Corporate Ethics in Relation to Broadband Strategies - Essay Example

Running head: CORPORATE ETHICS IN RELATION TO BROADBAND STRATEGIES CORPORATE ETHICS IN RELATION TO BROADBAND STRATEGIES Insert Name Insert Course Title Insert Instructor’s Name May 12, 2010 For a corporate structure to continue to exist it is important that the management of the great corporations should grow into a purely impartial technocracy; balancing a range of claims by a variety of groups in the society and passing on to each a portion of the profits streams on the basis of public policy and not the private cupidity. However, what is seen nowadays is that at the content of the shareholders norm, there is a shift such that the shareholders appear to be exercising their powers as agents of the society as a whole and not as representatives of the markets. Corporate ethics or governance can be viewed in two main ways. The first one is that it is building efficient means and procedures to satisfy the expectations of a variety of people, groups and entities that always interrelate with the company. The second one can be viewed as building efficient means and procedures to satisfy the narrower expectations of the shareholders. Corporate ethics or governance is influenced by the interactions among partakers in the governance. How you control the shareholders, either individuals, bloc alliances other corporations, can greatly affect corporate behavior. This is because the equity owners constantly demand a voice in corporate governance. The individual shareholders may not aim at putting into effect the authority rights but may be mainly interested in obtaining fair handling from managing other shareholders and management. Creditors acts as external monitors over company performance and play a great role in various governance systems. It is the role of employees and share holders to contribute to the long-term success and performance of the corporation. Governments also play a significant role in establishing the general institutional and official structure for corporate governance. The governance of any corporation should take care of the interests of its stakeholders. The stakeholders in an organization are the individuals as well as constituencies that contribute to its wealth-creating ability and activities therefore making them the potential beneficiaries and or the risk takers of the organization. According to the social contract, organizations have responsibilities to stakeholders on top their main aim of gaining income. If by any chance an organization fails in its responsibility to enhance community life generally, then the association of business risks both financial survival and social legality. Corporate governance is mainly involved in the efficient management, business efficacy and accountability of the management of public organizations for the benefit of the stakeholders. A corporate law constitutes ethical objectives and standards of behavior which legislators and the courts think are right and proper to protect within the rule of the nation. Corporate ethics are current objectives of morality and the behavior that are deemed right and appropriate though may not have been afforded by the force of law. Ethics can also be termed as the collective and static standards of what should be done and is good. This is usually confused with the morals which are relative to situations as well as personal preferences. One of the main challenges that the society is facing is the changing of the meaning of some words. For instance, the word ‘mouse’ gained an overall new meaning at around 1980 after the invention of the graphical user interface (GUI) on computer screens as well as the input device that is used to highlight things on the screen (Ruddell 2004 p. 11). Vodafone had a strategy of 3G. This would be followed by the launch of Vodafone’s worldwide mobile TV with the help of 3G. This would help the company to feature a mix of exciting world-class TV brands. These worldwide mobile TV channels will be extensively available all over the Vodafone markets. This will consequently attract other international companies like MTV, Discovery as well as HBO which will be the world-class content providers. Since these brands are adequately known, they would guarantee the premium quality of this product. According to the research that has been conducted, it has been found that the mobile TV appeals to the nature of people (Pan 2005.p. 3). In 2006, Vodafone and Orange signed a contract to share the 3G networks in remote areas of Spain. Both organizations will contribute to transmission apparatus in Spanish towns where the population is less than 25,000. This deal would help the two companies to gain a significant amount of cost savings by buying 40% fewer foundation stations as compared with separate implementation of entity expansion strategies (Pan 2005.p. 3). In 2005, Vodafone revealed its plan to spend $2.4 billion to uplift its operations in South Africa and especially the Vodacom Company would receive 50% of the amount. By then it was rated the world’s biggest mobile operator. This helped it to increase its holding in South Africa’s Vodacom Company. By doing this, Vodacom would secure a managing chance in Vodacom shareholder Venfin and Investment Company (Pan 2005 p. 11). There are some challenges that this company has been undergoing while implementing these strategies. It is good to look at how this company is affected by its ethics and what can be done. The people who implement strategies are mainly the key to an organization’s long-term prospects. There are questions that come into the mind when we talk of strategies. Is the human resource management in ability to support both current and future strategies? In the case of recruitment, do the new staffs match with the strategic plans of the company? There should be an internal analysis of the management of the company so as to identify the threats and opportunities that face the company. When accessing the threats and opportunities of an organization, it is appropriate to have dimensions that will be used to manage the strategy uncertainty. Threats can assume the form of strategic problem or a liability. Any strategic problems; however bad it is needs to be addressed and corrected, even if it will be expensive. Strategic liabilities like competence need to be approached in a different manner. A business can overcome a liability by adjusting strategies in way such that the liability is neutralized (MCLoughlin and Aaker 2010. p. 109). Telstra Corporation is an information and technology services in Australia. It offers fixed line services, business services as well as internet services. It is the leading organization in the telecommunication industry in Australia. However, there are challenges and threats that the company is facing from its competitors. There are some strategies that this company has managed to accomplish. In 2005, Telstra launched its Internet Protocol (IP) network transformation target for fixed broadband services. This was followed by the announcement that Alcatel would be one of the key strategic partners in this project. This led to the two companies signing a contract under which they were to negotiate official treaties to reveal their strategic joint venture. This treaty mandated Alcatel to provide Telstra with complete network solutions as well as integration abilities. By doing this Telstra would be transformed to be a single IP-based infrastructure for the efficient delivery of services at a very low cost to its customers (Pan 2005 p. 6). During the same year, Telstra announced that it would partner with Ericsson Australia Pty Ltd. to develop its 3G City to country mobile network strategy under a contract. Ericsson Company would serve as the vendor in this contract. Through this joint contract, Ericsson would be able to provide a variety of service like design, construction, support and maintenance services. This 3G city to country mobile network was to be initiated year that was following (Pan 2005. p. 6). As the leading company in Australia, Telstra carefully controlled the arrival of broadband. This happened when Switkowki was the CEO. It was determined inn resisting the introduction of ULLS-based services by its competitor as well as suppressing broadband take up by the customers. Here ULLS was a form of a threat to Telstra. The government’s intervened taking the form of ACCC. It viewed ULLS as more powerful than Telstra and broke the monopoly by driving broadband take up by customers. ULLS became a big threat to Telstra and every time ACCC makes a price ruling on ULLS, this would be a bad news to Telstra (Fletcher 2007. p. 79). Similar to Vodafone, Telstra has been facing the same challenges of strategy problems as well as strategy liabilities. Good corporate ethics are very vital for both of these companies and other for them to overcome the challenges that are currently introduced by upcoming companies. In conclusion, I wish to suggest that here should be good governance in organizations so as to properly integrate the current strategies and the new ones that are coming up due to development of technology. Globalization is also posing a challenge to these broadband companies since technology is changing within a very short time. Therefore, this requires the companies to be well equipped with enough resources to cater or accommodate the new ideas that are coming up. In Australia, there has been a problem of politics in media. According to Tuner and Cunningham (2000) “The country’s peripheral and subordinate position within the global system means that strategies for promoting alternatives to globalized and commodified capitalist circuits frequently involve the strengthening of nationally based institutions, in spite of the limits of such instructions, and the nation-state more generally, as a vehicle for realizing progressive and egalitarian political goals” (p. 26) References: Ruddell L. 2004. Business Ethics: Faith That Works. Texas. Halcyon Press Ltd. From http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=jU2VDr62rnUC&printsec=frontcover&dq=ethics+in+a+company&hl=en&ei=dOfoS6zPD4jOMNjdsPEG&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CDYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q&f=true (accessed May 11, 2010). Pan H. 2005. The Mobile Internet. Vol.7 No. 12. USA. Information Gatekeepers Inc. from. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=F221_L8x99IC&pg=PA3&dq=broadband+strategies+in+vodafone&cd=8#v=onepage&q=broadband%20strategies%20in%20vodafone&f=true (accessed May 11, 2010). Pan H. 2006. European Telecom. Vol.11. No. 12. USA. Information Gatekeepers Inc. from. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=U18VtGZVxasC&pg=PA16&dq=broadband+strategies+in+vodafone&cd=3#v=onepage&q=broadband%20strategies%20in%20vodafone&f=true (accessed May 11, 2010). Pan H. 2005. African and Middle Eastern Telecom. Vol.6. No. 12. USA. Information Gatekeepers Inc. From. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=CVk_6GYz2IwC&pg=PA11&dq=broadband+strategies+in+vodafone&cd=5#v=onepage&q=broadband%20strategies%20in%20vodafone&f=true (accessed May 11, 2010). McLoughlin D. and Aaker D. A. 2010. Strategic Market Management: Global Perspectives. New Jersey. John Wiley and Sons. From. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=tpW22FvYvn8C&printsec=frontcover&dq=strategic+market+management&lr=&cd=1#v=onepage&q&f=false (accessed May 11, 2010). Pan H. 2005. Fiber Optics and Communication. Vol. 28. No. 12. USA. Information Gatekeepers Inc. From. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=KkP0LHXeaagC&pg=PA6&dq=broadband+strategies+in+telstra&hl=en&ei=eDHqS9qyKYGglAeW4omPCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=2&ved=0CD4Q6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=broadband%20strategies%20in%20telstra&f=true (accessed May 11, 2010). Fletcher P. 2009. Wired Brown Land: Telstra’s battle for broadband. Australia. Univesity of New South Wales Press Ltd. From. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=Xu9gAOuFbDgC&pg=PA78&dq=broadband+strategies+in+telstra&hl=en&ei=eDHqS9qyKYGglAeW4omPCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CEcQ6AEwAw#v=onepage&q=broadband%20strategies%20in%20telstra&f=true (accessed May 11, 2010). Turner G. and Cunningham S. 2000. The Australian TV Book. Australia. Markano Print Media Pte Ltd. From. http://books.google.co.ke/books?id=GNVemc8p1WEC&pg=PA72&dq=broadband+strategies+in+telstra&hl=en&ei=eDHqS9qyKYGglAeW4omPCw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEwQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=broadband%20strategies%20in%20telstra&f=true (accessed May 11, 2010). Read More