Case Study on Best Buy Fight Against E-Waste †Free Sample

Question: Case study on best buy fight against e-waste. Answer: Introduction: Best Buy is a largest consumer speciality electronics retailer within its sector through the United States since 40 years of its inception founded by Richard Schulze with the vision of People, Technology, And the pursuit of happiness. This case study focuses on the history, its growth and expansion stories, vision and the actions taken by the company to turn the vision in reality. An analysis is done on the programs by company, environmental initiatives and challenges faced to sustain the dominance in consumer electronics market. Its an ideal example of economic growth along with environmental growth by the company (Serenko Bonntis, 2009). Overall both the concept has been undertaken by the company in a strong manner. Best Buy is seen engaging in the continuous process of improvement by supporting sustainability. The use of eco-friendly practices into several facets has helped largely in cost reduction by reducing energy consumption and recycling of e-waste. Company also started selling energy saving products which helps customers to save money and helps environment. Series of energy star product comply the US Standards has been launched by the company from refrigerators to printers which are cost effective and sustainable that gives the company a competitive growth. The inclusion of recycling products business has given a new direction to the company and its operating on large scale is also cost effective to the company the sales of the company has touched new heights in a very less time due to a positive effect on peoples mind as they were now paid for recycling their products which were worthless before (Giesler Veresiu, 2014). The partnerships with resellers to sell good conditioned products gave the company a new dimension. Best Buy has been working on continually improving customer service. Its Greek Subsidiary provides a 24 hours on-site service at home or via internet in its signature style. This has attracted more loyal customers and has improved customer satisfaction. Best Buy always believed in giving back to community by various programs in the areas of education and technology. This has increased education and skills by usage of technology within. This has done a positive change on the mind of society and has helped in the brand building (Mcdaniel, 2011). The growing e-waste was a concern for the employees and consumers so best buy has started recycling program named Best buy consumer electronics recycling program. Under this program company recycles the product regardless of its condition or brand and helps consumer to recycle the product or get a way to recycle their product if its not done by best buy by printing a shipping address of the site where such recycling is done. Company quotes a price for recycle from product info and in return customer gets a Best buy gift coupon or cheque if offer is accepted. Later the service even grew to pick-up for large appliances and exchanges. This dedication of resources by Best buy towards recycling has made a great positive change in the environmental health by reduction in gases, emissions, energy savings some less damaged products can also be resell by fabricating properly company splits the profits with partners from such products. Manufacturers works with greater responsibility in product design by new and innovative recycle friendly designs for e.g. Dell. Lighter recycle products are also on demand (Weiss, 2009). But like every coin the other side of this model is the cost of handling large electronics like televisions which requires money and time and are comparatively less recyclable. Company feels that this has made reputation of company as more sustainable and ethical company which attracts more customers improves reputation and bottom-line (Christoph, 2013). Performance of company has also improved on Dow Jones Sustainability Index for second year in row. Impact of the social responsibility efforts on various stakeholders is seen as follows: Employees: Best Buy fully understands the need of the talented and dedicated staff to resolve varied and complex consumer issues so it invests heavily in staff training. Company hears to its employees by various online forums and also emphasises on diversity training of employees by organising various events. Monetary benefits are timely distributed to employees in form of incentives and flexible job sharing. Shareholders: As the reputation of the company improves the index measures also upgrades giving a more wealth creating opportunities for the company as a whole. Company believes in giving back to the society where it operates (Goodstein, 2011). Consumers: Best Buy views itself as a customer-cantered organization. Company encourages its customers to give feedbackratings on its website and invites them to various leadership meetings in order to get a better outlook on their needs. Company has also heard the demand of its customers by publishing a Corporate Social Responsibility Report so that they can come to know about the work of company in the area of sustainability. It has worked on improvement of service by on-site service in matter of hours by its special squads. All this has lead to increase in market share of Best Buy and has an edge in marketplace. Suppliers: Suppliers must adhere to the companies Suppliers Compliance Standards and ensure its compliance for ethical and sustainable practices. Human rights audit has been conducted to curb violation of workers rights by suppliers (Goodstein, 2011). Conclusion: Best Buy has been the market leader in dealing with significant sustainability problem. It has developed itself as a key link in the business of supply chain of electronic products. Its innovative business model and the will to create a differentiation have made it focused towards its vision this work has been recognised by the stock exchanges and award juries. Policy of giving back to the society has made it a trusted brand and has attracted many more consumers (Douma Hein, 2013). This past work has made Best Buy more accountable and responsible towards maintaining the high ethical standards towards community and stress upon the conduct that is essential for future course of action. References Christoph, L 2013, Handbook of the Philosophical Foundations of Business Ethics, Heidelberg/New York: Springer. Douma, S and Hein, S 2013, Economic Approaches to Organizations, London Giesler, M Veresiu, E 2014, Creating the Responsible Consumer: Moralistic Governance Regimes and Consumer Subjectivity, Journal of Consumer Research, vol. 41, pp. 849867 Goodstein, E 2011, Ethics and Economics, Economics and the Environment, Wiley Mcdaniel, C 2011, Theology of the Real Economy, Journal of religion and business ethics, vol.2, pp. 22-56 Serenko, A. and Bontis, N 2009, A citation-based ranking of the business ethics scholarly journals, International Journal of Business Governance and Ethics, vol. 4, no.4, pp. 45-68 Weiss, J. W 2009, Business Ethics: A Stakeholder and Issues Management Approach With Cases, Mason, OH: South-Western Cengage Learning.