Page 64 - Business Principles and Management

project:
MY BUSINESS , INC.

SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
The way people in a community view a business can often determine
whether it will be successful or not. A business owner must consider changes
in population, income, attitudes, and values. In this project, you will study
the social environment in which your business will operate and the impor-
tance of socially responsible and ethical operations to business success.

DATA COLLECTION
1. Collect newspaper and magazine articles or information from
the Internet that describe social and environmental changes
that could affect your business. Try to identify issues that have
national/international implications as well as those that are cur-
rently important to your own community.
2. Interview five people of various ages and backgrounds. Ask them
to describe their positive and negative feelings about fast-food
businesses. Ask them the same questions about the health/fitness
industry. Create a table comparing the positive and negative
responses for each type of business.
3. Discuss the importance of business ethics with a businessperson.
Ask the person to identify the areas of business operations where
he or she believes ethics is most important.
4. Contact government agencies in your community to identify local
recycling regulations that will affect your business and health laws
your business must observe.

ANALYSIS
1. Using information from the Internet or business publications, try
to describe the typical customers for health and fitness products.
Develop charts that illustrate the information you gathered, includ-
ing age, gender, education level, ethnicity/race, etc.
2. Develop at least four business operating procedures that show
how you will operate in an ethical and socially responsible man-
ner. Examples are use of resources, pollution, product quality, and
employment practices. Compose a letter to the city council about
these procedures. Explain how you will become involved with the
city and how it will benefit from your presence.
3. Analyze the information collected from #2 of the Data Collection
activities. What can you do in your business operation to take advan-
tage of the positive factors and overcome the negative factors?
4. Some juice bars add supplements such as vitamins to their juices at
an additional charge. These supplements may be unhealthy for some
people, and the price charged is very high compared to their cost.
Each of these is an ethical dilemma for a business owner. Select either
the health dilemma or the pricing dilemma. Complete an analysis,
describing both sides of the issue and deciding how you would
respond as the business owner.

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