Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility - McGraw-Hill Introduction to Business

Accounting Firm Gets Unwanted Attention After Oscars Mistake

February 28, 2017

For 82 years, the accounting firm PwC (formerly PricewaterhouseCooper) has tallied the votes and handed out the envelopes at the Academy Awards. Although it’s not the company’s most lucrative contract, the Oscars are nevertheless one of the crown jewels of PwC’s clientele. Not only does the awards show give the firm a marketing boost, but it also acts as evidence for PwC’s ability to handle situations in the spotlight smoothly.

But as anyone who watched Sunday night’s broadcast knows, that Continue reading →

Academy Awards, Marketing, PwC, Entertainment, Accounting, B2B, Movies

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 17: Accounting

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Collection of Complaints

February 23, 2017

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Formed in 2011 with the passage of the Dodd-Frank financial reform act, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau aims to keep citizens safe from unfair or deceptive practices by businesses. One of the ways the government organization accomplishes this task is by maintaining a database of complaints made by consumers against companies. And people have certainly taken advantage of this service since its creation two years ago. In that time, the CFPB has received more than 700,000 complaints aimed primarily at Continue reading →

Consumer Protection, Finance, Regulation, Security, Dodd-Frank, Wall Street, CFPB

Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 18: Financial Management, Chapter 20: Money and Financial Institutions, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law

Creating a Product to Reduce Microfiber Pollution

February 21, 2017

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As winter winds down, people across the country will start throwing their fleece jackets into the wash for one last spin before months of closet storage. While many people won’t think twice about one load of laundry, unfortunately the environmental effects of this routine task will linger for a long time. Unlike cotton or wool, synthetic fleece releases tiny plastic fibers into wastewater that flows into lakes and rivers. These non-biodegradable materials then bind with other chemicals and cause health Continue reading →

Product Development, Branding, Sustainability, Patagonia, Microfiber Pollution, Guppy Friend

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 5: Forms of Business Ownership, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Vizio Fined After Tracking and Selling Customers’ Personal Data

February 9, 2017

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In this digitally driven age, personal privacy is quickly becoming a thing of the past. Along with social networks and websites that track users, many electronic devices also pay close attention to their owners’ personal habits. And in at least one recent case, sometimes people don’t even know they’re being watched by their possessions.

That’s why the Federal Trade Commission recently slapped the television maker Vizio with a $2.2 million fine. According to investigators, the company installed software that allowed Continue reading →

Entertainment, Demographics, Television, Marketing, Vizio, Ethics, Internet of Things, Data Tracking

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

American Apparel Bought by Canadian Company

January 31, 2017

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For years American Apparel seemed poised to become the next big fashion brand. Their simple but bold cotton clothing and suggestive advertisements catapulted the company to a $1 billion valuation in 2007. A decade later, however, American Apparel filed for bankruptcy and sold its assets to a Canadian firm for just $88 million. Along with shuttering its 110 stores, the company also lost its famed garment factory in Los Angeles.

This production facility was one of American Apparel’s best assets Continue reading →

Ethics, Retail, Manufacturing, Bankruptcy, American Apparel, Workplace Harassment, Clothing

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 7: Management & Leadership, Chapter 9: Production and Operations Management, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Chapter 13: Marketing, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution

Finland Experiments with Basic Income for the Unemployed

January 26, 2017

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To people familiar with sunny Silicon Valley, Finland may seem like a questionable tech hub. But thanks to the telecommunications giant Nokia, for years the snowy Scandinavian nation served as one of the central destinations in Europe for tech workers. Once Nokia began to collapse, however, the fortunes of many Finnish engineers declined as well.

These formerly prominent staffers then signed up for unemployment benefits in the hopes that the tech industry would turn around. When jobs largely failed to Continue reading →

Motivation, Global, Finland, Ethics, Nokia, Labor Relations, Basic Income, Unemployment

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 10: Motivation, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

Eight Richest People Own As Much Wealth as Half the World

January 24, 2017

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In the years since the economic crisis of 2008, wealth inequality has been an increasingly alarming problem both for scholars and regular people. Last year, the development charity Oxfam estimated that 62 billionaires owned just as much wealth as the poorest 50 percent of the globe. This month, however, the agency had worse news: a group of just eight men are worth a combined $426 billion, equivalent to the wealth held by 3.6 billion people.

Along with foreign billionaires like Continue reading →

Oxfam, India, China, Facebook, Amazon, Global, Inequality, Ethics, Tech, Wealth, Brexit

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 2: Economics, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media

[VIDEO] This Incredible Machine Pulls Clean Drinking Water Out of Thin Air

January 20, 2017

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Ensuring clean water for everyone on the planet is one of the major environmental challenges facing future generations. In this video, a Chilean engineer demonstrates his invention that draws vapor from the air and turns it into drinkable water. If he succeeds in making the machine smaller and cheaper, it could provide an immense benefit to communities that lack access to clean water.

Questions:

Why does Hector Pino need to continue refining his product?
Once fully developed, should Pino form Continue reading →

Product Development, Sustainability, Global, Product Distribution, Water, Chile

Chapter 1: Taking Risks and Making Profits, Chapter 3: Globalization, Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 5: Forms of Business Ownership, Chapter 14: Product and Price, Chapter 15: Distribution, Bonus Chapter B: Technology and New Media, Videos

Jimmy John’s Drops Non-Compete Clauses for Sandwich Makers

January 19, 2017

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For many corporate executives, non-compete agreements are just a part of doing business. Since companies want to hang on to top talent as long as possible, they often insert clauses in contracts that prevent employees from joining competitors for a certain amount of time. While this limits a staffer’s options when looking for a new job, their high-level status usually provides them with plenty of alternative choices.

That’s not quite the case for sandwich makers, however. While non-compete clauses are Continue reading →

Ethics, Jimmy John’s, Franchising, Non-Compete Clauses, Food, Human Resources, Labor Relations

Chapter 4: Ethics and Social Responsibility, Chapter 6: Entrepreneurship, Chapter 10: Motivation, Chapter 11: Human Resource Management, Chapter 12: Labor Management and Unions, Bonus Chapter A: Business Law