Vodafone Developing and implementing a strategic approach to ethics 04_The external environment Ethics guide companies in reacting to changes

in the environment. Managers can u se a number of different tools to understand the environment. This understanding is important. It helps managers to make better decisions. SLEPT analysis is one of these tools and which looks at changes in five areas: Social - trends in society Legal - legal restrictions and considerations Economic - the health of the economy, inflation, etc Political - government policy Technological - developments in computing, etc. The following sections provide some examples of each factor, which are relevant to Vodafone. Social factors Society is concerned about under 18s being at risk. Parents may have concerns ab out their children being contacted (using mobile phones) by paedophiles or other adults. Society is also concerned about adult content being available via mobil e phones to under 18s. Adult content includes gambling, violent games, erotic ma terial etc. Further issues related to 'social' include the rise of mobile phone theft. Legal factors Some laws regulate all businesses e.g. The Sale of Goods Act 1974 stating all pr oducts must be fit for the purpose they are intended. A mobile phone must theref ore work. Certain laws are created to regulate particular industries. Examples i nclude the ban on using holding a phone while driving introduced in 2003. Independent industry regulatory body: OFCOM - the Office of Communications. OFCOM is the independent body for regulati ng the communication industry - www.ofcom.org.uk. Vodafone goes beyond government regulation, working with its competitors in self -regulation. However to retain its leading position in the industry Vodafone bel ieves it must exceed both legal regulations and industry self-regulation. Economic factors The state of the economy, for example levels of growth can impact companies. Com panies' activities also contribute to the overall economy. Companies should rema in true to their ethical values. If they do not, customers may question the comp any's beliefs. Political factors Government policy indicates that it wants the mobile phone industry to create se lf-regulating controls in relation to content. The government also shares public concern about unwanted contact and content. Technological factors The mobile phone industry has seen a great deal of technological change and will continue to do so. Mobile phones were originally used for telephone conversatio ns. Text messaging became available and usage has increased dramatically. Howeve r, most of the texts were between people who already knew each other and had swa pped contact numbers. In other words the users were happy to communicate with ea ch other.

As technology developed, it has become possible to swap information between mobi les and other devices via Bluetooth technology. This can be used inappropriately to send anonymous and unwanted texts. This practice is known as Bluejacking and can be distressing particularly if the recipient is a child or young person. The advent of 3rd generation (3G) mobile phone technology is bringing with it a richer mix of content and providing more services. This further raises the issue of ethics as Vodafone (and other suppliers) can now offer a wide variety of con tent to mobile phones with this new technology. Naturally, 3G will help the comp anies to increase their sales revenues. However, Vodafone recognises that it bri ngs additional responsibility. This includes the need to protect young people fr om inappropriate contact, including violent games, gambling and erotic material.