Cadbury conflict Essay

Businesses can come across many conflicts between stakeholders, which are the people that are impacted by the business. Cadbury, the chocolate producer, has started an organization, worth  £9 million pounds, to put sports equipment in school across the UK. Customers would need to save tokens from chocolate bars and give them to the schools. To get the first equipment, 750 tokens are needed. While to allow the school to obtain a variety of different equipment, it needed 2000 tokens. For schools who can’t afford these new equipment, this idea was very appealing. Cadbury’s ‘Get Active Campaign’ was sponsored with deals from Cadbury and the government by top sports stars such as boxer Audley Harrison and runner Paula Radcliffe. However the company and the government were blamed for increasing the rate and the chances of obesity in young people, because they would eat more chocolate through this scheme. Some stakeholders that are affected by this scheme would be the customers, the competition, the workers, the government, and the shareholders. The customers would be affected by this scheme because they increase the problems of obesity in young people, by eating the Cadburys chocolate in order to receive sports equipment. Cadbury would become more popular and common and after people have tried their chocolate through this scheme, it would encourage them to go buy more, which increases the profit for Cadbury. This would also lead to a stiffer competition between other chocolate and food producing companies. This scheme would be known as a fast effective way of advertising Cadburys chocolate. The workers would also be affected because they would be demotivated and therefore are unlikely to produce good quality products or deliver good customers services. Also, through the scheme, Cadbury would spend  £9 million, and therefore, during the process of trying to sell more chocolate and earn more money, their workers would earn a lower salary. The government would be affected because they would be criticized for encouraging children to eat more chocolate. The shareholders are affected because they would receive a lower profit if the profit margin is dropping. The businesses responsibility would be to provide for the population and to fulfil their wants and needs. In this case, Cadbury is providing for both its customers, and the school. It’s responsibility is to also provide jobs for the society. These people make money to support themselves and their families, pay taxes and use their wages to buy goods and services. The businesses responsibility towards competitors would be to be honest in their business practice. The businesses duty towards its workers would be creating a safe work environment, to pay workers of a business a minimum hourly wage, and to pay each worker money owed from working per paid period, including overtime, sick leave, and vacation wages. It is also the responsibility of the business to train workers in safe procedures to minimize the risk of injury. Also it is a business duty to create a working climate that fosters respect and fair treatment of every worker regardless of age, gender, race etc. The businesses responsibility towards the government is to pay taxes, follow environmental regulations (they need to limit the number of pollutants they expel), to maintain law and order etc. Finally, the businesses responsibility towards the shareholders is to build and maintain generosity in the eye of society, to provide goods and services, and to earn a profit and bring money to the company and the investors. Conflicts that might exist between stakeholders would be between society and the company and government. Even though the government supports Cadbury’s ‘’Get Active Campaign†, the general public is speaking that the only candy company is using the concept of being active to lure children to purchase more chocolates. It would also increase the number of calories the children take in (1.2 million) since to receive only one piece of sports equipment (e.g a volleyball set), children must collect $2000. Thus, leading to obesity at a young age. Another conflict that might result is between customers and the company. The customers buying the chocolate might realize that the campaign is just a scheme created to sell more chocolate, yet neglects the importance of healthy exercise. Some solutions to the conflicts that the businesses faces would be that Cadbury should cancel the concept of accumulating chocolate tokens. It is the responsibility of companies to encourage customers to live a fit  lifestyle, not a plan to sell more chocolate. In order to solve the conflict, Cadbury should cancel and donate the sports equipment to financially struggling schools as an act of charity. Public relations firms specialize in dealing with negative publicity. There are many ways to solve problems between different stakeholders. Each business stakeholders have their own business objective. They usually have different opinions and have to disagree about some decisions. Finding a solution can satisfy both the conflicting stakeholders.