How to view the role of management ethics in enterprise development

Nanjing Guanshengyuan Incident[1]

1. The "mildew" of conscience

Through the CCTV program on September 3, 2001, the audience had the honor to I saw the following picture: unsold mooncakes are brought back to the factory, skinned and stuffed, stirred, fried and refrigerated. They will be shipped out again next year, thawed and stirred, and then sent to the mooncake production line...

Every year New mooncakes are baked and fillings are prepared over and over again. This is an open secret among mooncake manufacturing companies (especially small and medium-sized enterprises). According to someone who was engaged in quality supervision, he later said that he had long been accustomed to such despicable things by manufacturers, and the CCTV report still shocked him. It was just that the perpetrator this time was Nanjing Guanshengyuan.

Guanshengyuan is a century-old company that always adheres to the business philosophy of being honest and honest. The various foods and cakes it originally produced are not only famous in China, but also throughout Southeast Asia, Japan, South Korea and other countries.

In an alley on Guangdong Road in Nanjing, the Guanshengyuan factory area is already deserted. The residents of the alley also sighed: "When the benefits were good, the trucks picking up goods came one after another. Now, it's just a failure..."

After the exposure, not only mooncakes, but also other products For example, Yuanxiao, pastries, etc. can no longer be sold. Nanjing Guanshengyuan filed a bankruptcy application with the court on the grounds of "poor management, chaotic management, and insolvency."

After the hidden secret of using aged stuffing to make mooncakes was revealed, Guanshengyuan suffered a huge market impact. The industrial and commercial department entered the factory to investigate, and the health and epidemic prevention department conducted repeated tests. "Nanguan" mooncakes were withdrawn from the shelves nationwide. A marketer from Suguo Supermarket, Nanjing's most widely distributed commercial retail chain, said that although after the counters were withdrawn, the merchants were notified that the mooncake fillings from "Nanguan" were all qualified in terms of bacterial health indicators and could be restored. It was launched on the market, but when customers heard that it was a product of "Nanguan", they were afraid to avoid it.

2. The impact of the "Nanjing Guanshengyuan Incident" on the mooncake market

The "Nanjing Guanshengyuan Incident" affected more than 60% of consumers' willingness to buy mooncakes in 2001; 14% of consumers said they would not buy mooncakes this year. This is the information revealed by a questionnaire survey conducted by the China Social Survey Office. Some scholars have also suggested that we should be wary of the negative impact of short-sighted business practices on Chinese traditional festival culture.

The "Situational Survey" showed that 31% of consumers said they were very angry after hearing about the "Nanjing Guanshengyuan Incident". They believe that the relevant mooncake manufacturers are really abominable and should be severely punished by law; 40% of consumers believe that the government should regulate the mooncake market; 25% of consumers say that there are too many such things nowadays and it does not matter to them. The big deal will be in the future. Just don’t buy mooncakes.

Now the status of mooncakes in the minds of Chinese people has changed. The survey shows that nearly 5% of consumers no longer believe that "mooncakes are an integral part of the Mid-Autumn Festival". Among those who said they “will not buy mooncakes this year”, half wanted to find new ways to celebrate the festival. Any damage to traditional culture will make recovery difficult.

Attachment: Guanshengyuan information

●The founder of Guanshengyuan brand is Xian Guansheng, a Cantonese who came to Shanghai to do business in 1918. He was the first to deal in Cantonese tea, preserves and candies. In 1934, its brand of mooncakes hired actress Hu Die as its image spokesperson and advertised with the slogan "Only China has this star, only Guanshengyuan has this mooncake." The product became famous all over the country.

●Around 1925, Shanghai Guanshengyuan opened branches in Tianjin, Hankou, Hangzhou, Nanjing, Chongqing, Kunming, Guiyang, and Chengdu, and invested in setting up factories in Wuhan and Chongqing. Its Nanjing branch is the predecessor of the current "Nanjing Guanshengyuan".

●In 1956, Guanshengyuan entered into a public-private partnership. Guanshengyuan Co., Ltd., controlled by Xian, was disintegrated, and the Shanghai headquarters was "divided into three". Branch companies in various places were affiliated with local governments and had nothing to do with Shanghai Guanshengyuan.

●At present, nearly ten Guansheng gardens in Chongqing, Nanjing and other places have historical traces of Xian Guansheng.

There are also industrial Guansheng Park and commercial Guansheng Park in Shanghai. In 1996, with the support of the Shanghai Municipal Economic Commission, Shanghai Industrial Guansheng Park and commercial Guansheng Park merged to unify the name of Shanghai Guansheng Park and establish Guansheng Park ( GROUP) LIMITED. However, across the country, there are still many Guanshengyuan that do not have a unified brand name.

●Before the joint venture, Nanjing Guanshengyuan was facing bankruptcy due to heavy losses. After the establishment of the Sino-foreign joint venture Nanjing Guanshengyuan Food Co., Ltd., it turned a loss into a profit in the second year, with profits increasing year after year, and a cumulative profit and tax of 15.6 million yuan. It has developed from a small enterprise to one of the 240 large and medium-sized enterprises approved by the Nanjing Municipal Government.

●On September 3, 2001, CCTV reported that "Nanjing Guanshengyuan uses a large amount of moldy and returned fillings to produce mooncakes", which shocked the whole country. That year, companies in various places with the name "Guanshengyuan" were deeply affected, with production reductions of more than 50%. Among them, Shanghai Guanshengyuan was the most affected.

●Just after the Spring Festival in 2002, Nanjing Guanshengyuan Food Co., Ltd. applied for bankruptcy to the Nanjing Intermediate Court.

Thinking Questions

1. 1. How do you view the role of management ethics in corporate development?

2. 2. How to understand the harm that may be caused by unethical corporate behavior?

Management Ethics (Case 2)

Royalstar’s Self-Discipline Declaration[2][⑦]

Zero-defect management and advocacy of mutual respect, mutual equality, and mutual benefit The concept of "harmony and business" of , mutual development, integrity first, civilized management, making profits with justice, and rejuvenating enterprises with morality is the crystallization of Royalstar's more than ten years of operating results and has now become the collective consciousness of all employees.

1. The "Harmony Business Concept" that values ??harmony

In May 1997, Royalstar Group launched the "Royalstar Enterprise Competition Self-Discipline Declaration" in the form of full-page advertisements in some major domestic newspapers. China’s first “Declaration of Self-Discipline”.

In Royalstar's corporate culture, "harmony and business" is the spiritual cornerstone of the entire enterprise management. They summarized this in four sentences: "Mutual respect and equality; mutual benefit and common development; integrity first and civilized management; profit from justice and prosperity from virtue." said Li Hongfeng, deputy general manager of Royalstar, "Harmony and business" is the essence of Chinese merchants' business practices. It is the so-called "harmony brings wealth", "trading cannot be achieved without benevolence and righteousness", "paying equal attention to justice and benefit, and using justice to generate profit". The word "harmony" is immersed in the original flavor of Chinese business culture. .

In the early days of corporate development, Royalstar first borrowed the "Baihua" brand, and later borrowed the Shanghai "Darcissus" brand, so it had two titles: "Shanghai Narcissus" and "Hefei Narcissus". At that time, washing machines were a seller's market, and marketers from all over the country came to Chen Rongzhen to ask for washing machines. Chen Rongzhen said: "I didn't put up airs like a factory with good sales and keep people away from thousands of miles away. I have a principle. Even if I can't give more, I still can." You have to give less and don’t give up on others.” In this way, we have established a harmonious relationship with many businesses. A few years later, "Hefei Narcissus" sold better than "Shanghai Narcissus", and many customers from East China also asked for "Hefei produced". Chen Rongzhen decided not to borrow cards but to create her own. He said: "In addition to the confidence in my own business, my confidence at that time was also inspired by the marketers who had been friendly with each other for many years. They heard that I wanted to create a brand and expressed their strong support." After the Royalstar washing machine came out, it turned out that Being placed in a good position by merchants for promotion, the new brand suddenly became famous in the market.

2. Peer conflicts trigger "self-discipline declaration"

The "Shanghai Battle" between Haier and Xinfei is a typical vicious competition event. According to Shanghai media reports, in March of a certain year, Haier sales staff issued printed materials claiming that the raw materials for Xinfei refrigerators were purchased locally, implying that its production technology was not up to standard, its after-sales service could not keep up, and its product backlog was 300,000 units. Many large companies in the Shanghai market It was distributed openly in shopping malls, and Xinfei protested. Haier's reply was that the "distorted leaflets distributed by Haier" were purely the personal behavior of the recruitment staff, and the company could not accept the consequences on their behalf. The two families are at odds and want to go to court.

In June 1999, in Jinan People's Shopping Mall, employees of a home appliance company were beaten up by employees of the "Little Duck" company. A similar incident also occurred in Nanjing. The protagonists of many vicious competition incidents are famous domestic brands.

The most painful thing for enterprises at present is the vicious competition that broke out after the seller's market turned into the buyer's market.

Since Royalstar’s declaration of self-discipline, “self-discipline” has become the “mantra” of businesses. In July 2000, China's VCD industry had just gone through a devastating price war. The first thing all companies did when they sat together was to discuss a "self-discipline declaration."

Thinking questions:

1. Talk about your understanding of management ethics based on cases.

2. Please talk about the relationship between self-discipline and heterodiscipline, and the relationship between industry self-discipline and collusion.