Question

Prepare an essay about one company that practice ethical conduct with one of their stakeholder.

Answer 1

Walmart Inc. is an American multinational retail corporation based in Bentonville, Arkansas that operates a chain of hypermarkets, discount department stores, and grocery stores. The company is a global leader in retail business and has a highly refined Statement of Ethics and various Global Ethics and compliance policies for different stakeholders. The policies tend to a wide range of stakeholders and relate to ethical concerns like Anti-Corruption, Anti-money laundering, Anti-Trust, Consumer Protection, Environment and Health, Food Safety, Labor and Employment, Product Safety, Privacy etc.

According to Walmart, their Statement of Ethics is designed to create an honest, fair and objective workplace while operating in compliance with all laws and policies with a vision of promoting ownership of Walmart's ethical culture to all stakeholders globally.

Walmart publishes various global policies, which are designed to provide guidance that is the same for all locations of their business. In addition, each business unit Walmart operates is expected to have a complete set of policies providing guidance to the associates in the country in which they are working because these policies may vary by business unit or market. Walmart considers that its their responsibility to know all of the policies that might apply to their areas of the business.

Let us take a look at one of the policies namely Consumer Protection Policy related to consumers who are one of the key stakeholders.

Int the Global Consumer Protection Policy, Walmart states that they are committed to complying with all applicable consumer protection laws and regulations where they operate and also provide consumers clear and accurate information about their products and services. They support open and honest communication about their products, prices, services and promotional offers which demonstrates their respect for their customers and helps them in making their buying decisions based on accurate information. Such strong sense of responsibilty towards consumers paired with transparency of open communication helps in building trust and goodwill among their consumers.

The consumer protection policies attends to various concerns related to consumers like:

1. Compliance of various consumer laws and other legal conditions

2. Compliance with internal regulations relating to creation, set-up and display of merchandise online

3. Compliance of internal regulations for product claims and promotional activities

4. Prohibition of false or deceptive advertising

5. Displaying accurate pricing information to consumers

6. Calibrating scales regularly to verify accurate weight measurements.

7. Ensuring product warranties and guarantees are communicated and applied as required

8. Reporting concerns related to fairness of marketing and advertising

9. Conduction of regular audits to verify Consumer Protection program principles are followed

The above stated policies indicate the seriousness with which the consumer protection is considered by Walmart. Apart from these global policies the business units are also required to have a customized set of policies that can help in complying to specific requirements of consumer laws applicable to that are or country inwhich the business unit is located. The strong network of policies is what builds the trust of consumers in Walmart as a brand. Moreover, as various studies suggest, the use of customer analytics by Walmart for improving their customer experience and increasing their customer base is one of the main reason behind the huge success of Walmart.

Conclusion:

In conclusion, Walmart has been observed to adhere to various ethical practices to all its key stakeholders including consumers. The company’s strategy of having both a local as well as global consumer protection standard serves as a dual check. Further, the company’s tendency to collect data from customers to improve their experience and ensure that the consumers are satisfied has helped it in gaining trust of the consumers. The strong internal compliance requirements to follow laws and regulations relating to consumer protection is commendable. Walmart's ability to ethically tend to various stakeholders is the reason behind its huge success as a retail corporation globally.