Undoubtedly the two best football(soccer) players in the world right now are Cristiano Ronaldo and Linonel Messi. One may ask how these two player can relate to the business world? Beside the hours of training put in day in and day out, the rivalry between the two pushes them past their limits. Businesses act in the same way. A classic example would be between Pepsi and Coca Cola. Be it through t.v commercials, marketing ads, new flavors, these companies need to sway the thoughts of their consumers to their side. As consumers our needs and wants are fulfilled through competition. If there is little or no competition in the market our desired taste may not be acquired, but that is not the case with a competitive. As consumers taste or wants in a product change, companies jump on this opportunity to get ahead of their competitors. Competition in business also have many positives behind the scenes. Competition can push companies into making better technology for their products. This may not have many direct effects but some piece of technology made by these companies, may lead to innovations in other fields. A world class goal on the pitch or a brand new flavor, competition brings out an extra gear which pushes us to strive for more.

After listening to many opinions from the class on the Sept, 13th, I was actually a little surprised with the amount of people that had made ethics the top priority of the business. I would agree that in a developed country like Canada, businesses should not only strive for profits but to support its members and the community that its in, taking more of a Friedman approach. But what about in the case of a 3rd world country or a developing country? I’m sure each individual will have their own morals and ethics but when it comes down to business, would it not be more important for them to keep food on the table? Through personal experiences when i traveled to Mexico, I witnessed some of the harsh realities of the country. By any means necessary the people needed to get a hand on money. Money was what provided for themselves and their families. I met some of the sincerest people down there but when it came to business the look in their eyes seemed to be desperate, everyday a battle.
Because our class is very diverse with many cultures, I wanted to take more of a world approach to this topic and hear about other peoples experiences and thoughts from around the world.

Bradley Birkenfeld, an American Banker which worked at a Swiss based UBS was recently rewarded US-$104 million by the U.S Internal Revenue Service.
UBS is a global financial services company which serves their clients in over 50 countries.

A Whistleblower by definition “is a person who tells the public or someone in authority about alleged dishonest or illegal activities occurring in a government department, a public or private organization, or a company or the Government .” Exposing illegal activities should be a moral. But why is an act of moral being rewarded $104 million? What is the motivation behind some of these whistle blowers? There is an US federal whistleblower law which offers financial reward as much as 30% of the tax collected from the information provided. Is this the incentive the government should give to workers? It should be made mandatory for large organizations to have an ethics oversight or an internal review process for such issues not the workers. I believe stronger laws need to be enforced due to the potential impact this act can have on one’s life. In the case of Brad Birkenfeld, whose bank account increased a few digits, should now be worry free but that may not be the case for other individuals. Unfortunately though regardless of the motives, society deems these people as snitches, traitors, and untrustworthy.

104million for doing something that’s right, whats wrong with this picture?

http://business.financialpost.com/2012/09/11/ubs-whistleblower-gets-us104-million-irs-award/

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