Planned Obsolescence : Ethical Or Unethical For A Business Essay

new competitors and they will tend to copy the ideas of products and try to dominate the

The provision and use of personal protective equipment could include using gloves, glasses, earmuffs, aprons, safety footwear, dust masks.

5. Alternatives – I want to have choices. If I return a product that is broken or faulty, but you no longer carry

New, high-tech product. Could be destabilized by introduction of much lower cost alternative in a few years.

11) Suppose you face a question regarding how to handle a defective piece of equipment that your company sold. To tell the customer would cost you a substantial amount of money, but if the equipment fails, it could lead to serious injury of the customer. You decide to disclose the defect and suggest alternatives to eliminate the risk of injury. This decision employs which ethical approach?

a technology is always replaced by a new technology after its trajectory has flattened (i.e., it has reached its performance limits)

Consumer Demand Risks | Not being able to respond to consumer wants/demands quickly enough, leading to short-term revenue loss | Marketing Team | Consumer interests change, other companies offer newer/better product | Medium | Medium | Medium |

A company who chooses to make rather than buy is at risk of losing alternative sources, design flexibility, and access to technological innovations.

Failure to meet business technology needs to remain competitive, to maintain or replace obsolete technology in a timely manner or inadequate investment in technology resulting in lower customer retention, customer anti-selection impacts or lower business growth.

Tommy Jones begged, pleaded, and hoped beyond hope for that new touch screen phone that would immediately move him up the social ranks at his school. His wish was granted on Christmas morning. He was rewarded with that sleek, black phone with 4G capabilities. Two months later the next phone in that series is out; it is almost an exact clone of the first model with the most moderate changes, and suddenly Tommy’s phone is obsolete. There was no great improvement when compared to the old model, no; the corporation knows that it will sell, no matter how small the improvement. This model of constant obsolescence has become the norm in the economy today; companies reap profits with mediocre products, completely uncaring of the consumers. To put

In 1949 Harvey J Earl of General Motors pioneered ‘Planned Obsolescence’. He realised that by adding fashionable products when new trends come in older products would be discarded in favour of the latest fashion.

The Dieker Container company is suffering from a decline in sales of its main product. The product nonbiodegradble plastic cartons were originally given a life span of 8 years of production. Edward Mohling, president of Dieker Container company instructs Betty Fetters to lengthen the life span from 8 to 12 years. Betty Fetters is hesitant to make the change, ruling that increasing the life span of the product, to increase the net income is unethical. If the life span of the product is increased, the vendors of the product would suffer and the company would not purchase their equipment. The shareholder would also be affected by this lengthening of the product because the net income would be overstated. Changing the length of a products life

Thinking critically and making decisions are important parts of today’s business environment. It is important to understand how the decision making process works and the steps involved. The nine steps of the decision making process are: identifying the problem, defining criteria, setting goals and objectives, evaluating the effect of the problem, identifying the causes of the problem, framing alternatives, evaluating impacts of the alternatives, making the decision, implementing the decision, and measuring the impacts. (Decision, 2007.) By using various methods and tools to assist in making important business decisions an individual can ensure the decisions they make will be as successful as possible. In this paper it

DLIS has decided to develop a business continuity plan (BCP) with the full support of management.

The object of this essay is to establish whether there is an ethical theory that can be successfully applied to business organizations. In order to answer this question, it is necessary first to define the major ethical theories, which are utilitarianism, deontology and virtue ethics, before determining whether there are any other options. After that, the ethical needs, problems and limitations of work organizations will have to be examined so that the different theories can be evaluated in this context. It will also be important to draw a distinction between the terms “accurate” and “useful” as these actually result in two different questions the answer to which need not necessarily be the same. Another essential part of this discussion