A few days ago, Guido Barilla, the chairman of the largest pasta producer in the world, Barilla Pasta, stated that he would never feature a gay family in any of his commercials. This caused a fierce backlash from various groups who called for the boycott of Barilla’s products in protest.

Some businesses such as Barilla and Chick-Fil-A have made very clear their traditional stance on homosexuality. Despite facing opposition, these companies have made their value system clear by articulating their views publicly. In the business world, this seems to be a rarity. How often, if ever, do we see gay families featured in commercials for large companies? Although interesting, these bold ventures are unlikely. Large businesses have diverse customer bases that they cannot afford to alienate or anger and it is especially important for them not to lose customers to competitors.

This case makes it evident that it’s usually beneficial for businesses not to take sides on controversial topics. Regardless, companies have to decide for themselves whether they want to develop a series of values and whether they are willing to stand by those values despite the effect (positive or negative) it could have on their sales and image.

http://o.canada.com/2013/09/26/pasta-company-barilla-wont-advertise-with-gay-couples/

Recently in the news, we’ve been hearing a lot about Blackberry and its drastic decline in the smartphone industry. We see 4500 jobs being cut, almost $1 billion quarterly losses and the sharp fall stock value and we see that Blackberry is certainly in distress. Despite this, many say that selling Blackberry’s vast portfolio of patents and intellectual property could be the key to making up for losses and possibly helping them to go private.

Although the patents are worth a great deal of money (billions of dollars), investors need to be careful about overestimating how much these patents will garner. Remember that much of Blackberry’s technology was popular when Blackberry itself was popular. In other words, what worked for Blackberry might not work for another company. It’s clear that smartphone design and technology is constantly changing. This means that patents on features such as the keyboard (Blackberry’s bread and butter) might be irrelevant given the trend towards touch screens.

Blackberry is at a point where it can either redefine itself or cease to meaningfully exist. Certainly, selling its patents will help the recovery process. We just need to be aware of how much their intellectual property is really worth.

http://www.theglobeandmail.com/report-on-business/value-of-blackberrys-patents-at-mercy-of-changing-technology/article14508039/

Blackberry’s Stock Chart: http://finance.yahoo.com/echarts?s=BBRY+Interactive#symbol=bbry;range=5y;compare=;indicator=volume;charttype=area;crosshair=on;ohlcvalues=0;logscale=off;source=undefined;

An issue regarding business ethics have been the circumstances that led up to and the reaction that followed the collapse of the Bangladeshi garment factory in April which resulted in over 1100 deaths. In that factory, large commercial retailers such as Joe Fresh, Mango and Walmart had garments produced in crowded conditions by poorly paid workers.

When the building collapsed, many looked to the corporations that utilized the workers’ labour to take responsibility and properly compensate those affected. Instead, many of these corporations tried to distance themselves from the incident, saying that they were not directly involved and therefore should not have to provide reparations. This leads us to wonder about the ethics of their decisions regarding production.

Why was the building’s condition not checked more often or closely for safety? Why are companies distancing themselves from the incident when the factory’s products were being sold in their stores? It is clear that responsibility needs to be taken especially when lives are lost. Obviously, within businesses, profits and cost management are areas that should be closely monitored. The main issue is how businesses can balance those areas while being cognizant of the welfare of those involved in the process.

http://www.dw.de/bangladesh-textile-workers-await-compensation/a-17046711

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/06/rana-plaza-collapse-victims-compensation_n_3713408.html

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