Ethics according to the Oxford Dictionary means “moral principles that govern a person’s behaviour”.  A company is not a human, so ethics in business should be about moral principles of the people who manage the company.

“The Insider” is a movie which best shows the theme of business ethics.  It describes the situation when the executives of a tobacco company know the possibility of nicotine is addictive and can cause cancer, but still add it to the cigarettes to increase its sales.  It is not against the law to do so.  So this is a question about moral.

Firstly, there is no clear moral standard, however there should be a minimum standard which is not to harm others. of course this is only a minimum, and setting a higher standard should be encouraged.

Secondly, profit maximization to the shareholders is not the only objective.  Shareholders are not the only party which has an interest in the company.  Workers, customers, and second-hand smokers are also stakeholders and their benefits should also be considered.

Recently, technology has been developing at a fast pace, especially for genetic engineering.  New materials are discovered and used widely, so ethical use of these materials is very important.

Definition of Ethics

I have seen the movie Iron Man 3 this summer.  In the Iron Man series, robot have got better and better.  In real life, robots are also getting better and better.  In fact, already in many car factories now, robots are working at great speed with amazing accuracy.

In the future, a robot will operate a below the cost of a Chinese worker, and so will replace the manual labour in working.  Cheaper robots will help cut the production cost sharply.  This will definitely change the whole manufacturing business in the world.  This robot revolution is very much like the industrial revolution.  The world will be changed, I suppose.

Entrepreneurs in India or China’s factories should be worried as robots will replace manual labour.  Labour-intensive manufacturing processes will then shift back to the western world.  Facing such a revolution like this, it is a good chance to position its brand to be the leader.  Entrepreneurs should think about developing cheap and intelligent robots, and the winner will then be the leader in this business.

After this revolution, maybe human brain will become bigger while our arms and legs shrink, much like the aliens wee in the movies.

Video: 60 Minutes: Robots

In a survey about global brand names, Samsung comes second in 2013, just after Apple.  It was ranked just 18 in 2011 so it is a really big jump.  Not surprisingly why we are surrounded by so many Samsung products, especially its smart phones.

Not long ago. “made in Japan” means innovation and good quality.Regarding audio and visual products.  Sony used to be the best brand, but now it is overtaken by Samsung.  How did samsung make this possible?  There was s story that Samsun Chairman once visited an electronic store in California, and found all products selling there were Sonny Panasonic.  He was very upset, and so in Frankfurt, he asked his managers to ” Change everything but your wife and children.”.  This became the “Frankfurt declaration1993.”

In the business world, especially in electronic products, technology develops very fast.  Consumers’ tastes also change very quickly.  Therefore a company must make changes in order to survive.  It has to go out and find new products and markets for its products.  A business cannot assume that its existing successful products and business models can remain successful forever.  The word “Change” in a business is very important.

We should learn form this Samsung style and make changes.

Article 1: Global Brand league

Article 2: The Frankfurt Declaration 1993

I have just bought a new PC which comes with Windows 8.  The new system is efficient and response time is quick.  It only takes several seconds to switch on and shutdown, which is much better than the old Windows versions.

However, there are so many negative comments about the windows 8 user interface and so many reports on the poor sales.  Therefore I started thinking, why such a good product receives so many bad reviews?  With Microsoft’s famous brand name, this should not have happened.  With so many smart people working in Microsoft, what went wrong with their sales and marketing?  Some people suggest that Microsoft wants to merge the PC interface with tablets and phones, so they have decided to change to have a uniform look.

To me, the new system took me a few days to get used to since the familiar icons are no more present.  However, most users now are office workers and I suppose they would not want to spend time learning the new system.

Perhaps Microsoft has become too confident assuming the customers would change to suit its products.  In the past, PC was more for entertainment than work, therefore customers were eager to adapt the new software.  Nowadays, PC is commonly used at work while people use smartphones for entertainment.  People only want to be working with something they are familiar with and that is the reason why they complain about the unfamiliar software.

Read the Article Here.