Read Case #26- Greyston Bakery: the Zen of Philanthropy (Pages 453-455)

In March of 2012 Steve Parkland was hired as the new president at Charles Chocolates. He was immediately faced with numerous decisions about the future of the company. The board of directors had tasked Parkland with doubling or tripling the size of the company over the next decade, but the board and the senior management team had different opinions about the strategy that would accomplish this goal. The main issues that Parkland faced were how to increase the company’s operations while maintaining the traditional culture and support of the board.

The Cheesecake Factory is dedicated to giving back to the community. The Cheesecake Factory Oscar & Evelyn Overton Charitable Foundation was founded in 2001 as a non-profit organization. The

Synopsis: Doug Aiken took over Tech Depot and replaced the symbolic leader who founded the company, when Aiken took charge he immediately introduced a new management plan, measuring everything from sales of products to employees. He saw himself as the omnipotent leader (mgt p39) Sales dropped after two years and everything Aiken was working for diminished. He did not gets the results that were expected by the company. Many of the staff expressed dissatisfaction with their jobs The board decided they were in need of a new CEO, so they hired

Change in an organisation can either be planned or unplanned. “Planned change is change that comes about as a result of a specific effort on the part of a change agent” (Wood et al. 2001, pp 635), with unplanned being the opposite. Wood (et al. 2001, pp 635) also states that planned change comes about as a result of someone’s perception of a performance gap. The board’s recognition of such a performance gap led to Fletchers appointment as chief executive, and change agent.

A Model of Christian Charity is a sermon by John Winthrop. He gives this sermon aboard the Arbella in 1630. John Winthrop began his and his Christian's journey with words for guidance and inspiration. He starts his sermon by stating that God created the rich and the poor. He created them for different reasons, in order to manifest his exertion in the areas of mercy, love, gentleness, faith, patience and obedience. Religion is used as a way of connecting with the Puritans. He also uses references from the bible to prove his points. He talks about how God has created the three laws, and how if you follow them you will be

Why do you think Starbucks has been so concerned with social responsibility in its overall corporate strategy?

When Protestants left Europe to move forever in America, they believed they followed God’s will leaving the corrupted England for a Promise Land in order to establish the Nation of God. They believed they were chosen by God to establish a New Israel into the wilderness that America was. They came in America with specific ideas in mind and specific plans to follow in order to complete the holy mission they had received. The importance of the immigration of the English Protestants in America, as the reader understands reading William Bradford’s “History of Plymouth Plantation”, John Winthrop’s “A Model of Christian Charity” and Mary Rowlandson’s The Narrative of the Captivity and the Restoration of Mrs. Mary Rowlandson, lays on the system of

The setting of this case study was the Texas Plant. The Texas Plant produced excellent quality goods, but it was not competitive because of its slower speed of product changeovers, higher costs, and environment of “bureaucratic status quo” (Pryor et al., 2011, p. 111). In addition, the plant’s union leaders, management, and employees lacked positive, working relationships. Corporate leaders hired a new, aggressive vice president, David, to transform the plant by empowering employees and establishing continuous improvement processes (Pryor et al., 2011). David, in turn, bypassed the plant’s Human Resources (HR) and hiring director, Harvey, and hired Paula

He found out that the company was latent with financial and operational problems which threaten Home Depot’s future. The company was distinct in retail and extremely entrepreneurial based, along with customer focused business. Nardelli was not necessarily a tyrant, he just assumed he could treat Home Depot the same way he would any of his previous companies he worked for. With Nardelli being industrial based versus retail based, he concentrated on overhauling the processes but swept aside the elements that made Home Depot special in the process. Nardelli has a tough-minded approach to changes, which he probably learned at GE, but this set him on a collision course with the free spirited and close-knit culture fostered by his Home Depot predecessors. By the end of this case study, many of the original leadership for Home Depot were gone, whether they retired, were let go, or quit. Of course, Nardelli would still make himself accessible and was comfortable interacting with all levels of an organization, from CEO’s to factory workers. He was firm but still considered to be “a breath of fresh

some difficult decisions. Only eight months into his job as chief marketing officer (CMO) of GE’s

The intent of the proposal is to address the case brought forward to our organization concerning “The Young Change Agents,” at Price Waterhouse (PW) who later merged with Coopers & Lybrand. It is my understanding that the platform to address the need for change in the organization plummeted with three young pioneers (Shaw, Middleburg and Sgaralgli) recognized a need for change. Prior to Shaw and Middleburg arrival to PWC, they had an opportunity to work in a well-known student organization AIESEC. In their tenure at AIESEC life was different, as Shaw recalled while operating as the president of the national organization in New Zealand division; he recognized that AIESEC focused on developing his leadership skills by focusing on such programs as skills, attitudes, values and cultural understanding. Furthermore, he noted that his transition to PwC led to a lower echelon, and it was difficult to transition from the president to a staff member. PwC also had a high spending budget for stationery compared to New Zealand AIESEC. Moreover, the technology was not up to par for such a large cooperation. (Jick & Peiperl, p. 463) Shaw and Middleburg later partnered with Sgaralgi to fight the deficiencies that they saw in PwC. They created a force that focused on overhauling the existing values at PwC. They approached each situation, manager and employee one step at a time. Expecting nothing in return, but only to share their message on the new

The political/legal segment focuses on the influences groups and organization has on the government and how the government influences them as well. While this country is still faced with a down economy, Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, wants to set a trend and “redefine the role of business in society” (Dolan, 2011). He is asking for companies to get involved in the education and training for society’s workforce in an effort to help decrease the unemployment rates and put people back to work. He believes it is the responsibility of the business community “to serve the communities where we do business by helping to improve, for example, the quality of citizens’ education, employment, healthcare, safety, and overall daily life….” ((Dolan, 2011). In addition, The Starbucks Foundation is partnering with

The case deals with two major transformational organisational changes that take place within a span of 5 years in Marconi PLC. The first change process was under the leadership of Lord Simpson who took over this large diversified conglomerate in 1996 when the company was in a mature phase, already in decline. The company was under performing, had a rigid structure, lacked a clear vision and the employees had become change averse and complacent. To recharge the company Lord Simpson lead a change process with a clear vision with a growth oriented strategy, acquisition and a cultural change process for the employees. To motivate the employers to embrace the cultural change he introduced an attractive stock option plan.

There are several problems that can we seen in business ethics. “Discussions of the role of the corporation in society and the very purpose of a corporation as a social institution are examples. It is not disputed that the purpose of a for-profit corporation is to make a profit for stockholder, but there has been an intense debate about whether maximizing stockholder profits is the sole legitimate purpose of corporations” as Milton Friedman and other have argued and whether beneficent corporate conduct is justifiable. This question is normative, but there is also the question of moral psychology raised by Smith: “Does beneficence have any place in the world of business?” An example is found in public utilities’ program to help customers pay for electricity, gas, oil, phone service, and the like. This attitude not only won’t increase the company profits but reduce. In fact, this is a corporate form of charity. The money is taken directly

1. How difficult was the task facing Immelt assuming the CEO role in 2001? What imperatives where there to change? What incentives to maintain the past?