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Horse Meat Scandal

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In this essay I will be answering the question; Are businesses that act unethically destined for failure? It’s no secret that many, if not the majority, of the world’s most famous companies have been accused of acting in an unethical manner; but the unasked question is why do so many get away with acting unethically. The definition of the ethics is “the study of practices and policies in business, to determine which are ethically defensible and which are not” (Jennifer Jackson 1996 page one) In today’s climate it seems like all it takes for a business to get away with acting unethically is a good reputation. My first example of is one of England’s biggest supermarkets; Tesco. On the 14th of January 2013 the Tesco ‘horse meat’ scandal was revealed …show more content…

The year before the whole horse meat scandal was revealed Tesco made a grand total of seventy one million four thousand and two pounds in sales alone (Tesco plc a. N.D.)For a company the size of Tesco such figures are expected but still regarded as great success but the pattern after 2012 is one of great interest. In the following year Tesco’s total sales took a small dent but nevertheless a dent as there total sales decreased to seventy million seven thousand and twelve pounds (Tesco plc b. N.D). Even though Tesco had made a huge sum of money through sales in 2013 it is without a doubt that they would have lost are large number of customers and the normally impeccable reputation for providing honest good quality products would have taken a big blow. But after all of this the pattern is not finished because to this day Tesco have not been able to regain the customers they had lost due to the scandal. Furthermore Tesco has not been able to regain the total amount of sales that it had been in 2012 with the total amount of sales for 2014 being an inferior seventy …show more content…

It is a wildly know fact that Nike own many factories across the world although, mainly in third world countries such as Indonesia. Ironically the example of Nike acting unethically is located in a factory named Pou Chen in Indonesia; in 2011 workers reported acts of both mental and physical abuse in the factory (Stewart, N 21st April 2013). Examples of physical abuse included acts such as workers being slapped and kicked. It is needless to say that physical nor mental abuse in the workplace should never be permitted no matter the county or the situation. However: after all this has been made aware to world Nike treat their employees in this fashion and it has not been the first time either it still astounds me that Nike are still the world’s biggest sporting retailer they crush their nearest competitor Adidas in terms of brand value by having a total brand value of; seventeen billion which makes Adidas brand value of only seven and a half billion (World Finance N.D.) look like a pathetic attempt at trying to compete with Nike. With Nike expanding their business by investing a large amount of both time and money into fashion, with their most noticeable contribution being ever growing trainer collection. So with Nike being without a shadow of a doubt being the biggest sports retailer in the world and being

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