Ethical dilemma in business
Dairy farming business, just like any other kind of business, is faced with many issues that are occasioned by ethics. Some of the common issues that may arise, in this case, include unfair competition, the rise of monopolies, along with the move by large business organizations to take over the small businesses. The focus of this paper will be on the last aspect which is the move by the bigger organizations to take over small businesses. This will be narrowed down to the effect that this has to individual businesses, the owners, and even the stock, that is the animals.
From the assigned video, it is evident that Walmart chose to take over from its supplier Dean foods. In this case, it is noted that Walmart was one of the primary customers for Dean foods. The giant decided to take over the services that it was being offered by Dean Foods, which acted as its subsidiary in its supply chain (Guebert, 2019). Given this case, the business, Dean foods, became irrelevant in the market. Its owners, on the other hand, became bankrupt as there was no income coming in. As a result, they were forced to sell their dairy animals for slaughter.
In my reaction, it is unfair for the bigger farms to come in and compete with smaller firms. This is because there are also employees and owners of these small firms who need to make their ends meet. Instituting unfair competition to them will have adverse effects with the extreme cases being channelling the businesses to bankruptcy (NBC News, 2018). I feel for those small firms that end up being bulldozed and dominated by fewer large firms in the market, as this threatens their position in the market and their future prospects.
In my own personal experience, while I was a supplier of grocery in my hometown, I felt so bad when Walmart decided to put groceries as part of its offerings in the market. This made it difficult for me to generate revenue as most of my customers resorted to getting their supplies from my competitor. At the end of it all, I was left stuck, with some of my stocks going bad. The implication of this is that I ran at losses that I could not recover as there was no source of income.
The important takeaways as far as the issue of bigger firms coming to take over the smaller firms are concerned is that it threatens the existence and overall survival of small entities. In this case, the government should set some policies that will help in protecting the smaller firms from being bulldozed by bigger firms. Apart from that, the other takeaway is that the smaller firms should consider diversifying their offerings as this will help in cushioning them. My comment is that small firms should also be given a chance for survival. This will consequently help in enhancing the fair distribution of wealth.
References
Guebert. A. (March 21, 2019). Costco, Walmart want ag control. Farm and Dairy. Retrieved from https://www.farmanddairy.com/columns/costco-walmart-want-ag-control/542531.html
NBC News. (2018, June 29). The last days of an American dairy farm: “Hard to believe it’s over” | NBC News [Video file]. Retrieved from https://youtu.be/XEI6HbCZjRQ.