Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of

Management and Entrepreneurship

Development

Case Study on Unethical

Business Practices.
• Team:

• NIHAR GHARAT 06
• AKSHATA SHINGOTE 40
• IQBAL SINGH 46
 Points to be covered:
I. Introduction Define ethics,ethics in business and the
important of ethics in business context

II. Background of Business Introduction to McDonald’s

III. Case Outline The case of unhealthy ingredients

IV. Stakeholder The people affected by this issue

directly and indirectly
V. Key Ethical Issue Consequences from this issue

VI. Ethical Analysis Ethical analysis on alternative reasons

behind occurrence of the issue
VII. Recommendations Comments and suggestions to
McDonald’s,the US government and
consumers
Introduction:

 MORAL PRINCIPLE
 RIGHTS AND RESPONSIBILTIES
 MANAGEMENT IN BUSINESS
 DECISION-MAKING
 SUSTAIN GROWTH
Summary:
• Originally,this restaurant served only hot
dogs,hamburgers,cheeseburgers,milkshakes, and
the pre-1960s type of French Fries.
• This restaurant is world’s leading global
foodservice retailer with over 36,000 locations
serving approximately 69 million customers in
over 100 countries each day.
• More than 80% of restaurants worldwide are
owned and operated by local businessmen and
women.
Issues :
• The corporation food is unhealthy for
consumers. They use many harmful
ingredients and chemical such as
acrylamide,azodicarbonamide,sodium acid
pyrophosphate and dimethylpolysiloxane
which are banned by many nations. They also
use genetics modified ingredients which are
hard to trace (Gibison).
• For instances, in Japan, McDonald’s apple pies
were found contain food coloring agent which
is banned in Japan.
• A women with her child ordered salad and
found a rat in it- (US McDonald’s) .
Stakeholders:
Stakeholders are the people who got directly and
indirectly effected by the outcome of a decision.

• McDonald’s Company
• Consumers
• U.S. Government
• Competitors
• Companies in the same industry
• Other companies ( Companies in which
McDonald’s consumers work for)
Key ethical issues:
• The unethical case is concerned with unethical
ingredients.
• McDonald’s food contains too many calories
and not enough nutrition such as large
amounts of sugar, unhealthy fats and highly
processed; which directly affects on
consumers overall health.
• This diet leads to overweight, obesity and
heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
Additionally, when the individual citizens
cannot work ,the communities, companies
and US society as a whole also get hit.

As identified by the Centers for Disease Control

and Prevention , the expense on obesity-
related medical costs was $147 billion and $69
billion was responsible for losing productivity
caused from this disease in the year 2008.
Analysis:
• Utilitarian people make decision that produce
better consequences than alternatives.
Examples of better consequences that
promotes human well-being; the
happiness,health,dignity and more.
• A decision that supports greatest good for
maximum number of people is the best
decision .
• The utilitarian perspective would find this
unethical whether McDonald’s had the good
purpose or not . This is due to negative
consequences, the public health issues.
• The company does not provide safety food for
consumers ,society which lead to increase in
public health issues.
• It is immoral for any business to serve a product
or service that may cause harm.
• Their food is at the expense of society’s health
and welfare.
Recommendations:
for McDonald’s Company;

• Give that the cooperation operating in food

industry ,food safety should be integrated into
the company credo, value statement and code
of conduct. It will never be ethical enough to
make profits at the expense of consumers
health.
Recommendations:
for Government;

• The government should encourage and

enforce on a legislation and quality control of
ingredients used in food products.
• Limit advertisements that target children
under 12 years old.
Recommendations:
for Consumers;
• Consumers should be health conscious,
manage their diets by balancing healthy food
and do more exercises ,for example, buying
fresh vegetable and meat from fresh markets
and self-cooking at home.
Conclusion:
McDonald’s faces some difficult challenges. Key
to its future success will be maintaining its
core strengths ,an unwavering focus on quality
and consistency while carefully experimenting
with new options .
The company’s environment efforts, while
important should not overshadow its
marketing initiatives ,which are what the
company is all about.
Thankyou