1

Whole Foods Market Team Case Analysis Paper

Team #2: Maddie McMurray, Alvaro Bravo-Beneitez, David Castro-Jimenez, Breana Gomez,
Alex Ramirez, & Trevor Tuma
Professor Remi Lawanson, Ph.D.
Whittier College

Abstract
Whole Foods Market, is a multinational retail food chain that specializes in natural and
organic foods. The company, founded in 1980, by current CEO John Mackey has become one
of the largest organic food suppliers in the United States. This paper on Whole Foods details
the social responsibility, employee benefits and growth plan of the company while focusing
on how they see competitors as acquisitions rather than benchmarks. We explore and analyze
the company with opinions and perspectives from a variety of sources including, Pride,
Hughes, and Kapoors Foundation of Business and Peter Druckers Post-Capitalist
Society.

Table of Contents
4-5

Introduction

5-7

Human Resources

7-8

Logistics & Distribution

8-10

Company Growth Struggles

10-12

Financial Analysis

12

Looking Ahead: The Future

12-14

SWOT Analysis

15

Recommendations

15-17

Kotters Change Model

17-18

What Can Be Concluded?

19

References

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In the Harvard Business Schools case study on Whole Foods, details about how the
largest organic food conglomerate in the United States began with one man, John Mackey
are detailed. (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 2) . As a young man who was struggling to
find his true calling, Mackey dropped out of college six times before finding his passion
while working for a vegan cooperation in Texas. Mackey found that working with organic
and natural foods was what he wanted to do for the rest of his life when (he) realized what
you ate affected how you felt. (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 2). At the age of 25,
Mackey was able to raise $45,000 and open his very own healthy organic food market, Safer
Way. With a hefty donation of $25,000 from his father and some mergers with local organic
businesses, Mackey opened up an even bigger store in 1980, the first ever Whole Foods.
It wasnt long after the establishment of Whole Foods that Mackey decided to expand
the company. From 1986 to 1993 Whole Foods acquired a number of small companies all
over the continental United States and continued to expand. Mackey decided to take his
company international in 2004 with the acquisition of Fresh & Wild, a UK natural and
organic food chain. Growing rapidly, Whole Foods broke into the Fortune 500 list in 2005 at
number 479. By 2006, Whole foods was the nations largest natural foods retail chain and
the fastest growing company in a fierce competitive grocery market (Marquis, Besharov and
Thomason 3). Whole Foods ran its business differently than most. Instead of imposing their
practices onto the new acquisition and its current employees, they would adopt practices from
the acquired companies, then train existing employees the Whole Foods way. Existing Whole
Foods managers were sent to teach managers of acquired stores the Whole Foods system of
operation and philosophy.
A big competitor for Whole Foods had been Trader Joes, whom Mackey saw as a
threat after consumers who preferred Trader Joes for its products and low prices labeled

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Whole Foods as Whole Paycheck. To reverse this bad reputation, Mackey ran a twelve
week campaign touting Whole Foods as a place that carried More of the good stuff, for less
than you think (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 6). Whole Foods primary competitor
however, was Wild Oats, whom Mackey slandered on a Yahoo message board under the alias
Rahodep for 8 years, and in 2007 Whole Foods acquired Wild Oats. When conventional
supermarkets such as Safeway and Wal-Mart started participating in the natural and organic
foods market, organic products competition was changed for Whole Foods. In this case
summary are topics covering the companys human resources, logistics and distribution,
growth struggles, financial analysis and future of Whole Foods, a company with a
monopolistic hold on the natural and organic foods market.
Human Resources
Something Whole Foods has been able to engrain into the company and maintain
throughout the years is its treatment of its employees. CEO John Mackey stated that one of
the corporations goals was to help create an organization which manifests love, joy, and
happiness (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 6). Like Drucker, Mackey recognizes that
employees that are the means of production and that they can only produce an output if there
is an organization for them to participate in (Drucker 64).
In order to create an environment for his employees to thrive, Mackey and a group of
60 team members developed the Declaration of Interdependence (Marquis, Besharov and
Thomason 7). This Declaration embodies the five core values that are essential to the
corporation. The document states values such as sell the highest quality natural and organic
products available, to satisfy and delight customers, support team member excellence
and happiness, create wealth through profits and growth, and to supportcommunities
and encourage local investment (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 7). When taking a

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closer look at each standard it is even easier to understand why Mackey has chosen these five
values as the companys foundation. The second value is especially important to the interests
of employees. With the standard of supporting teamwork, excellence and happiness the
company ensures that they would provide fair wages and benefits for its employees and value
diversity within the workplace (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 7). Setting standards like
these improves employees morale and motivation, raising productivity and creating an
environment where customers feel welcomed.
Along with promising fairness and diversity, Whole Foods wants to build trust
between team members and have these values become values within their employees as well.
In order to generate these results, the company encourages employees to think of
themselves as team members and take an active role in store operations and policy
(Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 6). The organization itself is decentralized, making sure
authority is widely spread across the various organization levels (Pride, Hughes, and Kapoor
191). Mackey states, Each store is divided into teams, and team members are like people in
a band within a tribe- they are empowered to do what needs to be done. They dont waste
time waiting for the chief back at headquarters to give them orders (Marquis, Besharov and
Thomason 7). This tribalism satisfies the need for a community and makes sure that the
individual worker must think through their objectives and their contributions, and then take
responsibility for both; communicat[ing] their objectives, their priorities and their intended
contributions to their fellow workers- up, down, and sideways (Drucker 108). This holds
the worker responsible for his or her actions and ensures that everyone is seen as a
contributor (Drucker 109). As Drucker states, loyalty cannot be obtained by the paycheck;
it will have to be earned by proving to knowledge workers that the organization which
presently employs them can offer them exceptional opportunities to be effective (Drucker

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66). Whole Foods low employee turnover rate of 60% and 86% of their current employees
stating they almost always or frequently enjoyed their jobs led to the company being
named by Fortune as one of the best companies to work for the eighth time in a row in
2005 (Haglock and Wells 9).
In addition to making sure the employees know they are on the companys team,
Whole Foods also keeps an open book policy. This gives the employees the ability to know
what is happening within the organization. With teams, each departments performance is
made available to see on a product by product basis. A daily report of measured sales,
production costs, and operating profits is also made available for each team (Marquis,
Besharov and Thomason 8). All information regarding the teams is then publicly reviewed
and then analyzed at the bimonthly manager meetings. This encouragement of competition
means that teams are pressured to set ambitious goals for themselves and allowed them to
compete not only against their own goals but also against other teams in their store or in
their region (Haglock and Wells 9).
In regards to morale and compensation, Whole Foods gives employees access to
compensation information for every person working in the corporation (Marquis, Besharov
and Thomason 8). When team productivity is evaluated, the team with the best performance
gets a share in the companys profit, otherwise known as gainsharing (Marquis, Besharov
and Thomason 8). This gainsharing provides motivation for its employees and pushes them
to do the best they can. This form of motivating and leading are critical to the company
because of the importance of their human resources (Pride, Hughes, and Kapoor 166). It
allows the employee participation portion of total quality management to be fulfilled (Pride,
Hughes, and Kapoor 175). The open book policy also fosters competition within and
between stores, something which Mackey states is trying to create a high trust organization,

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an organization where people are all-for-one and one-for-all By sharing information, we
stay aligned to the vision of shared fate. You cant have secrets (Marquis, Besharov and
Thomason 8).
Logistics and Distribution
As Whole Foods continued to grow and gain a large customer base, the company
moved away from the original decentralized distribution strategy and to a more centralized
model. The company developed regional and national standards, operating procedures, and
centers for the new distribution facilities. At the start of this transition, the company leased
space from regional distributors, but in the early 2000s, the company began building private
distribution centers. Each center was able to provide for 50-60 stores. Eventually the centers
became specified based off of the product that they stored. Marketing mix is defined as a
combination of product, price, distribution, and promotion developed to satisfy a particular
target market (Pride, Hughes, Kapoor, 2013, p 304). In terms of following the principles of
marketing mix, Whole Foods created a company that reached the target consumers through
the product itself, the price of the product, the means chosen for its distribution, and the
promotion of the product. By selling organic products at cheap rates, catering to a new
demographic of consumers, and creating new distribution centers to provide consumers with
a wider variety of products, Whole Foods created a successful marketing mix. In 2005,
United National Foods (UNF) signed a seven-year distribution agreement with Whole Foods,
which allowed for a greater distribution of goods. This meant that the stores were able to sell
10% of their products without the national approval that had been previously required.
Additionally, Whole Foods started the Local Producer Loan Program in 2006, which
provided loans to small sized producers. Without these loans the farmers would not otherwise
be able to sell to Whole Foods. The loans were unlike traditional loans, offering lower

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interest rates and fewer fees. These company improvements helped to increase the growth
and productions capabilities of Whole Foods.
Company Growth Struggles
Whole Foods stock went public in 1992, and since then has returned more than
2,700%. (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason, 10). In order to keep up this high growth rate
the company needed to improve the negative criticism of the companys social mission. They
also needed to increase the size of the company while staying consistent with the companys
core values.
Whole Foods had brought the organic food movement to millions of consumers,
giving Americans a new, healthy lifestyle. As the company grew, critics called the company
corporate organic, implying that the company had gotten too big and strayed from its
original social mission. Mackeys vision originally focused on utilizing small-scale farming,
but as the size of the company increased Whole Foods was forced to use large-scale suppliers
to keep up with the demand. 22% of Whole Foods suppliers were corporate farms and the
other 78% were independent or family run. (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason, 11)Michael
Pollan, author of The Omnivores Dilemma described the company as flawed, stating The
word organic has been stretched and twisted to admit the very sort of industrial practices for
which it once offered a critique and alternative. In order to stock their shelves, Whole Foods
purchased items from food selling giants Earthbound Farm and Cascadian Farm, which were
subsidiaries of General Mills. Critics claimed that purchasing items from these sellers
conflicted with Whole Foods mission of small local farms. Mackey refuted this argument,
claiming that regional distribution helped Whole Foods gain access to stores across the
region, allowing them to support both regional and local productions while providing a wide
variety of products to consumers. The company also started several new initiatives aimed at

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taking stores back to their company roots. These included farmers markets in front of Whole
Food stores, loans to local farmers, and appointing employees who would be responsible for
seeking out local producers and promoting them within in the community.
In order to increase company size and eliminate one of Whole Foods largest
competitors, the company purchased Wild Oats on February 21, 2007 for $565 million
dollars. In terms of corporate growth, this acquisition, or purchase of a smaller company by a
larger corporation (Pride, Hughes, Kapoor, 2013 p 119) was intended to increase the sales
revenue and profit. The horizontal merger between Whole Foods and Wild Oats, reduced the
competition in the industry since both companies produced similar products. Additionally,
Wild Oats had a strong presence in markets where Whole Foods was less established such as
the Pacific Northwest, Rocky Mountains, and Florida. Wild Oats was also the second-largest
natural foods chain in the United States. The merger bolstered the companys position in an
increasingly competitive market. We need each other, said Mackey with regards to each of
the companys future (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason,12). Although the merger was
necessary for the growth of Whole Foods, it also created a lot of challenges. Whole foods
was struggling before the acquisition, as shares decreased by 30% (Marquis, Besharov and
Thomason, 12). Whole Foods was also forced to close 31 of its locations to avoid the
repercussions of overextending their financial limits. Whole Foods was also concerned with
the reaction of the investment community and the broader public. The companys drop in
profits and stock price were due to the higher merger integration costs. After purchasing Wild
Oats, profit fell 13% because of the costs associated with opening new stores, cutting jobs,
increasing compensation, and new training for past Wild Oats employees. (Marquis,
Besharov and Thomason, 13)
Financial Analysis

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What started as a sole proprietorship under John Mackey grew into the
natural/organic food conglomerate we now know as Whole Foods. The Foundations of
Business says, Most corporations grow by expanding their present operations[By]
expand[ing] the sale of present products to new geographic markets or to new groups of
consumers in geographic markets already served (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor 122). However,
Mackey did the opposite. Rather than opening new stores in various geographical locations
using the Whole Foods brand name, he expanded the companys reach by acquiring other
similar natural/organic food organizations, staying within the same market. The Foundations
of Business acknowledges this strategy as the second method of growth/expansion, known as
a merger (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor 122). By expanding through the acquisition of other
similar stores, Mackey was able to increase Whole Foods net sales from $496 million in
1995 to roughly $7.9 billion in 2008 (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason Exhibits 3 & 9).
Through acquisition of these stores, Whole Foods was able to dominate the natural
foods industry by buying out their competition, including both small natural food stores and
large natural food store chains. According to Exhibit 3 in the Marquis, Besharov and
Thomason case study, Whole Foods peak was in 2006, where their stock was priced at
$78.69 and Earning Per Share at $1.46. However, after acquiring the second largest natural
food company in the market, Wild Oats, Whole Foods net income decreased by 8.9% in
2007 and decreased substantially by 37.3% in 2008 (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason
Exhibit 3). This lead to a decrease in stock price and also a decrease in earning per share from
$1.46 earning per share to $0.82 earning per share. For investors, earnings per share is an
important indicator to see how profitable the business is, and to see if it is a healthy state.
(Pride, Hughes & Kapoor pg.459). Generally a good sign is when earnings per share steadily
increases, but when it decreases it shows the company is losing profit.

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The main reason net income fell is due to the substantial increase in liabilities and
total operating expenses (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor pg 455). After acquiring Wild Oats at the
price of $565 million, Whole Foods slipped from double-digit growth due to the costs
associated with opening new storesand training for those Wild Oats employees who
transitioned to Whole Foods (Marquis, Beshov & Thomason 12). After buying Wild Oats,
money was poured into the new employees compensation, as well as into employee training.
It also cost more money to run the new buildings and acquire inventory for them. The
increase in total liabilities and expenses can also be reflected in Exhibit 2 of the Marquis,
Besharov and Thomason case study, where diagrams show the substantial increase in number
of stores of Whole Foods from 2006-2008. In 2007 Whole Foods had acquired over 90 new
stores (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason Exhibit 2). With total operating expenses
increasing from $2.1 billion in 2006 to $2.9 billion in 2008 (Marquis, Besharov and
Thomason Exhibit 3), there is little room left for net income.
Net income is the total profit earned by a company after subtracting its liabilities and
expenses from its total revenues (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor 11). A larger cost of total expenses
explains why profit was lost, which ultimately leads to the decline in stock price and earnings
per share. This increase in expenses also explains why the companys profits margin
dramatically decreased from 3.63% in 2006 to 1.43% in 2008 (Marquis, Besharov and
Thomason Exhibit 3). If profit margin is low, it means the company needs to better handle
their costs to maximize their profits. Foundations of Business explains that success and
expansion sometimes leads to problems (Pride, Hughes, & Kapoor 138).
As mentioned before, from the logistical aspect of overexpansion, total costs
increased due to start-up costs of newly acquired buildings and employee compensation.
From the productivity aspect however, when there are too many businesses being controlled

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by one larger firm, business models and ethics are difficult to duplicate across every store.
This could lead to a decrease in sales due to customer and employee dissatisfaction at certain
stores because of poor management. The more stores there are, the more difficult it is to
enforce the mission of the firm and enforce quality of the products. Although Whole Foods
tried to increase its net sales by expanding, the plan for expansion backfired and increased its
total costs. This goes to show that net sales are not always the most important thing for a
business. Whats important is maximizing profits by increasing sales revenue at little cost.
The higher the profit margin, the better.
Looking Ahead: The Future
Whole Foods has made many successful changes to ensure that the company remains
aligned with its social mission as they continue to grow. However, experts continue to remain
unsatisfied and question the ideas and leadership of the management. An article in The New
Yorker explained that for many the history of organic farming is a story of paradise lost- or,
worse, sold- in which cherished ideals have simply become part of the sale pitch. Mackey
views the financial growth and social value as a new synergy, where companies have a
deeper purpose beyond making profit and actively support the relationship between the major
stakeholders (consumers, employees and suppliers). He strongly believes that this new model
of business represents the business ideals of Whole Foods. He emphasizes that a company's
main goal should not be maximizing profits. Instead, he encourages business owners to focus
on the philosophical ideas of Plato- the good, the true, and the beautiful, and his own, the
heroic. He claims that when businesses [follow these principles] there is no reason that they
cannot be ethical, socially responsible, and profitable. (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason,
13)
SWOT Analysis

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Whole Foods has proven time and time again that they are a socially responsible
company. Drucker states that in order to be socially responsible, companies must take care
of society...within the limits of their competence, and without endangering their performance
capacity (Drucker 97). Whole Foods is socially responsible in the basic sense that they are a
profitable company, thereby serving a purpose to society. Mackeys vision for the company,
however, has expanded the responsibility each store shares with the community it operates in.
Team members are compensated for up to 20 hours of community service per year, and the
company hosts five-percent days, giving 5% of sales made to a local charity of the
individual stores choosing (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 9). Whole Foods was the first
company to employ the LEED grading system for environmentally friendly buildings, and
encourages stores to use methods that reduce toxic waste and the use of virgin products
(Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 9).
However, Whole Foods does have areas that are weaknesses for the company. While
treatment of employees is more than just, Mackey is fundamentally opposed to unionization.
He argues that employee satisfaction and unity was ensured under the companys
Declaration of Interdependence (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 9). The store has had
only 3 large tussles with unions; only one store managed to unionize, but the company
attributed this to problems with the stores manager, who was subsequently removed
(Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 9). In addition to unionization, Mackey also has a
tendency to become very emotionally invested in business matters, like in the instance of
Wild Oats. Mackey bashed the co-founder of Wild Oats on Yahoo! online forums and in
person for 8 years leading up to the Wild Oats acquisition. Drucker states Without
responsibility, power also always degenerates into non-performance (Drucker 101), and it
can be argued that Mackey doesnt feel its his responsibility to represent the company

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professionally. The lack of grace Mackey may sometimes conduct himself with has the
potential to alienate consumers.
Whole Foods has done an excellent job of taking advantage of opportunities that have
presented themselves to the company. They have foreseen any critiques that could be said
about the company, abolishing them before they came to light. The company allow[s] stores
to select at least 10% of their products without national approval, as long as those sources
met the companys Quality Standards (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 10). They also
have a program that gives loans to local producers, helping local companies get their
products on to Whole Foods shelves. To aid local growers, Whole Foods hosts farmers
markets in their parking lots.
Many threats exist for the company, all pertaining to company expansion. Internally,
Whole Foods experienced an issue with the distribution of their products to all of their stores.
As a response to this, the company has ten regional distribution centers integrated into their
producer to retailer to consumer distribution channel. However, if they continue acquiring
and building stores at the rate they have in the past few years, more and more distribution
centers will be required. Additionally, as the store has grown both nationally and
internationally, many employees and customers enamored with the company mission of high
quality natural and organic foods feel that Whole Foods has strayed from their mission. This
is arguably the largest threat the company faces, since if many people feel isolated from
Whole Foods they will no longer shop there and instead choose another grocery chain,
possibly Trader Joes. While significantly smaller than Whole Foods, Trader Joes has a loyal
customer base and continually offers new products that keep them competitive with the larger
Whole Foods. Whole Foods currently has a monopolistic advantage in the natural and

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organic market sector, but if they continue to spread themselves too thin by expanding more
and more they may lose their edge.
Recommendations
Mackey has done tremendously well as a pioneer of what he calls conscious
capitalism (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 13). However, as mentioned in the section
above, Mackey has a tendency to become heavily emotionally invested in his business
ventures, sometimes displaying what can politely be called poor sportsmanship. This
conduct can estrange current and potential customers, employees and business partners. On
the topic of estranging current employees and customers, Whole Foods must also be careful
of expansion. The company should focus on duplicating the quality of their brand name
throughout all of their stores to stay consistent to their mission statement. Whole foods can
improve the quality on their brand name through Top Quality Management which is the
coordination action of efforts directed at improving customer satisfaction, increasing
employee participation...and facilitating an organizational atmosphere of continuous brand
quality (Pride, Hughes & Kapoor pg.181). If Whole Foods focuses on increasing employee
and customer satisfaction, productivity and customer loyalty will increase, resulting in higher
profit margins. Speaking financially, stopping expansion will reduce their total operating
expenses. Keeping all costs as minimal as possible is also highly recommended, for obvious
reasons. The more money that Whole Foods is able to make, the more money they can use in
their community engagement efforts, furthering their foothold in the communities they have
settled in to.
Kotters Change Model
Stage 1: Whole Foods expansion has caused the company to lose focus on their
mission statement. Consequently, this has affected their revenue in the last few years. After

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a peak in 2006, the company lost their momentum and saw a drastic drop in stock prices.
Our goal is to return Whole Foods to the level it was during its peak.
Stage 2: Creating a Total Quality Management (TQM) standing committee will
monitor continuous quality improvements in customer satisfaction, employee satisfaction and
supplier partnerships. Another standing committee will be created to monitor the building of
new stores, ensuring that the company is using extensive marketing research to ensure
building a new store will show a large profit return. Ideally during this time, stores will only
be built where another doesnt exist within a decided radius.
Stage 3: In order to achieve this goal, implementation of several steps are necessary:
1. Whole Foods should first slow their acquisition of competitors stores for the next
few years,
2. The TQM committee will need to begin visiting existing stores to ensure that the
company mission is being practiced to the highest potential.
3. A program will be implemented allowing Whole Foods managers visit other stores in
their region. This will provide real-life examples and ideas to managers on how they
can implement the mission statement more effectively in their own stores.
4. Meanwhile, the standing committee that monitors the building of new stores will be
working to ensure that stores with a promising return on investment (ROI) are being
built.
Stage 4: Whole Foods should communicate this change vision by means of company
email, store employee meetings, the grapevine and posting on bulletins in stores backrooms.
It is imperative to the mission that every employee is notified of this change.
Stage 5: A foreseeable obstacle in the implementation of this plan is the fact that
Whole Foods employs a diverse group of employees. While some employees are passionate

17
about the companys mission, just as many are employed at Whole Foods because of
employee benefits. To make this change a success, Whole Foods must make sure that every
employee knows they work with the company, not for it. This mission will be the mission
of every employee.
Stage 6: Whole Foods can see the programs success when stock begins to grow
again.
Stage 7: Once the company sees stock price rise, the committee that overlooks store
development may wish to revisit the radius they set for the building of new stores.
Stage 8: A new attitude we need to see in Whole Foods corporate room is the
ideology that competition is okay. Acquiring all of the companys competition isnt
necessary and is costly, as demonstrated by the Wild Oats acquisition. If the company
continues to buy out all of their competition theyll no longer have companies to benchmark
themselves against.
What Can Be Concluded?
Whole Foods, the brainchild of John Mackey, began as a sole proprietorship in 1980.
In less than forty years the company has given itself a monopolistic hold on the natural and
organic foods market, both nationally and internationally (Pride, Huges and Kapoor 21).
Whole Foods quickly grew to infamy, their mission of healthy and quality products
resounding with consumers everywhere. Such popularity allowed the company to acquire
competitors and build new stores, expanding to huge proportions. The number of Whole
Foods stores nearly doubled from 2003 to 2007 (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason Exhibit
3). Their expansion hasnt taken away from their focus on employee compensation, though.
The company realizes that Druckers statement that loyalty cannot be obtained by the
paycheck...the organization which presently employs [the workers should]...offer them

18
exceptional opportunities (Drucker 66). Whole Foods works to incorporate the Theory Y
theory described in Foundations of Business; employee motivation is based on human
relations, so giving employees responsibility and organized goals is rewarding personally and
aids the company (Pride, Hughes and Kapoor 273). Whole Foods is open and honest with
their workers, and has them work in teams to foster friendly competition that betters the
stores they work in.
The company has been criticized with being corporate organic, that they had
strayed from their original mission and became engrossed in the corporate side of the
business. However, Whole Foods replies that it has never left its roots, still striving to bring
the best to their consumer base. Their consumer base is obviously pleased, helping Whole
Foods acquire $7.9 billion in net sales in 2008 (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason Exhibit 3).
Like any company, Whole Foods has its share of threats and obstacles it must solve and
conquer. What separates Whole Foods from the other companies is their unique ability to
steer the natural and organic foods market, thanks to their monopolistic advantage. John
Mackey said Theres no inherent reason why business cannot be ethical, socially responsible
and profitable (Marquis, Besharov and Thomason 13). Whole Foods giant success is
testament to that.

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References
Drucker, P. F. (1993). Post-Capitalist Society. New York, NY: HarperCollins.

Lawanson, R. (n.d.). Kotter's Change Model [PowerPoint].

Marquis, C., Besharov, M., & Thomason, B. (2011). Whole Foods: Balancing Social Mission
and Growth. Harvard Business School.
Pride, W. H., Hughes, R. J., & Kapoor, J. R. (2013). Foundations of Business (4th ed.).
Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning.
Wells, J. R., & Haglock, T. (2008). Whole Foods Market, Inc. Harvard Business School.