Ebook is out…a page turning thriller!

Rae Daly is a young activist and recent law school graduate whose life and career are put in jeopardy when she accidentally wounds a police officer at a protest rally. To avoid prosecution, Rae agrees to help the FBI infiltrate a dangerous cult known as the Premillennial Church of God. But to do so, she must pose as a woman wanted for the murder of an abortion provider. In the end, it’s up to Rae to prevent the cult’s charismatic leader, the Prophet Emily Chandler, from carrying out a vast deadly scheme.  As Rae embarks on this task, she learns that the case is more complex, and more personal, than she ever could have imagined.

amazon.com

smashwords

barnesandnoble.com for Nook

 

Xtranormal student submit xtranormal ethics videos.

We had our second annual Xtranormal Contest yesterday and it was a great success. Entrants were asked to create a video using Xtranormal depicting a complex ethical dilemma. All the entries were very strong, but in the end the winners were:

Second place went to: Dilemma Dilemma by Sanchit Khera

Please see all of our entries – and vote on your favorite here.

New Rules for Corporations

In my class, we talk about the concept of shareholder profit maximization. In reality, managers have discretion regarding how they balance their obligations to different stakeholders. Slowly, States are starting to codify this right by passing legislation that explicitly gives permission for companies to allocate resources for social issues. The most recent of these is the Corporate Flexibility Act of 2011 (download – pdf), introduced in California’s State Senate on February 8, which would allow a new form of for-profit corporation that permits “companies to pursue other things besides simply making money.”

Read more at http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2011/02/14/california%E2%80%99s-move-legalize-sustainable-business

 

Are we measuring the right thing?

I came across this great article today - Beyond Money: Toward an Economy of Well-Being.  It focuses on a critical question – how do we measure success.  This article focuses on the national level and it reminiscent of the ideas beyond the Country of Bhutan, which in 2006 Business Week magazine rated the happiest country in Asia and the eighth-happiest in the world.  But, this question is relevant at all levels. My guess is that most people look at the wrong measures at both the personal and organizational.  Instead of creating false material needs (pet rock anyone?) that do not lead to happiness, can business create produce and services that help people do and experience the things that lead to true happiness?

It’s time to treat BP like an Adult

Earlier this year, the majority of the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that, based on the notion of “corporate personhood,” government may not ban political spending by corporations in candidate elections.  As we see the human and ecological damages quickly add up from the recent oil spill in the Gulf, however, it seems that if corporations are to have the rights of personhood, then now is a good time for Congress to require them to exercise the responsibilities of personhood.  Just like an individual, corporations should be punished for theft, criminal negligence, and manslaughter.  It appears that BP may be guilty of all three! Limiting responsibility for damages to $75 million, as is mandated by the present law, is often equivalent to limiting a rich individual to paying a small fine. Perhaps Congress should consider instating the real equivalents to individual punishment: suspension of business activities in lieu of prison time and dismantling of the corporation in lieu of execution.

I am not alone in this camp. A quick search revealed that  Alec Baldwin recently shared similar sentiments in a blog posting.

Panera experimenting with new business model

Panera Bread is experimenting with a new non-profit cafe, where you name your own price for items!  This is a fascinating experiment in both consumer psychology and social entrepreneurship – allowing people to “pay what they can”.  The question is, can they at least recover their costs with this model? There have been similar endeavors that have been successful in the past.

Gas is HOW much?

INTERNATIONAL CENTER FOR TECHNOLOGY ASSESSMENT recently published a paper entitled “The True Cost of Gasoline” – in it they look at the social and environmental costs of gasoline and the transportation/urban infrastructure that was built on the basis of cheap gasoline. They found:

Total Annual Environmental, Health, and Social Costs
Low estimate: $231.7 billion or $2.00/gallon
High estimate: $942.9 billion or $8.13/gallon

Then – if you add in the costs of our dependance on oil – the price increases further.

Total Annual Cost of “Other” Economic Costs:
Low estimate: $191.4 billion or $1.59/gallon
High estimate: $474.1 billion or $3.95/gallon
Estimate w/petroleum price spike:
$500.8 billion or $4.17/gallon

So – in total – the REAL cost of Gas is:

Low estimate: $5.60/gallon
High estimate: $15.14/gallon
W/price spike: $15.37/gallon

The recent disaster in the Gulf Coast illustrates how the environmental and social costs of our dependence on oil are by no means captured by the current price of gasoline.  Part of this problem is that we tend to discount low probability/high impact events in our estimation of these costs.

So – if drivers are not paying these costs, who are?  The fisherman in the Gulf Coast and Florida, future generations who will be faced with environmental depredation, soldiers in Iraq, etc.  It is critical that we are realistic about the costs of our actions AND that we internalize these costs into our products and services.

Citibank: America is powered by the wealthy and it’s great!

In my business, government and society class, we often talk about who holds the power in society: corporations, consumers, elite, etc. Its usually an even split regarding where students land – some think we are ruled by corporations and the wealthy, many think its a balance of power, and a few think the wealthy and corporations really are not that powerful.  Well, according to the leaders of Citibank – it’s the first view that’s correct. If you saw “Capitalism: A Love Story”, you may have already heard the news – they think that the U.S., Canada, and UK have economies that are “powered by the wealthy”. And – good news – they predict that in these economies we will only see more income inequity!  Currently, the top 1% of households represent 40% of the financial net worth – which is equal to the bottom 95% of the households. Some of the outcomes of this trend, they state,  are “non-issues”  and are not worth worrying about – lower savings and the “over-extended consumer”.

What Citibank does not see is the cost to ALL people (including their clients) of living in such a society. With greater inequity comes greater alienation of the majority of people in society – leading to greater political and social instability, higher crime rates, greater demands for social services (which they pay for through taxes), and the emptiness of living a life where you do not care about the suffering of others.

Letter to the Rochester Auditorium

To Whom it May Concern.

Yesterday I took my daughter to see the ELMO show. We had second row seats.  Unfortunately, we had to leave after the third song because my ears were hurting and my daughter was crying that it was too loud.  The rest of the day both mine and my daughter’s ears were hurting. Last night my ears were ringing. Sounds louder than 80 decibels are considered potentially hazardous. Do you know the noise levels at this concert? Is this something that is measured and monitored? I found it particularly appalling since we are in Rochester, where we should be sensitive to issues regarding hearing loss AND that this was something that could affect children.  Please provide me with information regarding your procedures for ensuring noise safety and the data for that particular concert. Thank you.

Sandra Rothenberg

Another Scam – this time by the Westin

Beware if you make reservations at the Westin Hotels. Recently, I made a reservation for an upcoming conference at  The Westin Tampa Bay. There were a number of options on the web site – and (quickly) not seeing much difference among them other than bet types,  I chose the lowest price one. It did state that cancellation restrictions applied and that it was to be paid in full up front. I did not think this meant you could not cancel the reservation at all. So I made the reservation, and about a week later my husband noticed that I made it at the wrong Tampa hotel (the names were almost exactly the same).  So I called to cancel and they said it was NON-REFUNDABLE! I was shocked. I had never made a reservation on a hotel web site that was non-refundable with a reasonable lead time (it was over a month until the reservation date).  After arguing with the person on the phone for a while and not getting anywhere – I simply asked “Do you think that the ethical thing to do is to take almost $1000 from me because I was in a rush and didn’t see the small print on your unique reservation policy?”  That sort of stumped her. Eventually I was able to get all but $200 back. The thing that bothered me was that CLEARLY I was not the only person who was tricked by this special fare – I could tell because they were very defensive about how clear it was on the web site and had a standard response to my concern. Yet, they did not make the fare restrictions any clearer and flat-out told me that this would not change. (Note that I have made reservations on other web sites with a no-refund policy and the warnings are MUCH MUCH clearer). If your customers are routinely being misled by a policy and you maintain the policy – is that ethical?  What about the customers that don’t fight as hard as I did for a refund? Shame on you Westin.  I’ll be avoiding your hotels in the future.