...Parker Gross MKTG 495 Case #3 – Monsanto I: Situation Analysis Monsanto is a company that some people may not be explicitly familiar with on a first name basis. However, the work that the company has done over the last century, with a larger emphasis on its most recent ventures, have been deeply engrained in our lives, our food, and our economy. Monsanto has those who advocate on their behalf in addition to their naysayers. While Monsanto has made huge strides in terms of biotechnology over the last couple of decades, their accomplishments, and the relevant methods, have not been free of criticism and controversy. In order to analyze Monsanto’s corporate environment, it is important to first explore their Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats through conducting a SWOT analysis. <Insert Exhibit 1 Here (See end of file)> Now that Monsanto’s internal and external environments have been analyzed through the SWOT analysis featured in Exhibit 1, it is necessary to determine what information is still necessary, and what assumptions might need to be made in order to be better-informed to make a decision. II: Assumptions and Missing Information The first piece of information that comes to mind that is only briefly mentioned in the case but that is very important to know about is the availability of alternatives and the presence of competitors. Considering that Monsanto held a considerable market share and sold a staggering majority of GMO crops at the time...
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...concerns the scientific and agricultural community has with the seed giant Monsanto. Not only has Monsanto abused its power as a big Ag corporation to advance its profits through unethical business practices, but also strengthen its stranglehold on farmers. Being a monopoly of the seed industry, Monsanto’s work in GMOs raises concerns as to the effects they have on land, animals, and humans. Monsanto is utilizing GMOs in an effort to stem the tide of world hunger, but because GMOs have only been implemented since the early 80’s their impact on human, animals, and the environment have yet to be determined. The long term effects caused by herbicides, pesticides, and hormones aren’t fully known by society yet. However, we use Monsanto’s roundup weed killer almost every day in America. This weed killer is what GMO seeds are modified to resist, giving them the ability to grow under such harsh conditions. Little is known about the effects of these roundup ready seeds, “The future of the company may lie in seeds, but the seeds of the company lie in chemicals” (Barlett and Steele). Monsanto’s roots were in chemicals far before they were planted in the agricultural industry. Those roots were planted in the early 1900’s by John Francis Queeny, who started Monsanto chemical works. Even though, Queeny founded Monsanto it was his son Edgar Queeny who brought Monsanto to power in the chemical industry. Through the years Monsanto would work with a wide range of chemicals goods. Products such as:...
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...Question 2: Costs and Benefits of Growing GMO seed 5 Question 3: Management of Harm with Plants and Animals 6 Question 4: Visit Monsanto website, what is CSR and Sustainability Strategy of Monsanto, and give suggestions for its strategy for Monsanto Company? 8 Conclusion 9 Bibliography 10 * * Executive summary Monsanto is one of the world’s largest industrial agriculture businesses, especially focusing on genetically modified products. Monsanto has obtained a progress in corporate responsibility, but Monsanto has deficiencies with ethical culture. Monsanto is in a difficult position, because the products are highly specialized and therefore most consumers do not understand them. Although, Environmental and health issues aside, Monsanto’s GM seeds provide an opportunity for farmers to increase profits by allowing them to grow crops on land that would not support traditional seeds. And it suggests creating ethical corporate system to help them to deal with the problem that products harm to plants and animals. Finally, it introduces the website, what kinds corporate social responsibilities and sustainability strategy does Monsanto has. For example, they pay attention to education, charity…. Introduction * The Monsanto Company is...
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...Ethics Paper Alicia Lanfair MGT 498 January 6, 2016 Thomas Rauter Ethics Paper The function of ethics and social responsibility is the creating of a strategic plan while reflecting on the stakeholder’s desires and plans. Ethics is the study and values of human behavior with an importance of knowing right from wrong. Business ethics is the principles, values, and standards that primarily direct the actions of a company. Principle values are distinct boundaries of behavior, those of which are both universal and absolute. Values help in developing shared socially enforced things such as integrity, trust, and credibility. Social Responsibility Social responsibility comprises the acting with concern and sensitivity, aware of the impact of a person’s actions on others, particularly the disadvantaged. Social responsibility is the social contract between the business and society. Role of Ethics in Strategic Planning Strategic planning is important in an environment that has become so unstable. (Wheelen, Hunger, & Bamford, 2015) No business can function properly unless it has a well-defined structure in which divided tasks are among groups, each group headed by a person in authority. Whereas it is impossible to lay down a structure universally applicable, it is reasonable to summarize some of the qualities that a real working business structure will have. The organization and the groups into which the structure is broken down must clearly have...
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...Case 1: “Monsanto Attempts to Balance Stakeholder Interests” Dr. Obradovich Case 1: “Monsanto Attempts to Balance Stakeholder Interests” Harry Stevenson September 15th, 2015 Monsanto is one of the world’s largest industrial agriculture businesses, especially focusing on genetically modified products. The company specializes in biotechnology, modifying crops and genetic manipulation of organisms. These modifications help farmers by using less land and creating more crops, which equals more profits. Genetically modified (GM) food also helps create solutions to world hunger problems and is a rapidly growing product for famers. GM products have stirred up controversy everywhere they are distributed, and Monsanto, being a huge multinational corporation and a major producer, is at the center of the debate. Throughout the company’s history, Monsanto has been attacked with criticisms from governments, farmers and activists groups because of their controversial products. This case deals with the ethical implications of producing and selling a product without understanding the environmental and physical implications of the products. Monsanto claims that its products are safe, and the FDA has proclaimed that GM food is safe to consume but critics are not convinced and continue to try and stop the use of GM products. Monsanto has showed a clear disregard for ethical obligations in its history and continues to downplay the importance of environmental and physical risks to the...
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...Monsanto Company not ethically culture to the stakeholders. Before the year 2000 Monsanto was untrusted to the stakeholder because of their chemical products. In 1970s, Monsanto produced Agent Orange which harmed many people in the rustles. Because of that reputation and safety concern Monsanto lost more than $1.7 billion and down to $8 a share from the stakeholder. However, after 2003 the new CEO changed the company from chemical product to food product called genetically modified food (GM). Although they turn to food production, Monsanto isn’t far from doing unethical business to consumers by serving the GM food. “Of great concern to many stakeholder are the moral and safety implication of GM food. Many skeptics see biotech crops as unnatural,...
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...its way into consumer products. Monsanto a leader in the dairy product industry developed the Bovaine Growth Hormone (BGH) to help cow’s produces more milk. This product is marketed for farmers to buy and use it on cows to increase profit potential. To make this all happen Monsanto got every necessary approval including the FDAs’ to bring this product to market. With minimal research data collected the product was able to pass testing either because Monsanto misrepresented the findings of the safety of BGH or the FDA did not appropriately evaluate the potential safety concerns that may arise. Thus we have in society large corporations pushing aside possible human health concerns in order to make a considerable return on investment. Well according to a Kantian perspective this does not justify the means to an end nor would this pass under a “veil of ignorance” according to John Rawls. Canada had found conflicting results with those reported from the studies and banned the use of BGH as a result of their findings. So in turn, Fox News reporters Jane and Steve decide to do an expose of this story. In the process of writing it up Monsanto sends a letter saying that Fox News station would face ‘dire consequences’ if they aired the story. The threats eventually were able to crack senior management at Fox and they decided to pull the story to avoid a potential law suit and loss of advertising dollars. The implications here are contradictory to what the US promotes themselves as being...
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...Monsanto Paper By Raikirat Sohi MBA 505 Foundation of Management A. Hetro Jay S. Sidhu School of Business and Management November 18, 2014 COMPANY HISTORY AND PROFILE Monsanto is one of the Fortune 500 Company with its headquarters located in St. Louis, Missouri, United States. It employs 21183 employee globally providing 146 facilities in In USA alone, it employees 10277 employees distributing 404 facilities over 66 countries (Monsanto, 2014). It is an American multinational agrochemical and agricultural biotechnology corporation. It serves its customers with products ranging from agricultural and vegetable seeds, plant biotechnology traits to crop protection chemicals. In present times it is the leading manufacturer of genetically engineered seeds and herbicide glyphosate marketed under brand name round up (Monsanto, 2014). It was founded in 1901by John F. Queeny with his wife Olga Monsanto Queeny. The first produce that was manufactured by this company was saccharin (the artificial sweetener) that was sold to Coca-Cola Company. By 1905, Monsanto benefitted ad progressed through the sale of vanillin and caffeine. During the time of World war 2 Monsanto was unable to import chemicals that were needed by them from Europe so in order to compensate that it started producing chemicals on its own. Monsanto went public in Stock exchange in 1929. During this era of 1920’s Monsanto expanded in chemical industries producing sulphuric acid and PCB’s. Monsanto’s first PCB manufacturing...
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...What is Monsanto International? Monsanto International Corporation is a multinational agricultural biotechnology company. Established in 1901 in St. Louis, Missouri by John Francis Queeny, Monsanto was originally founded in order to develop products for the food and pharmaceutical industries. The first product introduced by the company was none other than Saccharin, developed for and distributed to the Coca-Cola Company. Shortly after, Monsanto developed caffeine and vanillin, and introduced them to the then growing beverage company. The Monsanto Company became international in 1919 when it established a presence in Europe by partnering with a company based there to produce salicylic acid, aspirin, and eventually rubber with them. Starting in the 1920’s, Monsanto International began to produce and distribute basic industrial chemicals such as sulfuric acid, and by the time the 1940’s arrived, the company was the leading manufacturer of some chemical plastics and synthetic fibers. Since, Monsanto has maintained a position as one of the top 10 chemical companies in the United States. Other noteworthy products that have yielded from the Monsanto Corporation are the artificial sweetener aspartame (NutraSweet), the insecticide DDT (dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane) which was later banned, the toxic chemical “Agent Orange” used in the Vietnam War, the controversial Bovine Growth Hormone (rBGH), many Nuclear Weapons, and the pesticide “Roundup” also found to have toxic effects...
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...processed, much less the unethical and hidden practices of the companies behind it. These practices have lead to many problems within the food industry, and are slowly becoming worse and worse. Boxes, bags, cans, bottles, and other various containers of food and drink line the shelves. Bright and colorful brand names...
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...Ethical Concerns …………………………………………………………………………………………..Page 4 The Root of the Problem…………………………………………………………………………..Page 6 Chart of Monsanto appointees……………………………………………………………..Page 6 Which Administrations are Guilty…………………………………………………..Page 8 Obama Appointees……………………………………………………………………………………………..Page 10 Damage and Effects………………………………………………………………………………………….Page 12 Recommendations………………………………………………………………………………………………..Page 13 Abstract At the heart of the issues of corruption in the FDA and USDA are the appointees to the departments. Many are former employees of Monsanto. A former director of Monsanto made the statement Monsanto should not have to vouchsafe the safety of biotech food that is the job of the FDA. The FDA says that food manufactures should be responsible for what they produce. Ironically, the FDA is controlled largely by Monsanto, and Monsanto is regulated by the United States Government, with neither side willing to take ownership of the issue. The first Monsanto appointees in the FDA were placed under the first Bush administration. In each subsequent administration more appointees were taken from Monsanto. President Obama is responsible for the largest number of appointments with the greatest conflict of interests. Corruption in the FDA and USDA Corruption in government is nothing new, no matter what country, state, city or province. Governmental corruption has been a problem for every civilization since civilizations began. The...
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...such as Xerox, Enron, and WorldCom, and uses the metaphor “bad apples” to state that there are more than a few corporations that are bad. The film argues that if corporations were people, they would have psychopathic personalities. It then states that corporations have become a vessel which good and bad people can cause harm to society because of the way corporations have evolved and how they are protected. The Corporation film is concerned with the role corporations have in modern society its impact, or the corporate social responsibility. The film explores how corporations have been poisoning the earth as well as consumer minds and how the government is intended to look over and control these corporations. It looks into some of the unethical business practices and strategies executed by corporations and the externalities that are created to satisfy the main goal of the corporation: to maximize profit and market share. 2. Body A major social issue that was brought up in this film is the way that corporations treat foreign factory workers. The film is concerned with the rampant use of sweatshops by large businesses. The use Nike as an example, which was severely condemned and suspected of running sweatshops in several countries in Asia. The workers are paid only a small percentage of the price the products that they make are sold at and in do not have enough money to support their families. This is an...
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...1. Does Monsanto maintain an ethical culture that can effectively respond to various stakeholders? No, it does not. Monsanto have tried, but still fails to even create an ethical culture that can effectively respond to various stakeholders. Considering how many problems over how long of a time Monsanto has made them, they constantly get legislation regarding their product passed in countries, including America, through unethical means. However, the company used the concept of Social Responsibility and Business Ethics to create a reputation value to various stakeholders. For instance, Monsanto gave fifteen million dollars to Donald Danforth Plant Science Center to do crop research in Africa. Also, the fund helped Brazilian children to maintain good health and basic hygiene. In addition, Monsanto supported students who want to study agriculture. But, Monsanto Company’s regulation had become financial burden to many farmers. Farmers who buy seeds from Monsanto could not save for future plant. Else, Farmers will have to pay for Monsanto when they find out. Furthermore, Monsanto produced products that involved in the risk of animals and human health. Some of Monsanto’s actions should considered moral temptation. 2. Compare the benefits of growing GM seeds for crops with the potential negative consequences of using them. Benefits: - Farmers could expect better yields if they used GM seeds. - Farmers can now grow more crops in smaller amount of land which in effect would increase...
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...Businesses only act in an ethical way because it looks good rather than because it is the right thing to do. To what extent do you agree with this statement? (40 Marks) Businesses are differentiated in several ways but one way that really separates businesses are the ethics of the company. Ethics are the standards of right and wrong behaviour from the company, this is difficult for a business as they all have different ethics and to what extent how ethical they are and should be, if they even want to be ethical? I will now look at businesses that have different ethics and how this has affected their running of the business, also evaluating why they chose to be so ethical. One company that do not publicise their ethical culture is Ben and Jerry’s, the ice cream giant with their elaborate and quirky flavours which they have become iconic for started a revolution by becoming the first ever company to become ‘fair trade’ with Vanilla Ice Cream in 2006 and have declared all European products by 2011 will be and by the end of 2013 the rest of the worlds production. This basically meant everyone involved in the process of creating the ice cream including the labour such as farmers who extracted the raw materials to produce their goods such as cocoa beans were paid at a good rate which would’ve increased their costs but not significantly. The reason costs didn’t rise significantly was mainly due to the company expanding allowing them to exploit economies of scale by bulk-buying their...
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...Monsanto Attempts to Balance Stakeholder Interests 1. Does Monsanto maintain an ethical culture that can effectively respond to various stakeholders? In my opinion, no. Monsanto has tried, but fails to even create an ethical culture that can effectively respond to stakeholders. Considering how many problems over how long of a time Monsanto has created them, they continually get legislation regarding their product passed in countries, including The United States of America, through unethical means. Their product in itself harms the stakeholders they have identified in both direct and indirect ways, from endocrine disrupting, teratogenic, and carcinogenic effects, as well as the weakening of the life support systems of our planet. Before an ethical culture can be achieved, an ethical product must be considered and implemented within the organization (Ferrell, 2015, page. 384). 2. Compare the benefits of growing GM seeds for crops with the potential negative consequences of using them? The benefits of growing genetically modified seeds could be an amazing opportunity for humanity to create unparalleled abundance. They represent a product of hundreds of years observing life and studying it, reducing it down to its parts to understand it. Given time, nearly any gene could be expressed in any organism to help facilitate adaptation to new, emerging conditions. However there are some major problems. The first is the amount of study of the effects of these technologies is in...
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