Business Stop Podcast For Ethical Business Practices

In this episode of the Business Stop Podcast, the host examines the ethical practices of three big companies: Starbucks, Hasbro, and Kohl's. The common areas of focus are conflict of interest, gifts and entertainment, and international business. Conflict of interest refers to personal interests interfering with company duties, which can create unfair advantages. The companies all consider gifts over $100 to be unethical as it compromises judgment and can be seen as a bribe. Ethical practices in international business involve respecting laws and foreign policies to prevent unethical practices like paying officials for financial influence. Identifying and managing conflicts of interest is emphasized, as well as making decisions in the best interest of the organization rather than personal gain. Welcome back. Welcome back to the business stop podcast where you stop a business does not. I'm your host, Jarrett Powell. In today's episode, we'll be examining the ethical business practices of three really big companies, Starbucks, Hasbro, and Kohl's. So where we want to begin is you want to start with the three areas of commonality and similarity that these companies have when it comes to ethical business practices. And when we talk about ethical business practices, we're talking about conflict of interest. We're talking about gifts and entertainment. We're talking about international business. And we define ethical practices as conducting all aspects of business in a morally responsible and socially conscious manner, prioritizing honesty, fairness, transparency, and accountability. We want to start off with conflict of interest, which refers to an individual's personal interests interfering with their duties for the company, to the company, in terms of making decisions on behalf of that company. Hasbro does a really good job of mentioning different kinds of conflicts such as personal and family, outside employment, personal investment. These things are a big no-no when it comes to the company because these create unfair advantages for people who might be closely related to you or some of your own personal interests. Gifts and entertainment was the next area of commonality where it seems that an unethical practice that all these businesses are appalled by is if gifts are taken over a hundred dollars or more and can compromise the judgment of the employee, of the business partners, of the business exchange itself. This also compromises the judgment, people, the judgment that is made to make a good decision on whether or not the deal is actually good for the company because now your personal gain is at the top of the priority list. This even includes not trading items of value with other businesses, and that can be seen as a bribe, which could totally destroy a company's reputation and also get them in a lot of trouble because that's illegal to accept gifts. Again, gifts over a hundred is a big no-no with all these companies' practices. Very unethical. The last piece of what we're going to talk about is also an unethical practice when it comes to international business, crossing borders, going to other countries, thinking about their laws and their foreign policies when it comes to business practices. These ethical practices can help prevent paying businesses across countries in order to influence officials, foreign officials. This has happened many times before when companies would try to do business with other companies and in exchange they would pay their officials whether it was to help with some financial foreign influence in their country in exchange for something else. This is very unethical because it can really disrupt, one, the relationship between countries, which could escalate into a political arena, which could escalate then to government policies and could even break out into some small fires, big fires that can't be put out very easily. Kohl's is a big proponent of this as they do a lot of foreign business. This also includes how products are imported, how are they exported between countries. If they're import and export without following all these laws that the country has, then this can still be considered an unethical practice. You've got to be up on what's happening right now. And to conclude before we end this episode of the podcast, all of these statements emphasize the importance of identifying and managing conflicts of interest within their respective organizations. They highlight the need to disclose situations that could create conflicts, the potential consequences of conflicts, and the importance of making decisions in the best interest of the organization rather than personal gain. Again, my name is Jared Powell. I am your host of the Business Stop Podcast, where you stop the business does not. Thank you again for your time. Thank you again for your ears to listen. We appreciate you. We're out. Have a great day, everyone.