Steve Jobs, the mastermind behind the ipod, iphone, ipad and imac, and the CEO of Apple, died on October 5^th, 2011. Steve had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, and stepped down from the CEO position on August 24, 2011.

The death of Steve Jobs corresponded only a few days after the release of iphone 4S, to which many disappointments arose from apple fan’s due to its lack of innovation. The question is then, how will apple perform in the future?

The problem Apple faces right now is the need to reclaim its legitimacy in the market. The release of the failed product iphone 4S arrived at a very bad timing, as it corresponds to the death of Steve Jobs. Consumers tend to unconditionally associate product with CEOs, especially on merchandises in the mainstream culture. A typical response would be that Apple released the failed product, the iphone 4S, because Steve Job has died and therefore Apple lacks the superb leadership it experienced before.

Apple currently needs to innovate and distribute a product which legitimizes the position of the new CEO Tim Cook. If this does not happen, customers and stockholders will begin to lose faith in Apple’s future.

Source:

ABC News. “Steve Job Dies: Apple chief created personal computer, iPad, iPod, and iPhone” Yahoo! News. extracted from the internet October 6, 2011.

http://news.yahoo.com/steve-jobs-dies–apple-chief-created-personal-computer–ipad–ipod–iphone.html

Recognized by customers around the world for its stylish and affordable furniture， Ikea has been criticized for performing unethical practices in a small American town, Danville.

Ikea workers in Danville complain of eliminated raises, a frenzied pace and mandatory overtime. At least 1/3 of the workers are drawn from temporary staffing agencies, who receive little to no benefit along with minimum wage.

Although Europeans are guaranteed a wage of $19 per hour while Americans are guaranteed a wage of $8, this is not an indication of if that specific firm is being ethical or not. The comparisons between these two wages simply reflect the political attitude between the two continents. Sweden is in comparison more politically left oriented than USA, therefore firms in Sweden are required to provide for many of the benefits they are not required to provide elsewhere. Ikea is not being more ethical in Sweden than in the United States, but rather it is simply of the difference in political attitude in the two countries.

Ethics, in my opinion, should not be a comparative attitude across states, simply because ethical values tend to fluctuate diversely because of the difference in political attitude.

Source:

Nathaniel Popper. “Ikea U.S. factory churns out unhappy workers”. Los Angeles Times. Extracted from the internet October 5, 2011.

http://articles.latimes.com/2011/apr/10/business/la-fi-ikea-union-20110410

Apple’s new CEO, Tim Cook, is not only one of the most influential person in the technological world, but also emerged as one of the most powerful gay man in America as rated by the Out Magazine

In January 2011, the Apple management team stated that they would support Cook if publicity acknowledged his sexuality

Despite gay rights being acknowledged more and more in our society, there are still a large amount of people who are politically conservative. By hiring Cook, Apple risks losing valuable customers who do not support gay rights. Even if Tim Cook may prove to be extraordinarily talented, there are still vast amounts of talented people in the world who are willing to compete for the CEO position. Talents are easily replaceable; all it requires is to fire one person and hire another. In contrast, brand image is not easily replaceable. Although apple is performing extremely well in the technological field, in my opinion the benefit of hiring Tim Cook as CEO is simply not worth the risk involved.

Source:

IBTimes Staff Reporter. “Is New Apple CEO Tim Cook Gay?”. International Business Times. Extracted from the internet October 5, 2011.

http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/203853/20110825/tim-cook-gay.htm

To continue the previous blog regarding the BP oil spill：

While businesses are sometimes legally constituted as a person, is in my opnion, not a person. It cannot be expected to contain the same qualities that people are expected to have, namely, ethics. A CEO can be said to be unethical, a stockholder can be said to be unethical, but a business, theoretically and logically, cannot be said to be unethical because if otherwise, it ceases to be a business, which at the fundamental level is an agency for the sole purpose of making profit.

However, although a business does not have ethical values, it is still capable of displaying ethical actions for the purpose of maximizing profit. An unethical business will most likely become a failed business because of the enormous amount of pressure from different stakeholders, such as environmental groups and government agencies, and would often be forced to follow regulation or be legally prosecuted. Therefore, business do not perform ethical actions because they have ethical values, but rather because those actions serves to maximize their profit in the long run.

Source:

Dina Cappiello. “BP ultimately responsible in Gulf spill”. Yahoo! News. extracted from the internet September 14, 2011.

http://news.yahoo.com/report-bp-ultimately-responsible-gulf-spill-174211824.html