Reference no: EM133421260
Case of the "Italian" Shoes
Affluent and aspiring fashionistas worldwide put a premium on owning luxury brands of shoes, handbags, and accessories that have long been designed and manufactured in Paris, Milan, and London. Brands like Prada and Burberry conjure scenes of the European countryside and generations of handcrafted excellence.
However, many of these high-end companies have quietly chosen to manufacture many of their products in Asia. There are many economic incentives for doing so. In addition, however, the European owners (speaking anonymously, of course) draw a striking contrast between work attitudes and capabilities in many Asian countries and in Europe. Specifically, they describe European employees as demanding and inflexible and Asian employees (and organizations) as speedy, responsive, and highly adaptive. Moreover, these business leaders describe the craftsmanship coming from Asian suppliers as increasingly on a par with that of Western European workers.
These high-end companies continue to label their wares as "made in Italy" or "made in Paris" because local laws allow such labeling even when only a small portion of the work (typically the final assembly) is completed in the designated country or city. As this situation comes to light, few people can agree about its meaning and appropriateness.
ASSIGNMENT
Do you see a difference between what these companies are doing and the illegal production of counterfeit ("knockoff") products that are fraudulently stamped with a designer label and sold on street corners?
What are the communication ethics of labeling a product as made in a country (typically for marketing reasons) when it is only minimally true? Do you think that companies should have to disclose all of the locations where their products are made? Why or why not?
What effect will the globalization of the workforce, and in particular the rising capabilities of Asia, likely have on Western countries with more traditional, less flexible workforces and often more complicated labor rules?
Do you foresee a future for products that feature a specific location as a selling point? What is your prognosis for expressly "local" production (e.g., food or goods from a particular location) in a global economy?