Alvarado, Alisa Maris L.

July 13, 2015

MGT104 B79
Flash of Genius: A Reaction Paper
The large organization has to learn to innovate, or it won't survive. This is what Peter Drucker
said in an interview with George Gendron on Inc.com. This statement is true since businesses nowadays
have to be unique and has to have an apparent differentiation for them to have a competitive advantage.
However, in Milton Friedmans belief, the primary responsibility of business is to make profit for its
owners while complying with the law. In the movie, however, it is perceptible that Ford Motor Company
supports Friedmans argument more than that of Druckers.
All business entities are subject to legal responsibilities and they are required to follow the law.
This is an aspect of corporate social responsibility. In order to fully commit to help solve social problems
of a community, a company has to file and present legal requirements, pay the right taxes, adhere to
competition law, follow product safety and quality laws, and last but not the least, cooperate with antitrust
laws.
The responsibility of an organization goes beyond the normal operations of a business. You cant
open a business and expect to just be all about the money. There is a notion that when you venture into
any entrepreneurial activity, you are already serving the community. However, when you do so, you are
also accepting a new responsibility which is to help and be after the greater good of the people.
Ford Motor Company has been involved in many legal disputes varying from environmental
concerns, safety rules violations, down to patent infringement. Being an already established business in
Detroit, they have used their power and influence to steal a lifes worth work of an ordinary man named
Dr. Robert Kearns. His work, the intermittent wipers, had been blatantly launched by Ford when they
released the Ford Mustang. This is in complete violation of the antitrust law.
The trial went on for so many years and it caused a broken marriage and a broken family. It
caused the breakdown of a person and loss of a lot of money. All of this happened because Ford wanted to
innovate and saw the potential in Dr. Kearns work. Ford didnt want to let him manufacture the wipers
because it would incur more costs. It would benefit him more than itd benefit the company.
According to Drucker, the organizations first responsibility must always be to its own mission
regardless of other factors. The first social responsibility of the business is to make a profit sufficient to
cover operational costs in the future. The logic in this is that if the organization failed in its own goals
because of misallocation of time, resources, or personnel in attempting to fulfill a particular social
responsibility, not only would it be prevented from solving any particular social problem, or future social
problems, but would fail society in the organizations mission and waste societys resources. 1
In this case, Ford didnt seem to be misallocating time, resources, and personnel if they
accepted Dr. Kearns work legally and pay him what he deserves. They had no other reason not to support
his invention, and yet they still stole from a man whose only dream was to provide for his family and be
able to get credit for his work. Whatever reason Ford has, this is clearly a case wherein they are not
conforming to their social responsibility. On a good note, Ford has been reportedly becoming more
concern for the community and has been initiating environmental movements as well.
1 http://www.sixsigmaiq.com/lean-six-sigma-businesstransformation/articles/drucker-s-surprising-view-of-corporate-social-re/