Dustin Diener HUMN-115-001 Miles 5/13/2020 Corona Issue The issue needing a resolution is deciding whether to increase the price on our medical supplies or not. Increasing price would lead to a larger profit margin with our dwindling supplies. If we keep the price the same we can still expect demand to increase, but it may not reach all the people that need it. If the price is lowered it would allow for those who need it more accessibility, but could drain our supplies faster then we can restock. We must decide from these 3 options. The core value of an entrepreneur is to be a problem solver. This can be for an internal problem or an external one. The origins of this really come from the evolution of mankind. As we evolved we needed more tools to perform tasks. We have always been entrepreneurs as we have always been able to solve problems. At the utmost core, this is what being an entrepreneur is about. With this being said, since we are problem solvers it’s our ethical duty to help others with their issues. The industry norms in the U.S. have been to maintain their prices. Most states and countries outside of the U.S. have laws inplace to avoid price gouging. Without these laws I would imagine that most companies would try to raise their prices as soon as possible to try to capitalize on the higher demand. These companies would most likely be giants of the industry. Though, some would sustain the prices they have in order to try to help other people out. Some unexpected companies have also reached out a hand in trying to help those in need, or have even shifted their manufacturing in order to make masks, face shields, and gloves. The main ethical issue put into question is responsibility. Should we be maintaining a level of social responsibility that we have had or should we be going above what we have in the past? A secondary issue would be centered around compassion. Should we show compassion in the dire time or should we refrain for fear of the future? There are many different approaches to take throughout this issue. The utilitarian approach would be to benefit the most. The most beneficial to society would be to give the rest of our supplies to impoverished areas. This would allow for those who can’t afford supplies to get them, but we would make no profit. Most stakeholders will not be satisfied by this decision. The rights approach would be almost opposite of what was previously mentioned. It’s basically saying we have the right to increase our prices. Which we could, if we wanted to sell our supply in a country that allows for price gouging. This would allow for a short term profit gain, but could lead to a long term damaged reputation in the public eye. The fairness approach is basically a middle ground. We would continue operations as usual with no increase or decrease in price. This would allow for an equal playing field for our customers to get our product as only the demand has changed, we as a company have not. The common good approach is close to the utilitarian approach. If we followed this approach we would focus on our surrounding community and lower the price on our products. It’s possible to get them out for free as well, but this largely focuses on the surrounding community. This would hopefully allow our customers to trust us and keep us in business though COVID-19. The last approach is the virtue approach. This is sticking to the value of being a problem solver. Meaning that we would also need to help others with their problems as well. If we chose this approach then we would most likely follow the same steps as the utilitarian or common good approaches with the same result. I believe the common good approach would be the smartest gamble to take. This is because it would allow us to focus on helping our community. Our community is what will keep us in business though and pass the COVID-19 outbreak if we treat them with compassion. I recommend we lower the prices on our products and focus on helping where it is needed. This will allow us to maintain a high amount of ethicality while not going out of business. As a producer of medical supplies our main focus is to help people. Although we would like to help everyone in the world, we can’t. We are a small start-up that’s just starting to get our feet wet. We can’t afford to give out many supplies for free, but we can give out what we can. We also still need to be able to maintain a level of profitability to function, but not enough to sustainably grow. With that being said I believe we need to perform an in-depth profit analysis to see how far we can drop our prices before hitting a level of financial insecurity.
