Guillermo Furniture Store case study

Guillermo Furniture Store

Unlike the budgets of many national and local governments, a locally run business must be sustainable in order to provide for its employees and owners. A business that is sustainable and profitable will provide its owners and its employees with security and afford them the opportunities to provide for their own families and loved ones. Regarding the sustainability of Guillermo's business he finds that competition has had an impact on his business that is both negative and positive in nature. The key to the sustainability of his business hinges on whether he can turn the negatives into positives. Ethically, Guillermo should look to provide for his employees who have counted on him for the security they seek from having a job. Guillermo has made a commitment to those employees to provide them with that security and should seek to honor that commitment to the extent possible. A higher ethical cause is his own family that he has also made a commitment to. He has committed to providing for his own family and by adapting his business practices in an effective manner he will be seeking methods to honor his commitments to both his family and his employees.

To accomplish his ethical objectives, Guillermo must look at the budgets, costs, expenses and revenues that he will derive from any specific changes made to his business model. His furniture business in the past has focused on producing handmade tables and chairs distributed by a distributor network to the consumer at a slight premium to the value. Other competitors are using mechanical lasers to accomplish the same quality product at a lower price. If he continues to follow the same business plan he has followed in the past, his business will suffer accordingly and will lead to an eventual demise.

Guillermo has a number of choices and will have to decide whether to implement the same technology as his competitors (which will result in a decrease of employees, an ethical conundrum he does not wish to face). A different choice might be to parlay his distributor network for another competitor who wishes to expand its base, and a third choice might be to diversify his offerings away from the custom furniture into a more lucrative area including a flame-retardant furniture covering his company has developed.