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.