Changing Environment of Business

Changing Environment of Business

Chapter One:

What would one believe makes the business environment constantly change? Public scrutiny, globalization and communication are three factors, which influence change.

Public Scrutiny

Public scrutiny of American businesses can be traced back to the time of employer and employee relationship beginnings. The businessperson pursued wealth and self-interests at the expense of the worker majority of the time. According to Argenti, “Dow Chemical’s manufacture of Napalm and Agent Orange, which would be used to defoliate Vietnamese jungles, led to student protests on American university campuses.” (2) In my opinion, American people are still to this day protesting the affects of Dow Chemical’s greed for profit in the production of this chemical warfare. Ponder on the illnesses American soldiers struggle with till this day as the result of contact with Napalm and Agent Orange, let alone how many other people aboard are suffering the same. http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/systems/munitions/napalm.htm

Globalization

Globalization is a direct result of the rapid technology growth and of the rapid worldly economic growth. Corporations grew into multination or foreign owned that gave these large businesses their own culture and political influence. This effected the business environment were change was apparent for survival. In the 1980’s, I was employed with a specialty metal business, which dealt with titanium alloys. Titanium is a metallic chemical produce from the ocean floor. For more information: http://minerals.usgs.gov/minerals/pubs/commodity/titanium/ Interesting, as it may seem, America produced the aluminum and nickel, but collaborated with foreign counties for the purchase of titanium. This was my first experience with globalization first hand. ANother experience I had was in the 1990’s, a local company, Dyna-craft merged their ownership with an investor from Beijing, China. The corporation built new warehouses out west and opened another machine shop in nearby Apollo, PA. More information on the merger see information at this link: http://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9E00E3D71439F932A25752C1A963958260 Other manufacturing shops were opened in parts of the United States and China. Today, the business is in China. Another commonly known example of globalization would be the automobile industry. American businesses exports and imports automobiles and automobile parts, and merged with foreign automobile industries to create the huge corporations as mentioned above. I strongly believe that the growth of communication technology opened the pathway to globalization.

COMMUNICATIONS

Communication is the essential instrument among businesses and individuals alike.
The constant division between the public and business has continued through time, and the use of communication technology permits the business communications and the public communications to take place spontaneously. The Arthur Anderson (Case 1-1) involvement of the Enron Corporation situation is an excellent case study of communications in a changing environment, which was used for the business’ advantage. (12). http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/enron.html

The public has used communication technology to their advantage too. In 1997, Earth First! coordinated campaigns against large corporations. This organization is still a strong environment group that approach corporations. http://www.earthfirst.org/

Conclusion

Conclusion of this posting, Argenti offers four strategies for companies to exercise in survival of the challenges in a changing environment along with survival of public scrutiny. Businesses need to listen and respond positively to the public scrutinizes. First, “managers need to recognize that the business environment is constantly evolving.” Change is a given in the equation of life. Companies need to keep abreast of their constituencies and create a communication strategy that keeps technology innovations evolving in the face.

Second, “companies must adapt to the changing environment without changing what they stand for or compromising their principles.” (10). In other words, under strong public watchdogs, companies need to protect their reputations and image. Third strategy, “assume things will only get worse and you will be better off in today’s complex environment.” (11). Businesses need to think how the public will respond or will react to a business’s communication to the public in a given situation. As an example, corporations dumping toxic waste material in a landfill near a small community. The corporation did not think that the community would protest and have wide spread support. Finally, “corporate communications must be closely linked to a company’s overall vision and strategy.” (12). Corporations need to have a communication strategy that would be in line with their mission statement, policies and procedures.