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Question 1: Theo Chocolate was founded in 2005 in Seattle, Washington by Joe Whinney and Jeff Fairwell

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Question 1:

Theo Chocolate was founded in 2005 in Seattle, Washington by Joe Whinney and Jeff Fairwell. Joe was the trailblazer responsible for introducing organic cacao to the United States and in the video case study, Joe talks about how the business should benefit every partner throughout the organization from stakeholders to the farmers in the Congo who they pay 2 to 3 time more the going rate for farmers in that region and in turn charges a heftier price for his chocolate bars stateside, he justifies the price based on the support and revenue injected into the DRC. Joe Whinney's ethical responsibility embraces the core of utilitarianism in which he hopes to positively affect the most amount of people as possible (Ferrell, O.C. et al,2019) from the farmers to the consumers who feel good about supporting the cause. Theo Chocolate also enlisted the aid of American actor Ben Affleck to support their argument to entice businesses to invest financially in the people of Congo. This video is an example of an American company exercising their social ethical responsibility on a global scale to promote Fair Trade and not take advantage of third world countries that are desperate for financial support. Although utilitarianism is a form of ethics, it does allow for moral preferences as in how you choose to employ it to impact others positively however the act itself does generate a net gain for the individual as well (Van Staveren, I, 2007).

Qustion 2:

Prior to the reading I was not aware of the many ethics violation exhibitedd by CVS, it seems like every year there was some scandal involving the company either taking advantage of consumers or lack of care regarding the safety of others from the HIPAA violation to falsely recommending cheaper brand switches that cost patients millions more there seems to be a litany of unethical behavior and starts at the top. The fact that certain stores were mishandling scheduled II narcotics is a reflection on their leadership's accountability to take any action resulted in fines from a variety of government agencies but more recently they have started to engage their principles with more ethics driven philosophy and the more impressive matter was sticking to their moral compass by eliminating the sale of tobacco, a product that generated 2 billion annually. I would say that CVS is trending the right direction and by applying more ethics to their standards they'll maintain success in the future.

1. Van Staveren, I. (2007). Beyond Utilitarianism and Deontology: Ethics in Economics. Review of Political Economy, 19(1), 21–35. https://doi.org/10.1080/09538250601080776

2. Ferrell, O.C., Fraedrich, J., & Ferrell, L (2019) Individual Factors:Moral Philosophies and

Values. Business Ethic: 12th Edition. Boston MA. Cengage Learning.

While reviewing Theo Chocolate Company I immediately knew that the company would charge higher prices for their chocolate bars to consumers in the states because the company is paying the suppliers two to three times more than what they would pay other suppliers.  Even though the company could make more money by paying fewer prices when outsourcing the company choses to do business in the region due to an economic social responsibility.  One of the reasons why the company would pay the suppliers as much as they do is because the company is trying to assist with the economic development in a war torn country where over 50 billion people has died in the region due to conflict over time.  One thing that I admire about Theo Chocolate Company is that they try to build a connection with the people in the region and with the suppliers.  By showing, that they care shows their suppliers that they are invested in their country and is there to assist in making the country better economically.  

When reading “Fired Up,” there were so many ethical challenges that CVS faced.  Being a company that is entrusted with consumers personal information, they are required to protect the information.  By patient information not being properly handled caused CVS to lose money through lawsuits due to their negligence.  In order to correct this issue, CVS started revising its policies, train, monitor, discipline violators, and established reporting procedures if someone within the company is not following protocol when protecting sensitive information. 

The military is one organization that I know have data spills, also known as data breaches or data leaks according to the National Initiative for Cybersecurity Careers and Studies, are the unauthorized movement or disclosure of classified or sensitive information to a party not authorized to possess or view the material. Unlike a hack, where an unauthorized user attempts to gain and maliciously use data, spills are usually the result of human error or carelessness (Lee, 2017).  Personnel in the military goes through various training sessions in order to teach military members the importance of protecting personal data, however, problems like this still occur on numerous occasions. 

 

Reference:

Lee, Philip  (2017). After a data spill: Containing and repairing the damage. Retrieved July 05, 2020, from https://gcn.com/Articles/2017/06/01/containing-data-spill.aspx?Page=1

Question 1:

The Video Case Study on Theo Chocolate Company was interesting.  Founder Joe Whinney believes that every associate of the business's supply chain particularly cacao farmers, should have an advanced quality of life as an effect of affiliating with this company.  Whinney's characteristics focuses on the well-being of others including justice, virtue ethics and utilitarianism.  Whinney compensates up to three times more than the going rate to purchase cacao from poor farmers in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).  This is an example of distributive justice.  According to Theo's visionary leader, 'Americans will pay more for chocolate bars when they know that disadvantaged farmers profit from the sale'.  The choice to work with agriculturalists in Congo started from Whinney's exchanges with the Eastern Congo Initiative, a civic partnership originated by actor Ben Affleck to offer assistance to the impoverished country.  In 2009, Affleck directed a group of philanthropists to the wilds of Congo to visit the country's agriculturalists and to view the cacao trees.  Currently, Whinney and Affleck teach Congo farmers to develop their resident societies while delivering Theo Chocolate with its essential element, a great deal of enjoyable cacao.

 

Question 2:

The Consumer Value Store, CVS, was founded by brothers Stanley and Sidney Goldstein in 1963.  The store initially sold beauty and health products.  By 1967 it expanded and began to offer pharmaceutical supplies.  CVS retails products that encounter the maximum quality standards as well as its personal line of goods whose provisions and performances are tested every year and studied to safeguard compliance with appropriate customer safety regulations, (Ferrell, 2018).  As a corporation produces and attains extensive impact, it also receives a duty to act morally and within the law.  In 2009, CVS was suspected of inappropriately disposing of patient's health data.  It was suspected that business personnel threw medicine bottle tags and old prescriptions into the waste without destroying private patient data, making it likely for the data to fall into the wrong hands.  This is an abuse of the HIPPA Privacy Rule, which requires firms functioning in the health business to appropriately protect the data of their patients. 

As for social responsibility, CVS has implemented four approaches that drive their effort to improve the way health care is presented across the United States: produce and distinguish their businesses; distribute transformational products and services; produce a customer-centric technology infrastructure; and modernize initiative roles and competences, (CVS, Corporate Social Responsibility Report, 2019).  This includes working to address the current health crisis, COVID-19, by donating $50M to support food insecurity and access to telehealth for those individuals in need. These strategies are the steps CVS has implemented to clear up their unethical practices previously reported.
 

Dalphanie

References:

Cvshealth.com (2019). Corporate Social Responsibility Report.

Retrieved from: https://cvshealth.com/sites/default/files/2019-csr-report.pdf

Ferrell. L., Ferrell, O.C., & Fraedrich, J. (2018). Business Ethics: Ethical Decision Making and Cases (12th ed.). Cengage. Chapter 6.