From http://goo.gl/rpXdWQ

Imagine a boat sailing in the ocean full of sailors and no captain. Now imagine a business without a hierarchy system, including a CEO. This is Valve Corporation.

Valve is an influential video game company that created Steam, an innovative online game platform that includes popular games such as Counter Strike. The company runs a communist-like structure where individuals do not have to report to anyone and nobody reports to them. According to BBC, the “employees sit where they want, choose what to work on and decide each other’s pay.”

This structure of human resources is very risky. I am surprised by how successful Valve has been, despite a lack of leadership. Although their model avoids the negative effects of corporate hierarchies such as pressure, there is a reason why all Fortune 500 companies utilize a traditional chain of command structure. For businesses to be efficient, they need to have high-level executives providing direction and making important choices for the good of the company. In fact, lower-level employees need to be given specific duties; otherwise, anybody could do anything they want at any time. The case of Valve is an extremely rare case of a business succeeding without leadership.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24205497

From http://goo.gl/16vSvG

The CEO of Starbucks, Howard Schultz, released on September 17^th, 2013, an open letter “requesting that customers no longer bring firearms into [Starbuck’s] stores or outdoor seating areas”.  Starbucks has been home to many pro-gun advocates in the United States; in fact, the annual Starbucks Appreciation Day is an event organized by gun activist groups, where they would demonstrate their appreciation to Starbucks for an “open carry” policy.

Despite the increased sales and publicity on Starbucks Appreciation Day, Mr.Schultz mentioned in the letter that Starbucks wishes for the event to stop.

The decision to condemn open-carriers of guns is a brilliant business move. Starbucks brands itself as an ethical company, advertising its “responsibly grown coffee” and advocating fair trade. This management decision further strengthens Starbucks’ image as “the good guy”.  Also, if doing a cost-benefit analysis considering pro-gun or anti-gun stakeholders, it would be more beneficial to lose pro-gun customers than anti-gun activists. Even though pro-gun activists may be loyal, it is a relatively small demographic and Starbucks would not want gun activists to be associated with their brand. I am actually very surprised at the fact that Starbucks never addressed this issue until recently.

Source: http://www.starbucks.com/blog/an-open-letter-from-howard-schultz/1268

http://goo.gl/98XotB

For only $250, a child can learn all about the functions of a meth-lab! Based off of AMC’s hit TV show Breaking Bad, Dutch-based company Citizen Brick created the SuperLab. The SuperLab is a miniature Lego set of Breaking Bad’s characters and meth-lab.

Is it ethical for companies to sell explicit content toys? In the perspective of the company, they are intelligently exploiting a hot trend. In a profit-driven capitalist society, this is a logically sound plan. However, for consumer stakeholders, there are more harms than good. The only real benefit of the SuperLab is the personal satisfaction of being able to flaunt one’s love for the show. Some significant harms of the product though, include exposing children to drug-related content and being taken advantage of by a greedy business (who pays $250 for a Lego set…). Thus, this product seems completely unnecessary to sell because it is not worth risking a child’s future for an overpriced collector’s item.

In the end, the root of the issue derives from the question of whether or not businesses have a social responsibility to society. I believe that businesses should always try to be ethical, even if it means losing some profit.

Source:

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/the-hot-button/should-kids-be-allowed-to-build-their-own-breaking-bad-meth-lab-with-a-new-toy/article14189548/

http://www.businessinsider.com/breaking-bad-meth-lab-toy-set-2013-9