Jared Wong's Blog

What do a car service and a soft drink manufacturer have in common? There is a surprisingly large amount of similarities that between the two when it comes down to business practices. Recently, “Uber Technologies Inc said on Friday it hired a new chief legal officer to guide the company through its many legal quandaries.” (2017, Heather Somerville, p. 1) The person that is set to replace the previous chief legal officer, currently Salle Yoo, is Tony West. Tony West is the chief legal officer for Pepsi and he is now stepping into the area of Uber to help deal with “a long list of legal tangles.” (2017, Robert Gallbraith, p. 6)

When I first saw this article, I was extremely confused. Why would a car service want a representative from a soda drink manufacturer company? It then occurred to me how versatile

Picture by Darryl Dyck from: https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-business/uber-hires-pepsis-tony-west-as-new-chief-legal-officer/article36754901/

and how quick at adaptation people need to be to prosper in a business field. Even though both Uber and Pepsi provide a completely different service to one another, the baseline and guidelines of running a business is still there. This has really made me consider all the factors and precautions I would have to be aware of if I continue down this career path in business.

I am astonished at the risk that Tony West is about to take with Uber. As of late, Uber has not had the greatest reputation in terms of service. Even Tony West himself realizes “that the company over-indexed on growth without putting in the appropriate guardrails.” (2017, Hamza Shaban, p. 4) There is a lot of work that needs to be done for Uber to continue its’ success and West decided to take the mantle with his name and reputation on the line. Uber is still “reeling from high profile sexual harassment complaints, executive departures, a significant trade secrets lawsuit from Alphabet” (2017, Hamza Shaban, p. 9) and many more issues that West will have to tackle head on.

Picture by Jerry Seper from: http://www.washingtontimes.com/topics/tony-west/

Of all the articles I went through about this topic, I can’t seem to find the reason why Tony West took this job besides satisfying Uber’s self interest of survival. I have no idea if he was bribed or forced to but whatever the reason is, West has a lot on his plate. I am interested to see how this will play out for West as he will have to really show his skills of being versatile in this field if he hopes to be the man that can save Uber from itself.

Word Count: 407

References:

https://beta.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/international-business/us-business/uber-hires-pepsis-tony-west-as-new-chief-legal-officer/article36754901/

https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/the-switch/wp/2017/10/27/uber-hires-pepsicos-tony-west-as-general-counsel/?utm_term=.97bd917bf872

http://www.businessinsider.com/uber-hires-a-new-chief-legal-officer-to-replace-salle-yoo-2017-10

Is all money good money? This question is one that I wondered about for a long time and has recently come back to me upon entering UBC. Simply put, I have come to a conclusion to my long-awaited answer. No, it’s not.

I recently found an article on Dailymail which described that actions that card sharks were involved in to steal money from a variety of the population. It truly astonished me to see the various amount of techniques used such as card cloning, interception, social engineering, etc. What scared me the most was how successful these attempts were. In fact, “Card fraud accounted for 7.5p in every £100 of plastic spending in the first half of this year” (2017, Sally Hamilton, p. 5) in the UK. I used to think attempts like these were futile acts of desperation to catch the

Picture from: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/beatthescammers/article-4958296/Card-sharks-1-5m-day-spree-cash.html
By: Shuttershock

most gullible people on the earth, but it turned out to be more sophisticated than I original thought.

A big example of fraud happened last year where a “massive alleged scam helped wealthy health-care operator Philip Esformes, 47, fund a lifestyle that included private jets, a $600,000 watch, meetings with escorts in hotel rooms, and a private basketball coach for his son”. (2017, Dan Mangan, p. 3) The total of fraud money added up to 1 billion dollars. How did something like this go unnoticed for so long? The Esformers built up the cash flow by billing hospitals and medical institutions with extra charges. These charges “were disguised as payments to charitable donations, payments for services and sham lease payments.” (2017, Dan Mangan, p. 17) A huge lesson I learned from this was that even the most innocent things could be cash scams and you wouldn’t even know it. By trying to be a nice person and helping a charity, you could unwillingly be paying for a private basketball coach for someone else. Not to say that donating money is bad idea, but it’s important to follow up where your investments are going.

Picture from: https://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/22/1-billion-alleged-medicare-fraud-money-laundering-scheme-leads-to-florida-arrests.html
By: Getty Images

These scammers seem to also know how to intrigue the general community to falling for their scam by promising “high returns and low risk with the pressure to buy now.” (2017, Ontario Securities Commission, p. 8)

So where do we draw the line between making money and being ethical about it? What exactly is considered good money? It seems like a simple answer of just seeing the difference between good and bad and acting on good, however, with these scammers existing and being successful, who knows anymore? These are questions left in the air that can be only answered by the individual along with their own sense of morality.

Word count: 427

References:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/money/beatthescammers/article-4958296/Card-sharks-1-5m-day-spree-cash.html

https://www.cnbc.com/2016/07/22/1-billion-alleged-medicare-fraud-money-laundering-scheme-leads-to-florida-arrests.html

https://www.getsmarteraboutmoney.ca/protect-your-money/fraud/protecting-against-fraud/7-common-investment-scams/