“’Business ethics’ is a critical examination of how institutions and people should operate in the world of commerce. In particular, it involves the examination of how firms function within constraints of self- interest, such as profits, and when the actions of individuals or firms affect others”, as defined by Dr. Chris MacDonald.[i]

Milton Friedman stated that the actions of a particular business aren’t required to be founded on social well being, but instead as suggested, the purpose of a business is to maximize the desires of its stakeholders.

In recent news a former board member of the German multinational engineering and Conglomerate Company  has been charged with breaches of trust and abetment. As DW reports the company might have ended its decade long affair relating corruption, but it has not completely removed corruption within the company. Back in 2003 the leading German company is believed to have bribed the Argentine government $9.5 million in order to receive a multi- billion dollar contract which was to produce new non- forgeable passports for 40 million Argentineans. In the report even former Argentine president Carlos Menem received money to help the German company acquire the contract. In recent years the company underwent a large scale transformation making it adopt a zero tolerance policy for any individual who takes ‘slush funds’. However, the company has negative credentials yet again as it has been linked to price fixation by an international cartel during the construction of a subway line in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The state of Sao Paulo has announced its intent to file a criminal case against the multinational German company, bringing its newly formed image to the test. [ii]

This corruption scandal is directly associated to the statement made by Friedman. The actions of a particular business aren’t founded on social well being; they are founded on the desires of its stakeholders. It raises the question of business ethics. These two cases regarding Siemens seem to prove that a firm is acting within its self- interest and in that process affecting other firms and competition.