min-myinnersoul

If you behave like this, you deserve to be cursed, reviled, and generally hated. Unfortunately many business leaders are exactly like this, which is why a business tycoon is considered by society as a figure to be loathed. The "this" I refer to is Stephen Elop, Chairman of Nokia being entitled to a $25m payout for the the sale of Nokia's handset business to Microsoft. Nokia, as everybody knows, has been in dire straits for quite some time. In 2010, the Board fired its existing Finnish leaders and brought Stephen Elop, from Microsoft, as the CEO to "rescue" Nokia. Elop abandoned Nokia's operating system Symbian and tied its fortunes to Microsoft by adopting the Windows platform. It did not work and Nokia has continued to slide. During Mr Elop's tenure, Nokia's market capitalisation fell  by $ 14 bn - that's the amount Nokia's shareholders have lost. Finally Nokia has decided to sell its handest business to Microsoft for under $ 10 bn. Elop...

Alongside  wrath, greed, sloth, pride, lust, envy and gluttony - the seven deadly sins - should surely be added "money". For it is now proving to be a deadly sin even in the Vatican. News came out on Wednesday that all forms of plastic money - ATM cards, credit cards, debit cards, etc have stopped functioning in the Vatican. So if you want to visit the Sistine Chapel, you have to fork out cash for admission - cannot wave your plastic. This has happened because the Bank of Italy (Italy's Central Bank) has suspended all electronic operations by banks inside the Vatican in exasperation at the Vatican's continued inability to follow anti money laundering and anti terrorist financing regulations. This has been going on for a long time - the Vatican does not meet the anti money laundering requirements that all countries have to meet and has not been able to set this right for years. Part of the problem is "Ramamrithamisque". Regulations demand all sorts of KYC for...

The word business is nowadays accompanied by a metaphorical holding of the nose. Post the financial crisis, businessmen would probably rank just above bankers and below more traditional last placers like real estate agents, in the list of reputable professions. Readers of this blog would know that the author is a staunch defender of business and advocates the view that the profession is unfairly maligned. An earlier post had touched on this subject. It was gratifying to read The Economist’s Schumpeter column, The Silence of Mammon , which argues that business people should stand up for themselves. The article recounts the two arguments it says proponents have put forth in defence of business – that many firms are devoted to good works and that businessmen have done more than any other institution to advance prosperity. It opines that these are not enough and puts forth three more arguments to counter the critics of business who have dominated the discussion on corporate morality – ...

One final poser and I'll move on from this topic. You discover something about a key supplier of yours that you didn't know before. He employs child labour. Would you 1) Stop buying from him even though it may affect your business 2) Report his employing child labour to the authorities, but continue to buy from him 3) Ignore this, saying its his business and none of yours If you work for a global company, you probably have no choice - NGOs will roast your company alive. (Remember Nike in China ?) But , assume you are in a small local company. What will you do ? Would your answer be different, if instead of discovering that he employs child labour, you discover one of the following - He is cheating on VAT (excise, sales tax, whatever) and evading them , or, - He is discriminating against women Would your answer be the same ?

Today's poser. You resign from your company and join another company. Your were happy with your previous employer and he treated you well - you are moving just because a better opportunity arose. In your new job, you need to hire four good lieutenants. You know that if you approached your four buddies in the old company, they would join you (for they loved working with you). But if those four left too, the business in the old company would be seriously affected. This is one of those cases where in different cultures, you'd get completely different first responses. In some cultures, this is not a dilemma at all - you'd just do it. In other cultures, this would be a complete no no. But, as I mused before, I believe these are deeply individual decisions based on one's values and beliefs. There is no "right" answer. Would you place the call to your buddies ?

Ethics are either black or white - there are no shades of grey in my view, as I posted before . But there are some situations in business life where ethically it seems OK, but morally its not so clear. In such a situation, an individual's value systems determine what's right or wrong and there is no one right way. Today's poser. Does it matter what business the company you work for, is in ? If your company is an IT company or a soap company or a telecom company or a steel company, there is no issue. But would you work for a cigarette company ? Would you work for a company that makes land mines ? Would you work for a company that buys "blood diamonds" from Africa ? Would you work for a logging company in the Amazon? Or, does it not matter what business your company is in, as long as what it does is legal and you do your job professionally ?

Ethics are either black or white - there are no shades of grey in my view, as I posted before . But there are some situations in business life where ethically it seems OK, but morally its not so clear. In such a situation, an individual's value systems determine what's right or wrong and there is no one right way. I intend to post a few dilemma's over the next few days. I have no answers for any of them - each of you readers will have your own "right" way. Here's the first of the them. You've worked in a company for 10 years. You've wanted a key job, but are not getting it. Your company's direct competitor is offering you that position. Remember its your direct competitor, whom you have spent the last 10 years of your life fighting. Would you take it ?