How should a for-profit corporation balance its business needs with the needs of its customers
Karen Charlton
How should a for-profit corporation balance its business needs with the needs of its customers?
As I prepare to answer this question, I must confess my personal biases. I presently work for a nonprofit medical company, providing transport of patients in emergent conditions. As a flight nurse, our company has prided itself on its nonprofit status as well as its generous write off policies for those with situations showing that they cannot pay their bill. This component of the company lends me to great pride and doing good work not only clinically in the community but also knowing that for some, their bill is settled without devastating them. The challenge in this model, and also in a for-profit setting, is the fact that budgets still need to be maintained, staff must be paid and equipment purchased and maintained. In a for-profit corporation, the drive to have profit is greater than in a non-profit setting.
A business can balance business needs with the needs of the customer by looking closely at what areas a business can profit more aggressively in and balancing that with areas the profit margin is slimmer. When some customers can pay more for a service, through insurance billing, then that greater profit helps cover the costs of services when other insurances or plans pay significantly less. The company must continue to operate, of course, so looking for creative solutions to keep customers happy with the products they need in order to live as well as gleaning from the more non-essential items and the profits thereof.Lives depend on products created by some companies. Do these companies have a greater responsibility to work towards benefitting the consumer more than themselves?What incentives exist for innovation and invention in the drug and medical world? “Policy mechanisms to promote biopharmaceutical innovation often focus on fortifying incentives for firms to develop new products. Biopharmaceutical firms favor exclusionary rights that defer competition, allowing them to profit by charging higher prices prior to generic entry” (Eisenberg & Price, 2017, p. 4).
Intellectual property protections for COVID-19 vaccines is supported by the United States as put before the World Trade Organization last month (Zarocostas, 2021). The director-general of WTO stated “The logic of patents can be harder to defend in the face of a public health crisis, especially when there are few efficacious drugs and these remain within the patent term, that can lead to calls for the breaking or easing of patents” (Zarocostas, 2021, p. 1871). This is confounded with opinions of others who report that the shortfall in vaccines is mired in nationalism, hoarding of supplies, and poor sharing of COVID-19 vaccines and that waiving patent rights will not achieve the end goal of more world inhabitants being vaccinated (Zarocostas, 2021). In theory, limited markets could benefit from a removal of barriers of intellectual property so as to accelerate growth and change in that specific market (Rutschman, 2021). Coupled that with knowing vaccines that have recently been developed for cervical cancer “…(HPV vaccines like Gardasil) are covered by over 80 patents issued in the United States” (Rutschman, 2021, p. 4). Vaccines historically are highly protected from duplication world-wide.These specific examples and points regarding COVID-19 specific vaccines highlight practical real-time situations where companies perhaps have a greater responsibility to the world than to themselves. Lives are depending upon these vaccines already developed by Pfizer, Moderna, Johnson and Johnson, and AstraZeneca as well as others. Each of these companies, while spending substantial sums of money in research and development, testing, and approval processes do have a greater responsibility to the world. This greater responsibility lies initially in being a healthcare company, where medicines and tools are developed to either improve quality of life, to stop death, or to increase health. These companies, as well as many others, have worked tirelessly to develop safe and effective vaccines. The moral and ethical pulls are important at such a time as this, to produce and distribute vaccines world-wide in order to stop the spread of COVID-19. Thus, I would argue that companies in healthcare do have a greater responsibility to the consumer, above themselves.Through analysis of a business perspective, businesses need to meet budgetary items, but also must account for positive press and word of mouth advertising for their firm from good work being done for others. As Fitzgerald stated, “While each of our individual companies serves its own corporate purpose, we share a fundamental commitment to all of our stakeholders…” (2019). The world is a stakeholder in each of these companies in light of the pressing need for COVID-19 vaccines.Look at the issue from a Biblical worldview. How would you respond if you were running such a company?If I was running such a company, I would hope to respond using my Biblical worldview. I would hope to see areas where the stakeholders need the care and services our company had developed. It is important to use things for the good of others, and the example of a COVID-19 vaccine is no exception. I am reminded of the passage in Colossians 2:22-24, where it states “Bondservants, obey in everything those who are your earthly masters, not by way of eye-service, as people-pleasers, but with sincerity of heart, fearing the Lord. Whatever you do, work heartily, as for the Lord and not for men, knowing that from the Lord you will receive the inheritance as your reward. You are serving the Lord Christ” (English Standard Version, 2016). This is a passage I’ve often called to mind as I’ve been an employee working and knowing that God is my true Master and boss, not men. Working to the higher calling of serving the Lord Christ pushes and motivates me to ensure that I am doing my very best at work, not just simply working to please my manager. Looking to have a Christ-like perspective on serving others, I am reminded of Philippians 2:3 and 4, stating “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (New International Version, 1973). As a manager of a company in such a situation as this, I would want to put my stakeholders, the community of the world, above my own interests.
Eisenberg, R. & Price, W. (2017). Promoting healthcare innovation on the demand side. Journal of Law and Biosciences, 3(49). https://www.doi.org/10.1093/jlb/lsw062English Standard Version. (2016). ESV Literal Word. https://esv.literalword.com/?q=Colossians+3%3A22-24 (Original work published 2001).
Fitzgerald, M. (2019). The CEOs of nearly 200 companies just said shareholder value is no longer their main objective. Retrieved June 16, 2021 from https://www.cnbc.com/2019/08/19/the-ceos-of-nearly-two-hundred-companies-say-shareholder-value-is-no-longer-their-main-objective.htmlNew International Version. (1973). Bible Gateway. https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Philippians%202%3A1-4&version=NIV
Rutschman, A. (2021). The COVID-19 vaccine race. Intellectual property, collaboration(s), nationalism and misinformation. Washington University Journal of Law and Policy, 64. http://bi.gale.com.ezproxy.liberty.edu/global/article/GALE%7CA658339298?u=vic_liberty
Zarocostas, J. (2021). What is next for a COVID-19 intellectual property waiver? The Lancet, 397(10288). https://doi.org/10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01151-X
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