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India vs. China: Who Has the Edge?

February 3rd, 2006 | Posted by Peter in China | Miscellaneous - (1 Comments)

Check out a great article by Jeremy Siegel on Yahoo! Finance called, India vs. China: Who Has the Edge? Here’s a clip introducing the article:

“China and India are likely to be the dominant economic powers by the middle of this century but in many respects they are remarkably different.

“Here and in my next column I will analyze the prospects for economic growth and investment in these two emerging giants based in part on a two-week tour of India I just completed and a visit to China eighteen months earlier.”

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Renewed Faith in Accounting

January 22nd, 2006 | Posted by Peter in Books and Films | Business Ethics | Business Strategy | Corporate Social Responsibility | Miscellaneous - (Comments Off)

In the midst of my attempts to play catch-up on all of the reading I should have completed so far this quarter, I was pleased to come across a very refreshing passage in my Managerial Accounting text this morning:

“Satisfactory ROI is important, but it is by no means the only objective of a business. In many practical problems, personal satisfaction, friendship, community responsibilities, or other considerations may be much more important than ROI.” [pg. 876]

Kudos to the authors for making such a statement!

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Shanghai Housing Bubble

January 10th, 2006 | Posted by Peter in China | Miscellaneous - (Comments Off)

There’s a great post, over at The Stalwart, about what a housing bubble looks like when it bursts, specifically in Shanghai.

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Microsoft Going Red?

January 6th, 2006 | Posted by Peter in Business Ethics | Business Strategy | China | Corporate Social Responsibility | Interesting News | Miscellaneous - (Comments Off)

Microsoft caters to the Chinese government's oppression...My very good friend John Robinson brought the following situation to my attention and I am very glad that he did… It seems that Microsoft is again prioritizing the needs and desires of an oppressive Chinese government ahead of freedom of speech (article from the Toronto Star).

“Microsoft Corp. has shut down the Internet journal of a Chinese blogger that discussed politically sensitive issues, including a recent strike at a Beijing newspaper.”

Wow. This kind of behavior baffles me and will continue to baffle me after someone raises their hand as says, “Yes, but, check out this…”

“Richardson said the blog was shut down Dec. 30 or Dec. 31 for violating Microsoft’s code of conduct, which states that users must obey the laws of the country in which they are based.”

Sorry, I still don’t get it. Why is it that we fight so passionately for certain freedoms and privileges in our own communities, yet so readily contribute to the oppression of others when it involves money? Am I being too obtuse about this, or is there something inherently wrong with multinationals taking such action?

Here’s a bit more:

“Microsoft’s Web log service bars use of terms such as ‘democracy’ and ‘human rights.’… On the China-based portal of search engine Google, a search for material on the Dalai Lama, Taiwan and other sensitive topics returns a message saying ‘site cannot be found.’… Web portal Yahoo was criticized last year after it provided information that was used to convict a Chinese reporter on charges of revealing state secrets.”

Why is it that a US corporation that tries to send milk to starving Cuban families will get a very hard smack on the wrist by the US Government, yet when Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, and a host of other businesses not only hold the duct tape, but also have a hand in affixing it over a person’s mouth, nothing happens? Something is not right here…

[Update]: I was just reading The Business Ethics Blog and saw Chris MacDonald’s post about the same topic. He does an excellent job of laying out the issues involved including the ethical dynamic that, “companies have an ethical obligation to comply with local law [when doing business in other countries].” It is a great read and I’d recommend that everyone check it out.

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Business Ethics Fortnight

January 6th, 2006 | Posted by Peter in Business Ethics | Corporate Social Responsibility | Miscellaneous | Social Enterprise - (1 Comments)

Business Ethics Fortnight from the Center for Ethics and BusinessI just received an email about the Business Ethics Fortnight competition hosted by the Center for Ethics and Business and thought I should pass the information on for anyone else who might be interested. The Associate Dean of my MBA program sent it to all of the students and I imagine at least a few, myself included, will show interest in competing.

The competition sounds like a lot of fun and a great primer for anyone interested in ethics and business. Following is more information about the competition:

“The heart of Business Ethics Fortnight is a student team case/presentation competition. Students put together teams of 3 to 5 members and select an appropriate case. (Team members may be either undergraduate or graduate students, and they may come from any department or program in a college or university. Teams may also be made up of a combination of LMU and non-LMU students.) In the past, teams have worked on published cases, problems they have done their own research on, or dilemmas that the Center has gotten from area businesses. The range of possible topics is virtually infinite and can relate to any area of business.

“Each team prepares a presentation in which students explain the legal, financial and ethical dimensions of the problem. They then recommend a solution that must pass muster on all three counts. (Not surprisingly, even though all three areas must be dealt with, judges place special weight on the strength of the ethical analysis of the problem and the ethical acceptability of the solution. For this competition, the ethical character of analyses and recommendations will be evaluated from the perspective of “philosophical ethics.” That is, as appropriate to the case, judges will be looking for discussion of at least: the amount and type of tangible good and harm involved; and the intrinsic character of the actions involved.) The idea of the exercise is to help students see that it is possible to do business profitably while at the same time acting ethically.”

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China: Keeping Violence on the Down-Low

December 13th, 2005 | Posted by Peter in China | Interesting News | Miscellaneous - (Comments Off)

ChinaI wish it were really hard to find news about China that ruffles people’s feathers. And I find it increasingly more sobering that I will be over there in a little over six months, touring factories and meeting with business leaders…

From today’s New York Times: “China Suppresses news of Violent Crackdown on Demonstration”

“One week after the police violently suppressed a demonstration against the construction of a power plant in China, leaving as many as 20 people dead, an overwhelming majority of the Chinese public still knows nothing of the event.

“In the wake of the biggest use of armed force against civilians since the Tiananmen massacre in 1989, Chinese officials have used a variety of techniques to prevent news of the deaths from spreading – like barring reports in most newspapers outside the immediate region and banning place names and other keywords associated with the event from major Internet search engines, like Google.”

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China, part II

December 10th, 2005 | Posted by Peter in China | Miscellaneous - (Comments Off)

…and then there’s this.

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Interesting China Blog

December 10th, 2005 | Posted by Peter in China | Miscellaneous - (Comments Off)

Here’s an interesting blog about China from Lonnie Hodge: “OneManBandwidth: An American Professor in China”

I found the content to be very interesting and written with a refreshing and fairly positive agenda. I particularly liked the China Editorals posts and also enjoyed reading a bit about Lonnie (he’s got a fairly dry sense of humor with an off-beat candor that makes his writing pretty fun to read…):

“Lonnie does SEO for corporations and bloggers large or small. To date his clients hold over 30,000 keywords indexed in #1 positions on major search engines world-wide.

“He was one of the original members of Delta Force (not the special forces group) the Army war College’s experiment in 1979, via genius Dr. Bob Parnes, that really became the backbone of the Internet. That means he is really OLD!

“He doesn’t use spell-check on his own blog and it shows.

“Lonnie also helps source, factory direct, any unique or private-labeled products or other wholesale item our business might need made in China: from linens to pens and from car parts to luggage.”

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TypePad: Taking Care of Business

December 4th, 2005 | Posted by Peter in Business Ethics | Business Strategy | Interesting News | Miscellaneous - (Comments Off)

TypePad from Six ApartThis may be old news to some, but for those of you who missed it the first time around, the hosted blogging service called TypePad (from Six Apart) came under fire recently for some performance hiccups. Site downtime and related performance issues can be a real turn-off, and understandably many of their users were annoyed. Rather then dance around the issue, or try and keep it quiet, check out what they did…

Hat’s off to Six Apart! If only all businesses operated with such humility, openness and customer-focus. What a great model to strive for.

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CSR: US vs Europe

December 3rd, 2005 | Posted by Peter in Business Ethics | Corporate Social Responsibility | Miscellaneous - (Comments Off)

I read CEO Ethics every week and always find great articles on there about topics that interest me. A few weeks ago they posted an article about Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Europe that is an enjoyable read if you have not already seen it: “Business Ethics: CSR in Central and Eastern Europe“.

“Executives surveyed consider the most significant barriers to CSR as ‘perceived overall cost’ and ‘lack of appropriate regulations.’ They see a lack of sufficiently clear CSR policies and would welcome clarity from the government. While they believe that the decision to engage in CSR activities is voluntary, they feel that government and other stakeholders could create a more conducive environment to stimulate participation.”

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