Ethics in Business Management
This week, we continued to deal with the issues surrounding the environment. Looks like it's a pretty big topic. (It better be, businesses have been ruining the environment for more than a century now!) A couple of cases this week, the first was about a company that was trying to cut costs in chip-production. And turns out that their competitors had already begun outsourcing to cheaper countries where the wages are low, regulations even lower, and so the company could afford to stay within the requirements of the law, without paying the current costs. So then, the basic question that arises is should you go and do your business in another place, just because it can be deemed legal there? Sure, you might be just within the reaches of the legal requirement, but you would know that you're harming the environment anyway. It's not like the earth is a lot more tough and resilient in the Phillipines now, is it? This is also the time our prof takes the time out at the end of the class to say, the options that are available to you in this case are NOT the only options... as a manager, you need to also consider alternatives that might not be present in these sets of cases. That's why you're getting paid anyway.
The next case was more to deal with the troubles an energy corporation had to deal with. The story goes that this corp found a junglee area with no people, and only junglee creatures. This area has a hugeee repository of natural gas right under it. So the corp goes about trying to get this gas out. While they're getting the gas out, environmentalists find out that there is a close-to-endangered species (not yet endangered, but close.) that lives in the area. And the poor thing was apparently in a very uncomfortable place. Too much noise from the drilling locations, lesser amount of plants and therefore food for this bird, so the environmentalists took up their cause. On top of it, this area was also a migratory location for deer and other wildlife, and these animals were also getting significantly affected due to the drilling. Now, the corp comes up with a unique solution of a different mode of drilling which could be used to reduce their footprint on the land. But they want to operate all around the year, instead of stopping during migratory season. So the question arose, in man's quest for cleaner and more efficient fuel, which will also save foreign exchange reserves, should it care much about the indigenous wildlife? A little here, a little there, and let me remind you, we're only looking at a framework here, and not passing personal judgements... we find out what was the more efficient option and then, rest with it. All till the next news story comes along, calling us callous capitalists and then changing the textbook!
Managing Off-shored Software and IT Services
Cross-cultural management was still the order of the day. A lot of theory and articles on studies that people have conducted that show differences amongst people. Nothing much to talk of here.
The second session was to do more with contracts. How do contracts get drawn, are they flexible or need to be, are the requirements clear or vague, and what are the potential implications of the various combinations between contracts and initial requirements. Interesting little framework which led to a very weird battle between a student and the prof. about something, which I unfortunately slept through. I think the end out of it was that this was a framework and is bound to have a couple of loopholes, and Indian companies apparently need to get more assertive. Looking back, especially at the second part of the conclusion, I now wish I had stayed awake.
All in all, an uneventful week. The oft-spoken-about calm before the storm?
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