Macy’s is an American Department store chain that was founded in 1858. Rowland Hussey Macy developed the store into a Federated Department Store in 1994 and is affiliated with clothing department situated in Bloomingdale’s (Macys.com, 2018). As of 2015, Macy’s is the largest departmental store in the US with locations in more than 669 places. The product and services developed by Macy’s include clothing, footwear, accessories, bedding, jewellery and other beauty products (Macys.com, 2018).
It provides clothes to all parts of the US either by making the products available at its physical stores or by providing online distribution of the products. Therefore, the development of latest application related to Macy’s can be considered as one of the advantageous factors for the company. The target stakeholders of the company include the customers, employees and the financial investors (Macys.com, 2018). At the same time, collaboration with Bloomingdale’s can be considered as a major stakeholder for the business. The mission of the company is to create customer satisfaction by ensuring that a wide range of clothing collection is made available at a cheap cost.
Therefore, the internal stakeholders such as the employees and financial investors aim to provide quality products by continuous improvement so that the interests of the external stakeholders like the customers can be maintained. At the same time, suppliers like Bloomingdale also assist Macy’s to maintain a good relationship with the customers and continue business deals with the company (Macys.com, 2018). The following points highlight the trends, ethical consideration, decision-making system and the impact Macy’s have in the retail market industry.
The following analysis would reveal the external environment in which Macy’s, the American supermarket chain operates:
The political factors affecting the business of Macy’s includes the policies made by the Government of the United States of America. According to the Government of the United States of America, the country is a top producer and marketer of textiles of diverse types and uses including designer fabric. This government of the country has strong bilateral ties with most of countries in the world. This factor enables the premium textile and fashion stores like Macy’s acquire high-end products like shoes and clothing (selectusa.gov, 2018). The strong political relationship of the US with markets like Europe, South America, Asia and South America. This also provides the American premium market chains expand into other nations which results in increase in their revenue and capital base.
The United States of America experiences high economic growth with a GDP of 18.57 billion USD. The high rate of GDP experienced by the nation encourages growth of industry and creates employment opportunities. The premium shopping chains a result can use the financial resources available in the American market to open and expand their business. The next important factor, which has bolstered growth of premium shopping chains in the country, is the high acceptability of USD and its high exchange rate in the international market. This allows the American shopping chains to import products from several markets at lower rates and export products at higher rates. This helps the American shopping companies earn high profits. The market of the United States has a wide network of financial institutions among which many have global presence. This enables the American shopping chains to avail financial mobility in most of the countries (Christopher, 2016). These factors encourage growth and expansion of international shopping chains like Macy’s..
The graph shows comparison of USD compared to two other international currencies namely, EU and JPY. The graph shows that the strength of USD against EU and JPY are increasing, even if by a small percentage against USD. This would prove to be an economic challenge for the American shopping chains and increase their operational costs. The suppliers of premium goods are today shifting their attention towards the eastern markets like India and China. This means that the American shopping chains like Macy’s would lose their economies of scale to their Asian competitors which would prove to a threat for the former.
The biggest push which the American economy provides the premium shopping chains are a large young population with high net worth income which provides them with huge customer base. This means the retail chains generate huge revenue and expansion.
The market of the US provides the premium shopping chains with advanced technology like cloud computing which enable them to control their business all-round the globe. The shopping chains can use technology to market their products online to generate huge revenue.
SWOT:
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Strengths: 1. Financially strong. 2. Immense capital strength |
Weakness: 1. Environmental concerns |
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Opportunities: 1. Foreign expansions. 2. New products |
Threats: 1. Falling price of USD. 2. Threats from Asian markets |
The analysis of the internal and external factors acting on Macy’s shows that the shopping chain should adopt corporate social responsibility, sustainability and business ethics to a great extent. The chain strives to acquire its supply of finished products from suppliers around the world, which use sustainable methods to produce their finished goods. Moreover, the premium shopping chain promotes development of the local population by purchasing products from them. This results in economic development among them (Monczka et al., 2015). The shopping chain takes up social development plans to improve the living conditions of the deprived people.
The strong adaptation of the corporate social responsibility and sustainable acquisitions of finished products would have strong positive impacts on Macy’s. The shopping chain by taking up social initiatives can place itself in the market as a social responsible corporate citizen. This would strengthen the goodwill of the shopping and allow it acquire finished products from large number of suppliers of finished goods. The chain would be able to attract more customers owing to is sustainable and environment friendly image (Brandenburg et al., 2014).
The contemporary business environment experiences several issues in ethical forms. It is the responsibility of the organisation such as Macys, to develop codes of conduct and ethics, which must be followed by every member of the organisation. The management should make it a rule that every ethical norm is abided by the entire organisation. The ethical issues can take different shapes such as fundamental issues, diversity issues, decision- making issues and compliance and governance issues. Integrity and trust are the two major factors, which are responsible for causing ethical issues in the organisation (Anderson, Califf & Sugarman, 2015). Therefore, Macys has to consider the same so that they do not pose any kind of negative impact in their business. Moreover, a diverse group of employees in the organisation needs to be respected keeping in mind the ethics of the particular organisation.
The ethics and regulatory issues can affect the corporate strategy, brand development and decision- making process of Macys in the form of declining employee performance. A lack of proper ethical conduct in Macys might lead them to pay hefty fines or other penalties. The employees are sometimes responsible for taking bribes from third- party, which hampers the corporate strategy as well as brand development of Macys (Davies, 2016). The management might find it difficult to make effective decisions if the employees are not abiding by the ethical standards.
Ethics and regulatory issues are an important part of management. Unethical behaviour on the part of a single individual hampers the reputation of the entire organisation therefore, it is important to align the regulatory issues in every section of the organisation starting from corporate strategy to brand development. Ethics is primarily an organisational issue but at the same time, it is also an employee’s personal issue. Lack of a proper leadership is often responsible for ethical issues n the organisation so, Macys has to keep it in mind before setting their corporate strategy. The managers of the organisation should acknowledge their part in structuring the organisational ethics and get hold of the opportunity to create a strengthening relationship among the employees. Without aligning the strategies, brand development and decision- making process, the company will face the negative effect of personal and corporate responsibility in the tough legal environment (Biller- Andorno & Capron, 2016).
Macys should learn from other companies that implementation of a compliance- based ethical program in the organisation is related to the designing of corporate counsel. The objectives of these programs are to find out, put a check and take legal actions for eradicating the illegal practices. Macys should try to enhance an environment of excellent behaviour within the organisation by taking help of feasible approaches, which are not bound by legal compliance. In this respect, it can be stated that an integrity- based approach will be suitable for adoption by the organisation by stressing on the managerial role of ethical behaviour. The integration and alignment of corporate strategies, decision- making process and brand development with the ethical and regulatory issues of the organisation will be effective in preventing the damage due to the ethical gaps along with moral thoughts and action (Shaw & Barry, 2015).
The sustainability of the business can be enhanced by aligning the corporate strategy, brand development and decision- making process. Lehnert, Park & Singh (2015) mentioned that companies of all sizes all over the world have understood the conventional ways of assessing the business performance which do not consider the needs of the stakeholders. Sustainability can be ensured by Macys if the management of the organisation needs to think ahead of increasing the shareholder profits. It is important to take into consideration three important factors by which the company can become sustainable- one, through promoting social welfare; two, by focusing on the risk management strategies; and three, combining the sustainable practices into the business model.
Moreover, aligning of the ethical and regulatory issues can lead to sustainability by integrating the company’s entire performance management practices. The process of integration is not as easy as it seems to be in the business initiatives. There are several challenges faced by the company, which needs to be kept in mind by Macys (Lehnart et al., 2016). The challenges might come in the form of coping with increased transparency, evaluating the results in an effective manner, implementing the sustainability practices into the decision- making and business process, maintaining balance and establishing the individual part of sustainability practices. There is another option of gaining sustainability by including the practices of cost- saving with waste minimization and natural resources consumption.
According to the business of Macys, it needs to be realized that decisions should be taken at every step in business undertakings. This important function of management ranges from a small decision of providing stock to a large decision of choosing appropriate stakeholders. Based on the ethical and regulatory issues described in this report, it is worth mentioning that every decision of the company needs to be created with the best intentions by considering the utmost advantages of the company. The reason behind this is that every small or big decision of the company is responsible for enhancing the performance of the organisation (Darrow et al., 2015).
The process of planning, organizing, staffing, coordinating, controlling and directing are important in making effective decisions. The health of the company is dependent on these processes, which lead to decision- making of the organisation (Turban et al., 2018). Therefore, Macys needs to focus on these processes before taking any decision about the future of the company. If a company is not able to make effective decision then the manager is considered as a man without the backbone. Following factors are important in the decision- making process in a business environment such as Macys.
The decision and process can affect the sustainability of business in terms of philanthropy, community involvement and the environment. Issues related to diversity and fundamental factors may have a negative impact on Macy’s. The fact that the company employs a varied diversity of people can provide Macy’s with an opportunity to remain compatible in the business market. However, as stated by Sparks & Repede (2016) decision-making issues need to comply with the management within the organisation.
Business sustainability and the elements that relate to corporate culture such as citizenship of the corporate people need to be considered by Macy’s. The analysis of the environment plays an important role for the support of the organisations. In the case of Macy’s the issues related to corporate and ethical considerations may have a negative impact on the culture of the community in which it works as well as on the corporate culture (Ahmad et al., 2014). The casual support can be derived from the suppliers and other stakeholders so that Macy’s can dominate the international market.
Support from the stakeholders such as the employees and the customers need to be intense however, collaboration with Bloomingdale’s can be considered as casual support as the company can aid Macy’s to continue its production in the US market by maintaining a profitable partnership with one another. Hence, it can be said that the involvement of the stakeholders of Macy can play an important role for the domination of the company in the international and local market. The ethical consideration need to be based on the factors that affect the culture of an organisation.
According to Syafii, Thoyib & Nimran (2015), stakeholders play an important role for the success of an organisation as majority of the decisions are taken after consulting with the stakeholders. The decisions regarding cultural and ethical consideration may have a positive effect on the stakeholders of Macy’s. This is mainly because the company need the support from every stakeholder so that it can dominate the international as well as local market related to retail.
For example, it is important that Macy’s analyse the external and internal market and ensure that the stakeholders of the company are satisfied with the decisions taken. It is also necessary to ensure that none of the stakeholders is alienated due to the decisions taken by the management (Dong et al. 2015). Hence, the decision related to ethical consideration can provide Macy’s with an opportunity to interact more with the stakeholders. Addressing of issues related to diversity can provide Macy’s with an opportunity to interact more with the employees as well as the customers.
Therefore, Macy’s can understand the demand of the employees as well as the customers so that it can formulate strategies related to the expansion of business. Therefore, it can be said that the impact of the ethical decisions taken at Macy’s can affect the business of the company in a manner that the success of Macy’s can be important for the development of the stakeholders.
The US community consists of people from diverse nation and this leads to maintain ethical considerations within the society or community. In the case of organisations such as Macy’s the ethical consideration in the form of clothing apparel can result in prejudicing and stereotyping people. Therefore, it is necessary that CSR activities of the company be directed at maintaining the stability of the community so that ethical dilemma can be maintained in the business (Lee, 2016). The ethical decisions undertaken can affect the community by ensuring that unity is maintained within the people in the society.
It is necessary that the people of various cultural background work together to support one another in the country. Therefore, the cultural diversity of the people can be attributed to the fact that Macy’s need to manufacture products that relate with the culture of the people. For example, in the Southern part of the country, Macy’s need to manufacture leather clothes so that it fits with the style of the people and help in distinguishing them from people of other region of the country (Macys.com, 2018).
Therefore, the ethical considerations are directed at reducing the stereotypical concepts of the people all the while keeping in mind to follow the cultural trends of a community (Berson et al., 2015). Such consideration within the community has a positive impact on the people as the richness of adopting style of a different community can be seen among them. Therefore, unity among the different community members can be spotted.
As of now, Macy’s is famous all over the United States and is one of the largest retail stores that exist in the country. However, it is important that the company expand its business opportunities in international market so that the reputation and financial stability of the company can grow. Therefore, the ethical and regulatory issues that exist in Macy’s may prevent the company from further expansion into the business market. Berson et al. (2015) is of the opinion that expansion in a global environment requires proper analysis of the external markets that govern the business market of the country.
Hence, it is necessary that regulatory issue such as trade with countries can hinder the progress of the company. This is mainly because traditions and culture of different countries vary and despite the fact that USA consists of people with varied culture, it can be difficult to adjust to the cultural norms of the people existing in a foreign land (Miner, 2015). For example, expansion in the UK requires Macy’s to ensure that the business environment along with the choice that the people have in the country are analysed properly.
At the same time, stereotyping manufacturing of clothes may provide Macy’s with a disadvantage, as the company need to re-design the clothes to prevent ethical bias against a community or group of people. Therefore, it can be said that Macy’s need to take suitable measures so that it can provide itself with an opportunity of expansion at the international market.
The cultural awareness and civic engagement effort is the personal development of the employees and spread a proper culture within the community. Macy’s can be involved in spreading the ill effects of ethical dilemma within a community so that any stereotyping that takes place can be mitigated (Burgess, van Diggele & Mellis, 2015). It is essential that the company develop policies related to the ethical considerations so that the diversity in the community can be mitigated with proper effect.
It has been seen that civic engagement creates strong bonds among employees and it help in encouraging value based company culture that are required for its success in the market. However, the benefit that lies in the community involvement goes beyond the development of personal issues within an organisation. Engaging volunteers within a community can be attributed to the fact that better citizens and employees can help in the development of an organisation. For example, in the case of Macy’s the company can develop a good collaboration with the external stakeholders by taking into consideration the demands of the people (Berman, 2014).
Efforts such as conducting programmes based on awareness of the fashion culture around the world can help Macy’s to undergo development among the people. The outcome of these efforts includes providing the employees of Macy’s with incredible team building ability and help in the development of leadership qualities within the organisation. Most of the employees consider such civic engagement as part of challenge and it is important that this remains a part of the culture in the organisation.
The efforts undertaken by Macy’s can have a positive impact in identifying the mission, vision and value. The mission of Macy’s is to ensure that proper quality clothes are designed so that satisfaction of the customers can be obtained. The vision is to expand the company in international market so that it can increase its reputation around the world. At the same time, the values of Macy’s are to ensure that ethical considerations are made while designing the clothes and manufacturing it (Macys.com, 2018).
Therefore, the efforts undertaken by Macy’s can be aligned with its mission, vision and value. This is because development of personal values and engaging in civic involvement can help the company to gain more customers and in the process ensure that the expansion of the company takes place. The fact that Macy’s attempts to engage volunteers in the business provide an outline of the measures that the company undertakes to complete its mission and vision.
As stated by Tourish (2014) one of the important characteristic of Macy’s is that holds extensive value to the quality of the products it manufactures and considers the satisfaction of the customers as the ultimate priority. Therefore, the efforts undertaken can help Macy’s to reach out to the customers and ensure that the vision of expanding the business in international bodies can be achieved.
The alignment with of the efforts with the mission, vision and value of the organisation can help in the increased profitability of the company. The corporate exposure of the company and the employees can be related to the return on investment and sustainability maintained in the organisation. For example, while manufacturing clothes, it is necessary to ensure that the waste products required for the manufacturing are dumped in areas that are away from the locality (Effelsberg, Solga & Gurt, 2014).
Recycling is one of the methods that can be considered by Macy’s so that a particular raw material can be use more than once. The efforts undertaken can include spreading awareness of sustainability so that the community can be developed. In the case of the southern community, spreading awareness of protecting the sea bodies can be one of the initiatives that can be undertaken by Macy’s so that the marine ecosystem can be prevented. The return on investment can be considered so that suppliers and collaboration with Bloomingdale’s can be maintained in an effective manner (Manz, 2016).
The suppliers and Bloomingdale’s are important external stakeholders of Macy’s and it is necessary that the company analyse the return on investment that are made by the stakeholders. This can help in achieving its business and align it with the cultural awareness and civic engagement of the company. Therefore, it can be said that the efforts undertaken by Macy’s to improve the CSR activities can help the company in gaining more recognition in the local market and open opportunities in international market.
Conclusion
Therefore, it can be concluded that Macy’s need to take into account the intrinsic and extrinsic reward that govern the satisfaction of the employees. Intrinsic rewards include the collaboration between the team leaders and the meaningful work that is conducted by the employees. At the same time the extrinsic reward, include pay raises, bonus and fringe benefits that are provided to the employees for the efforts made by the employees.
The implementation of the ideas in the CSR activities of Macy’s can provide the organisation with a sense of ethics promote the best practise required for conducting the business in a proper manner. Expansion into international market require the satisfaction and support of the employees and it is the duty of the managers of Macy’s to ensure that such support is provided to the people. Therefore, it can be said that the application of motivational techniques can help Macy’s to become one of the most popular industries in the world all the while maintaining its reputation in the US market.
The personal ethics that the company considers along with the CSR activities can provide Macy’s with an opportunity to maintain its business in the company. Hence, it can be said that ethical consideration along with external and internal factor consideration are required for promoting the success of Macy’s in the international market.
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