Boondocking at Wal-Mart

Q1: List the stakeholders involved and their influence. Identify any fundamentals of business or capitalism involved.
Recreational Vehicle (RV) Park Owners—For example: Ted McAfee. These owners have directly influence on the local city regulations and Wal-Mart. Wal-Mart stores—The stores allow those RV owners parking at store parking lots for free; however, they do not provide any kind of facilities to them. RV owners—They preferred to parking at Wal-Mart’s parking lots because the RV Park is not parking for free and the cost of gasoline was increased. Local communities—some RV owners from the U.S. communities boycott the local regulations.
Local city government—Establish some regulations to not allow RV staying overnight in a store parking lot. They also ask Wal-Mart put up signs to inform RV owners this regulation.

RV Park, RV business and Wal-Mart are all consumer capitalism. Their businesses depend on the consumer needs and demand. Q2: What are the issues for Wal-Mart and stakeholders?
Issue 1: RV Park and RV owners: RV owners cannot park at RV Park for free, and the price at RV Park has risen and the cost of gasoline increased. This cause the RV Park business has declined a lot.

Issue 2: RV owners and Wal-Mart: Wal-Mart currently allows RV owners to park for free, but the store does not provide any kind of facilities to them. They have to buy the supplies from the store or prepare it by themselves. The Wal-Mart has an unofficial friendly policy to RV.

Issue 3: Wal-Mart and local government: The local government has set up the regulations to not allow RV stay overnight in a store parking lot, and they ask Wal-Mart to put a sign inform RV owners. However, Wal-Mart does not care about the practice.

Issue 4: RV Park and local government: Even thought, the local government has already set up regulations for RV owners, the actual result does not look good. The RV Park business still goes down. Issue 5: Local communities and local government: The regulations from local government were boycotted by the U.S. communities and RV owners. Q3: What can or should RV Park operators like Ted McAfee do? First of all, they should have conservation with RV owners to discuss the issue about parking fee and provide other service. Two-way communication is the key here. The local government and communities should be involved in this conservation. All the considering issues should be addressed by conservation, not boycott movement. They can negotiate the parking fee and the price of gasoline, and then sign an agreement. Case 3.2: Tea with the CEO

Q1: List the stakeholders involved and their influence.
Customer (Susan Drummond) —As the customer, Susan reasonably argues with Rogers to protect her right. And she did not yield. She insist to have a fair feedback from Rogers Company (Rogers) — Rogers know the customer’s calling patterns. And when customers’ calling patterns change, Rogers has the policy to notify the customer of this change. However, Susan was not notified. Rogers’ CEO — The CEO represent the company, and any negative new about company will damage the reputation of company. Court —After small claims court, Rogers made an offer. But Susan still cannot accept the result. Social Media (The Globe and Mail and others) — They report this story on its front page; it brings a huge publicity influence on Rogers’s management. As the result of that, the CEO phoned and apologized to Susan. Q2: What are the issues for Rogers Wireless and stakeholders? Issue 1: Rogers charge a huge phone bill for Susan who just lost her phone. Susan has no idea someone make long-distance to other countries, and she did not get any notification from Rogers. Issue 2: When customer (Susan) first time argue with Rogers, the people said there is nothing they can do and Susan has the full responsible for the bill.

The attitude made Susan very uncomfortable. Issue 3: Some terms of the contract were unfair to customers. Especially, customers cannot pursue disputes with the company through the court or lawsuits. Issue 4: When the public knows about this story, Rogers’s CEO only made a phone call to apologize. Some large companies like Rogers have the bureaucracy. They need to think how to change their image to the public and enhance their service quality. Q3: Should Mr. Rogers have tea with Ms. Drummond and Mr. Gefen? Why or why not? Yes, he should. Because the reputation damage already made by this story, and CEO represents the whole company. His attitude, tone, and speaking directly relate with company image. If the CEO only need to have tea with the customer to solve the problem, that is the best solution to make up the mistake. The public can see the company make the change from the top of the organization.