MBA Assignment: Macy's Business Analysis - Trends, Ethics, Decisions

This MBA assignment report provides a comprehensive analysis of Macy's, examining its business environment, ethical considerations, and decision-making processes. The report begins with background information on Macy's, including its history and stakeholders. It then delves into the trends impacting the company, such as political, economic, social, and technological factors. The report also explores the ethical issues faced by Macy's, emphasizing the importance of ethical conduct, alignment of ethics with business strategies, and the role of sustainability. Furthermore, it analyzes Macy's decision-making processes, highlighting the importance of ethical considerations and stakeholder management. The report concludes by assessing the impact of Macy's on the community and the global environment, as well as the outcomes of its efforts. The analysis includes SWOT analysis and recommendations for improvement, providing valuable insights into Macy's business operations and its role in the retail industry. The report also emphasizes the importance of corporate social responsibility and sustainable practices for Macy's continued success.

Running head: MBA ASSIGNMENT
MBA assignment
Name of Student
Name of University
Author Note

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Table of Contents
I. Background information.........................................................................................................3
II. Trends....................................................................................................................................4
A. Business Environment.......................................................................................................4
B. Description.........................................................................................................................7
C. Impact................................................................................................................................8
III. Ethics....................................................................................................................................8
A. Issues.................................................................................................................................8
B. Alignment..........................................................................................................................9
C. Sustainability...................................................................................................................10
IV. Decision-making................................................................................................................11
A. Decision...........................................................................................................................11
B. Culture.............................................................................................................................12
C. Stakeholder......................................................................................................................13
V. Impact..................................................................................................................................13
A. Community......................................................................................................................13
B. Global Environment.........................................................................................................14
VI. Outcomes...........................................................................................................................15
A. Efforts..............................................................................................................................15
B. Alignment........................................................................................................................16
C. Impact..............................................................................................................................17

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VII. Conclusion........................................................................................................................18
Bibliography.............................................................................................................................19

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I. Background information
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.

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II. Trends
A. Business Environment
The following analysis would reveal the external environment in which Macy’s, the
American supermarket chain operates:
Political:
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.
Economic:

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Figure 1. GDP graph of the USA
(Source: Tradingeconomics.com, 2018)
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..

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Figure 2. Exchange rate of USD compared to EU and JPY
(Source: Bloomberg.com, 2018)
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.
Social:
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.
Technology:

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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:
Strengths:
1. Financially strong.
2. Immense capital strength
Weakness:
1. Environmental concerns
Opportunities:
1. Foreign expansions.
2. New products
Threats:
1. Falling price of USD.
2. Threats from Asian markets
B. Description
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.

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C. Impact
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).
III. Ethics
A. Issues
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

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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.
B. Alignment
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

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preventing the damage due to the ethical gaps along with moral thoughts and action (Shaw &
Barry, 2015).
C. Sustainability
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.

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IV. Decision-making
A. Decision
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.
 Appropriate use of the resources
 Choosing the correct option
 Assessing the role of the manager
 Motivation of employees
 Crucial element