BUSINESS ETHICS ARE AN INTEGRAL PART OF INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS STRATEGIES   pt2     1600w 

NESTLE CORPORATION:

“During the promotion of infant formula in third world countries especially in Africa, the Nestle corporation hired the women and without giving them necessary training, they dressed them up as nurses. Those nurses recommend the formula over breast feeding to the mothers. They convinced that using the formula is sophisticated and looks like western, while breast feeding is old fashioned and third world practice. When mothers get convinced to use infant formula, free samples of Nestle infant formula were given to them. Those free samples lasted long enough to dry up the mother’s breast milk due to the lack of use. Now at that stage mothers were forced to purchase the infant formula. The company continued this strategy regardless of worldwide protest. Protesters claimed that chance of getting sick is higher in children who were using infant formula as compared to breastfeeding in third world countries. The company changed its strategy only after years of massive boycotts of Nestle products by consumer”. (Hooker, John, 2003, p.4).

DISCUSSION:

From the business point of view the company’s inflexibility was perfectly justified. Because “the major social responsibility of any business is to generate profit by using company resources and operating within legal boundaries”. (Friedman, M, 1973, p.2) The company directors had no right to withdraw a profitable and legal product, although innocent babies were suffering due to it, until boycotts changed the public opinion and company started to suffer financially. Although the infant formula itself was not the cause of deaths but the unethical strategy used to promote marketing in third world countries was major cause of those sufferings. “Following are four problems that can arise when poor mothers in developing countries switch to infant formula,

Infant formula needs to be mixed with water, which is mostly contaminated in poor countries. By using this contaminated water leads to diseases in infants. Due to higher illiteracy rate in those countries, majority of mother did not know how to wash the bottle and prepare it for feeding. Nestle write direction for use only in English. So the mothers how know to read in their native language, cannot understand the directions.

Even the mothers, who understand the directions, do not have the means to perform it. Due to the lack of fuel.

Most of the poor mothers cannot afford the infant formula. So they use infant formula in less quantity as compared said quantity in order to make it last longer. But baby will suffer by this practice because he not getting the required amount of nutrition.

Infant formula cannot be the true substitute of breastfeeding. Breast feeding has many natural benefits like, transfer of antibodies from mother to baby, essential amount of nutrition required for brai