Angelica Cabrera

The world’s most popular smartphone, the Apple iPhone, has been recently revamped, and with this change comes a shift within Apple as well. The launch of the new version of iPhone every year garners much media attention, but this year it is particularly special as it is the company’s first year with the new CEO Tim Cook at the helm, instead of the previous head of the company, Steve Jobs. Cook has long played a background, albeit vital, role in Apple, and finds himself in a newfound position of “salesman” of Apple’s new products. This brings into question whether this change in Apple’s new management structure will impact its sales. It seems to be that the brand awareness of the iPhone guarantees success with every new model. While Jobs has long been a familiar face for the job of promoting the iPhone, the sheer popularity of the product means that Cook’s appointment will not hinder iPhone sales, in the short-term at least. However, because the new iPhone is deemed as more of an “evolutionary” product from its predecessors than a “revolutionary” one, Apple will need to produce more groundbreaking products in the future to maintain its success it so famously enjoyed with Jobs.

Source: The Globe and Mail

For COMM 101 – Business Ethics Class 3 Blog Post

A recent federal report has placed ultimate responsibility on BP for the 200-million gallon oil spill which occurred in their undersea well last year. This incident resulted in the deaths of 11 workers, billions of dollars in damage to hundreds of miles of coastline, and the crippling of the Gulf economy.

The report, released on Wednesday, concluded that BP violated federal regulations in the construction of the well, as it failed to take the necessary precautions to ensure the utmost safety of the project. BP made several flawed management decisions that complicated operations and added risk, thus the well was not kept under control at all times.

BP, under federal regulations, was obligated to conduct operations in order to ensure “the safety and protection of personnel, equipment, natural resources, and the environment.” The main ethical issue here is that BP neglected this social responsibility to its workers and the environment in order to cut costs. BP may have initially benefited financially by neglecting the ethical responsibilities of their actions, but this incident will cost them dearly in the long term, with perhaps irreparable damage to their corporate image.

Source: The Globe and Mail

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