Marc Le Menestrel

Conclusions with Key Learning

Marc Le Menestrel — 2013-04-01T01:55:15Z

Each student shares his key learning from the course and we discuss how this learning can be effectively embedded in the future career of the students.

Assignment

Prepare a short synthesis of the key ideas or concepts that you have learned in the class. Identify one reason for which this can be useful in your future career. (300 to 500 words)

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Presentation on Pharmaceutical Companies

WeDreamBusiness Presentations (Monday 3rd and Friday 7th of June, 2013)

Marc Le Menestrel — 2012-05-29T17:09:05Z

Students present their uploaded company on the WeDreamBusiness.org website.

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Technological Risks: Monsanto and Genetically Modified Organisms (Video, Role Play and Discussion) Monday 27th of May 2013

Marc Le Menestrel — 2012-05-29T17:00:58Z

Summary

Technological innovations – such as Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) – cannot be understood independently from their business strategic context. Often, risks associated to such technologies are potentially high but not (yet) assessed. While business has little incentive to assess these risks voluntarily, the public is less and less prone to take corporate discourses on absence of risks for granted, and international trade institutions are not adapted to implement the precautionary principle.

Required readings

• Joy, Bill, Why the future doesn't need us, Wired, 2000.

• Sinaï, Agnès. “New Monsanto and GMO Propaganda : Seeds of irreversible change”, in Le Monde Diplomatique – English language edition (July 2001).

Optional readings

Stirling, A. (2009) From Enlightenment to Enablement: opening up choices for innovation. Augusto López-Claros, ed., in The Innovation for Development Report: 2009-10 Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan pp. 199-210

Pollan, Michael (1998) Playing God in the Garden, The New York Times Magazine, October 25, 1998.

European Environment Agency (2002) Late lessons from early warnings: the precautionary principle 1896-2000. Issue Report n° 22.

Questions to prepare: Should companies be free to develop the technologies they want? How should companies organize their decision-processes around this issue?

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Combining Ethics and Profits in a New Ethical Business: The WeDreamBusiness Initiative (Monday 13th of May 2013)

Marc Le Menestrel — 2012-05-29T16:53:08Z

In this session, we will present the WeDreamBusiness Initiative. WeDreamBusiness.org is a web-based project aimed to promote ethical business practices worldwide. It is mainly oriented on students, showing a gallery of companies that have inspired them and made them dream that another business is possible. The companies showcased here provide evidence that ethics and profits can be successfully combined.

Preparation

Select the company on the WeDreamBusiness.org website that makes you dream "the most". Post an intelligent and opinionated comment about it.

Required Reading

Kelly, Marjorie : "Not Just for Profits", Strategy and Business magazine, spring 2009.

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Introduction: Is Business Ethical? Monday 8th of April 2013

Marc Le Menestrel — 2011-10-09T12:55:24Z

The objectives, methodology, content and organization of the course are presented in detail. A discussion on the role of business in today's society follows.

In the second part of the class, we learn about values, what they are and how they influence rational behavior. We contrast economic and ethical values to structure the classical approaches to rational behavior and propose a meta-framework to better understand their articulation.

Required readings

Banaji, M.R., Bazerman, M. H., & D. Chugh: “How (Un)Ethical Are You?”, Harvard Business Review, December 2003

Chandler, Geoffrey. The global corporation: provider or parasite? Amnesty International UK Business Group.

Questions to prepare (Between 300 and 500 words): Is business ethical?

Relevant articles on this website:

Thinking ethics as a grey zone

Ethical risks: Identification, Mitigation, Transformation

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Global Business and the Environment: The Trade of Toxic Waste (Video & Discussion) Friday 12th of April 2013

Marc Le Menestrel — 2011-10-09T12:55:22Z

Video: “Global Dumping Ground”

Summary

The business of toxic waste exemplifies the possibility of creating business value at the expense of social and environmental values. By featuring business leaders in both developed and developing countries, regulators and local populations, a video illustrates the importance and the complexity of the business ethics issue. Building on the reading, we assess the power of international regulation to solve the issue and broaden the discussion towards the identification and classification of the multitude of stakeholders involved.

Required readings

• Clapp, J.: “Seeping through Regulatory Cracks” in SAIS Review, vol. XXII no. 1, Winter-Spring 2002.

• Albala, Nuri. “International law: justice as a commodity”, in Le Monde Diplomatique – English language edition (December 2003).

Additional readings

• Higgins R, Problems and process: international law and how we use it (Oxford : Clarendon Press, 1994), Chapter 1.

Questions to prepare: What is the power of international law to regulate business? What should be the role of business towards international law when it can impede business activities?

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Corporate Social Responsibility: The Bhopal Gas Tragedy (Video, Case Study & Discussion) Monday 15th of April, 2013

Marc Le Menestrel — 2011-10-09T12:55:20Z

Video: “A Cloud Over Bhopal”

Summary

The Bhopal tragedy is a landmark in industrial history, for the consequences it had inside and outside the industry. We identify the responsibilities of business and discuss the handling of this responsibility by Union Carbide in the subsequent, and still pending, legal procedures. We then discuss the responsibility of Dow Chemical, now owner of Union Carbide.

Required readings

Dutta, Sanjib, “The Bhopal Gas Tragedy”, ICFAI Center for Management Research, Hyderabad, India, 2002.

Dow: “Statement of The Dow Chemical Company Regarding the Bhopal Tragedy”.

Optional reading

Frankental, P. “Corporate social responsibility - a PR invention?” in Corporate Communications: An International Journal, 14 February 2001, vol. 6, no. 1, pp. 18-23(6).

• Visit www.bhopal.org

• Visit www.bhopal.net

Questions to prepare (300-500 words): Who is responsible for the Bhopal catastrophe? Why? Does Dow have a responsibility for the aftermaths of the Bhopal catastrophe? Why?

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Business, Ethics and Profit: Economic Approaches (Group work & Discussion) Friday 19th of April 2013

Marc Le Menestrel — 2011-10-09T12:55:18Z

Nobel Prize laureate Milton Friedman argues that the sole social responsibility of companies is to maximise profits. Using group work and discussion we identify the foundations of the argument, its practical implications in business situations, its historical context and its current relevance. Building on the work of Nobel Prize laureate Amartya Sen, we then discuss how economic approaches have progressively separated economics from ethics.

Required readings

Friedman, Milton, “The Social Responsibility of Business is to Increase its Profit”, New York Times Magazine (September 13, 1970).

Sen, Amartya. “Moral Codes and Economic Success”, in Brittan, S. & Hamlin, A. (eds) Market Capitalism and Moral Values, Aldershot UK: Edward Elgar, 1993, pp. 23-34.

Question to prepare: After having read Sen's article, re-read Friedman's article and identify whether it (the Friedman's article) pertains to science, ideology or propaganda.
Note that you can use the definitions proposed on slide #19.

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Ethics and Behavior: Philosophical Approaches (Discussion & Lecture) Monday 22nd of April 2013

Marc Le Menestrel — 2011-10-09T12:55:15Z

Summary

We build on Aristotle, Kant, and Mill to introduce criteria of ethical behaviour. These philosophical perspectives provide us with foundations to build a set of questions aimed at carrying out ethical analysis of business behaviours.

Required readings

• Shaw, William: “Classic Theories. Happiness, Function and Virtue”, in Social and Personal Ethics, Belmont (CA): Wadsworth, 1993, pp. 35-57.

• D.M. Ruiz: “The Master”.

Questions to prepare: Give an example where you have done something against your self-interest. Inspired by the reading, identify the values that oriented your action.

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Goals, Processes and Rationality: A Parable and a Framework (Video, Case Study & Lecture) Friday 26th of April 2013

Marc Le Menestrel — 2011-10-09T12:55:13Z

Video: “The Parable of the Sadhu” – Harvard Business School

Summary

Through a case study depicting a Wall Street financial analyst facing a dilemma in mountaineering, we discuss whether success lies in the mere attainment of goals. We then learn how to discern ethical values beyond goals and propose a rational framework to face their combination.

Required readings

• McCoy, Bowen: “The parable of the Sadhu”, in Harvard Business Review, Vol. 75 N°3, May-June 1997, pp. 54-61.

• Le Menestrel, Marc: “Economic Rationality and Ethical Behaviour: ethical business between venality and sacrifice”, in Business Ethics: A European Review, Vol. 11, No. 2 (2002).

Question to prepare: For you, is success the mere attainment of your goals?

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