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« Previous Entries Next Entries »Greg Smith spoke - will Goldman Sachs listen?
Thursday, March 15th, 2012Talk about a resignation letter … yesterday, Greg Smith, a midlevel executive at Goldman Sachs’ London office, submitted his resignation in an e-mail to his bosses. The e-mail reportedly expressed Mr. Smith’s concerns about Goldman’s culture, describing his belief that the investment giant had gone too far in putting its own interests ahead of [...]
Should the Lorax speak for the SUVs?
Friday, March 2nd, 2012Today is the birthday of Dr. Seuss, author and illustrator of more than sixty fanciful books for children (and adults who still want to be kids). Our local elementary school is celebrating today and, as part of the festivities, I volunteered to read The Lorax to my daughter’s second-grade class. I chose The [...]
Yes, public apologies still work … and they’re still important!
Tuesday, February 28th, 2012It’s been a couple of weeks since I last wrote about apologies on this blog. It’s not that people have suddenly stopped apologizing - quite the contrary, the news has been full of apologies of late. It just seemed time to take a little break and write about other aspects of business and [...]
What’s wrong with compromise?
Friday, February 17th, 2012Last week, I promised to start dedicating my Friday posts to issues involving social ethics. For my first post in this series, I want to challenge the popular notion that the best way to address a problem is by “fighting” for a solution. This isn’t just an abstract point. If you listen [...]
Happy Valentine’s Day, McDonald’s!
Tuesday, February 14th, 2012Writing about business ethics can get pretty depressing sometimes. There are so many situations where corporations make the news by behaving badly in one way or another that it sometimes seems it isn’t even possible to catalogue them all. Consequently, I’m excited to have the opportunity to praise McDonald’s for teaming up with [...]
Happy Birthday, Boz!
Friday, February 10th, 2012This week marked the two hundredth birthday of a literary legend. The great Charles Dickens, author of more than a dozen novels and numerous short stories and articles, playwright, lecturer, actor, and darling of Victorian society on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, was born in Portsea, England, on January 7, 1812. There [...]
Don’t promise what you can’t deliver
Friday, February 3rd, 2012Continuing my Friday series on keeping your business out of court, let’s take another story directly from the headlines. Heather Peters drew national attention when she successfully sued Honda in a California small claims court. The car manufacturer had reportedly advertised its Civic Hybrid as delivering 50 mpg. Ms. Peters alleged that, [...]
What’s the big deal about Paula Deen?
Tuesday, January 31st, 2012This may be the post that brings the world down on my head, but I have to wonder why everyone seems to be madly shoving each other aside for the opportunity to vilify Paula Deen. For those of you who’ve been vacationing on Mars for the last week or two, here’s the short version. [...]
Don’t threaten to sue … unless you really mean it!
Friday, January 27th, 2012Continuing my Friday series on keeping your business out of court, let’s focus on a mistake that too many businesspeople make. On the theory that “the best defense is a good offense,” some people make it all too clear to their contractors, suppliers, and consultants that, if a single mistake is made, they’ll take [...]
Can we afford corporate tax breaks?
Friday, January 27th, 2012President Obama’s State of the Union has stirred up a hornet’s nest in Washington. It’ll be awhile before the dust settles enough to know who’s coming down where on his various proposals. However, I want to focus on one aspect of his speech that seems to me to be very relevant to business [...]
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