. What
measures should the management take to further globalize its operations without
losing the family‟s control on the Group‟s businesses?
Answer:
19. Corporate
Governance at Ahold
a. Ahold was a combination of several
disparate entities, and accounting irregularities were unearthed at several of
its operating companies. Do you think that Ahold‟s strategy of acquisitions and
aggressive expansion was unplanned and irresponsible? Also, are large
corporations with dispersed operations more susceptible to financial and other
irregularities? Give reasons for your answers.
Answer:
b. Soon after the scandal, Ahold
affected a number of structural and accounting reforms in its operating
companies. Do you think they were satisfactory? Suggest measures that Ahold
should adopt that would prevent the recurrence of such scandals.
Answer:
Dear students get fully solved
assignments
Send your semester &
Specialization name to our mail id :
help.mbaassignments@gmail.com
or
call us at : 08263069601
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