Ethical Conduct and Business Success: Sackler Family Report Analysis

This report examines the ethical conduct of the Sackler family business, particularly focusing on the pharmaceutical company Purdue Pharma and its controversial marketing of OxyContin. The report begins with an executive summary and an introduction that sets the stage for an analysis of the company's unethical practices. The analysis delves into the impacts of these practices from the perspectives of shareholders, board members, and public confidence, as well as their effects on revenue. The report discusses the aggressive marketing strategies employed and the misrepresentation of the drug's risks, which led to widespread addiction and numerous deaths. The report explores how the pursuit of profit led to ethical failures. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and emphasizes the importance of ethical conduct for business success and maintaining stakeholder trust. The report concludes with several recommendations for the company to promote ethical practices and transparency, including adhering to core objectives, honest representation of facts, and a commitment to ethical marketing strategies. The report aims to provide insights into the consequences of unethical conduct and offer guidance on building a sustainable business that prioritizes ethical behavior.

Sackler Family Business

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................3
ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................7
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
.........................................................................................................................................................1

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
This report is prepared with the aim that whether organisation can survive with their
unethical conduct. For which the given case is considered which has misrepresented the facts and
their misconducted in their marketing strategy. As a law student the success in terms of
shareholders, board members, revenue and public confidence are studied. In the report individual
analysis is done from the context of the success in terms of shareholders as they are the one who
has invested in the company, in terms of board members who has to take decisions for the
company, in terms of the public confidence as the resources of the society are used by the
companies. Such analysis helps the businesses to regulate their behaviour by implementing
ethical practices. This further helps the businesses in making their employees work ethically. On
the basis of such analysis and study recommendations are provided to the company which will
help them to promote ethical conduct.
INTRODUCTION
Success of the organisation is associated with the achieving the objective of the
organisation which has to be achieved within a specific period of time. In can be in terms of
growth of the company and their survival. On the basis of success of the organisation in one
market they can identify the opportunity in the other. Success on an organisation is supported by
their ethics as it governs the operations of the organisation by considering what is right and what
is wrong for the society and the customers. Ethical behaviours of the company improves their
image which increase their chances to be successful. In this case, the pharma company 'Purdue
Pharma' which is owned by Sackler family was banned for five years for their unethical practices
and they were accused for misrepresentation and misconduct regarding the medicine named
'OxyContin'. The medicine of the company was a strong pain killer for which they faced various
charges. The unethical conduct was aggressive marketing strategy and launching of the medicine
in the wrong way which is why people started using it as drug. Due to which they faced a
problem of addiction and so may deaths (Moffett, and Mill, 2014). While the company claimed
that the manufacturing was good but to the medicine properly is the responsibility of the
consumer. The main aim of this report is to identify 'what can an organisation do to protect them
against the unethical behaviour?' In the report various ethical ways will be analysed which will
help the company to resolve the issues.

ANALYSIS
Short introductory paragraph including a statement with the aim of the report and a map
sentence.
Main aim of conducting this report is to analyse how Sackler family is successful if it is
not ethical. Company was successful because of its high quality products and services. The main
let down was that business had to target exact locations where large number of person are in
greater requirement of such medication. Because of unethical behaviour, company has direct and
negative impact over their performance in customer's mind. But in marketplace they have strong
position because of its brand and effective services. Due to this case, target market as well as
loyal users of Sackler family had a huge impact in its mind and they felt cheated. Since the
Sackler family had a better skills of marketing as well as performed certain feature in which
business had to lead them to provide better quality in medicine and not offer expiry date product
to the customers. As it has negative impact over life of human. This is a biggest issue that hardly
create challenge for the company as they had to be right leaded and just the sales was acquiring
maximum as per the shareholders. As it is a part of business success and growth at marketplace
(Raju, 2014) . Along with this, The main intent of a shareholder within an organisation was when
they cannot be determined the information that there are various prospect onto which the
business performed such acts. It is essential and important for the success as well as development
of an organisation.
Success in terms of revenue and how it affects the unethical behaviour
Sackler family has always been concentrated to provide various drugs from their
pharmaceutical places which has put the competitors in tough situation to compete with them.
For an organisation it is very important to conduct such activities which can give them
competitive advantage and this can be done by eliminating the hurdles that restricts them to work
in such direction. The organisation reflects that they are customer focussed but their main aim is
to generate profits by somehow satisfying the needs of the customers. The focus on the
manufacturing in this industry is most important as the combination of chemical need to
monitored as it can adversely affect the health of the consumer. The customers are becoming
more conscious as the awareness is increasing which put organisation in a situation to adopt
ethical conduct. The revenue of the organisation is directly associated with their sales which are
further associated with their customers. Ethical behaviour demands the transparency in the

operations of the organisation which sometimes contradicts the companies behaviour in respect
to the customers behaviour. As the main aim of the company is to earn the profits they undertake
some unethical practices which can directly add on the revenue to the company. If consumer get
to know about such unethical behaviour then it becomes very difficult for a pharma company to
gain the trust (Gilbert, and Gilbert, eds., 2006) . The government also is very concerned about
the unethical behaviour of such companies , even they cancel the license of such companies. To
keep the organisation out of such legal actions it is suggested to comply with all the legal
requirements.
Success in terms of shareholders and how it affects the unethical behaviour
Shareholders are crucial for the organisation as they have invested in the company and
they are directly affected by the operations of the company. They guides the company in their
operations and decision making. The unethical behaviours and practice of the company may
provide them the benefits in the short run but it adversely affect them in long run as it leads to
destruction in the relations with the stakeholders also. The shareholders found them guilty for the
misconduct of the company and not only this, it make their employees and the customers to
perceive such unethical behaviour. The success in terms of shareholders can be achieved only by
increasing the profits for them. And this can be done by adopting ethical practices in the
organisation. Shareholders them selves can influence the decisions in the operations of the
company by interfering in the company (De La Harpe, and Radloff, 2000). The pharma
company perform various unethical tasks just to get approval from the market. Due to such
unethical conduct the profits of the company are compromised and this affects the success of the
shareholders as their capital does not increases.
Success in terms of board and how it affects the unethical behaviour
If an organisation is earning good profits and the have a good market base then it does
not means that they have success in the nature of business. The boards of directors are the
regulators of the company who consider every aspect and operation so that they can take
effective decisions. They are responsible for all the decisions taken which is why they have top
undertake a detailed analysis of the conduct of financial department and have to be in touch with
the internal auditors . This helps them to determine the unethical practices and misconduct in the
company. On the basis of structure they make the person responsible for the misconduct and
make the person answerable to the shareholders and the society. But it adversely affects the

image of the company which affects their profitability also (De Burgh, 2003). In the case of
Sackler Family, it was given that they make around billions of Dollars from their operations in
many countries but it does not give the real picture of their performances. The board is
responsible to make decision which can help the company to earn profits which they make
anyhow from any location and any part of business. This happens with the company given in the
case as they had a strong image in the pharma industry due to innovation which did not affected
their profitability. It can make the board successful but the unethical behaviours has adverse
impact on the goodwill of the company.
Success in terms of public confidence how it affects the unethical behaviour
In the present scenario, it is mandatory for the organisation to perform their work with the
concerns of all members specifically the targeted segment and market. The Sackler Family
Business is performing their work to complete their work with more efficiency by completing the
business according to the guidelines which are predetermine by management and industry. The
marketing strategies aids the organisation to complete their work by performing the work with
the ethical approach. This results it is easy for organisation to perform to enhance their
productivity even in crises and peak load. Moreover, in context of Sackler Family Business the
product is of good quality but the large target market assumed that they are cheated. Therefore,
the management need to improve the skills of marketing which results in increasing the market
area of product by improving the image of the products. The major weakness relates with
organisation is that it is complex for management to identify the exact market area for their
products. After various stages of work it is identified that most of the people face difficulties
because they are consuming the drug through different methods. Because of this it is complex for
organisation to identify the methods by which organisation is performing their work as it is uses
for negative purpose (Banfi, 2003). The Sackler Family Business faces difficulties because the
consumers are directly connected with the harm of product so it is difficult to know who is using
the products to fulfil their unethical needs. This results more number of innocent people are
impacted which directly impacted on negative image of product.
CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the above report that the organisations has to undertake the ethical
practices which can not only leads to the success of the company as well as increase the goodwill
in the eyes of all the stakeholders. Ethical conduct saves a company from any legal proceeding

and the penalties which can leads to loss of customers and thus the customers base. In an
organisation the regulation and the monitoring system should be strong which can identify the
misconducts and their operational inefficiency. The management of the organisation should be
active which will make the employees of the organisation to be focussed for the ethical conduct
and behaviour. Also it will keep them focussed towards the core competencies and the goals of
the company. The motivation of the employees should be in context to generate money but that
should only be with the help of ethical operations.
RECOMMENDATIONS
From the above report it is identified that every organisation should protect themselves
by making clear the methods of their working and the procedure. The facts should be
represented with the honestly along with that they multiple factors should be disclosed which are
taken into consideration by the organisation. The company went through unethical conduct by
misrepresenting in the marketing strategy which is why it even caused loss of people and some
people became addicted to it. To increase the loyal of the customers they have to promote their
ethical conduct. The recommendations that has to be adopted by the company are given below :
 the company should stick to their main objectives and the operations which will make
them consistent towards their activities with authenticity and ethically which are
specified by the company
 overall quality standards need to be maintained when an organisation is working in such a
industry as its products are crucial which adversely have a effect on the health of people
 the conduct of the organisation should be ethically conducted and should be monitored by
the teams on regular basis which will help them to survive and grow in the long run

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Banfi, C.S., 2003. Portfolios: Integrating advanced language, academic, and professional
skills. ELT Journal, 57(1), pp.34-42.
De Burgh, H., 2003. Skills are not enough: The case for journalism as an academic
discipline. Journalism, 4(1), pp.95-112.
De La Harpe, B. and Radloff, A., 2000. Helping academic staff to integrate professional
skills. Integrating key skills in higher education. London: Kogan Page, pp.165-179.
Gilbert, N. and Gilbert, G.N. eds., 2006. From postgraduate to social scientist: a guide to key
skills. Sage.
Moffett, J. and Mill, A.C., 2014. Evaluation of the flipped classroom approach in a veterinary
professional skills course. Advances in medical education and practice, 5, p.415.
Raju, J., 2014. Knowledge and skills for the digital era academic library. The Journal of
academic librarianship, 40(2), pp.163-170.
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