Dov Charney, the CEO and founder of American Apparel, showed society how to lose respect from the business world. As a person, Charney constantly created problems for American Apparel that reflected poorly on the brand name. Some of these vulgar acts included attending office meetings in his underwear, juggling multiple sexual harassment cases at one time, pleasuring himself during interviews and ope
nly insulting employees, causing them to resign.
One tends to take a moment to think how Charney got so far in the business industry, and managed to keep his position for so long. A businessman of such high authority should be thinking of what is best for the company itself, the society and his own image. Charney, however, did not hold true to Ed Freeman’s Stakeholder Theory. Charney did in no way maximize the importance of each stakeholder in American apparel. Instead, Charney made himself a stakeholder in the situation, maximized the importance of his own pleasures and in turn, became an embarrassment to the company. Charney easily disregarded the company’s image, the customer’s reaction and the employee’s feedback. Charney failed to portray himself as a respectable, professional business leader in society. What were his business ethics? Only God knows.
Picture taken from : http://stylecaster.com/american-apparel-fires-dov-charney/
Original Article: http://www.ibtimes.com/dov-charneys-worst-moments-ceo-american-apparel-1606142
I like how you made a connection to the stakeholder theory, because I also believe that maximizing the importance and value of each stakeholder is the key to running a successful business.