Like thousands of people, I recently received a message from Google: On May 30, you may lose access to apps that are using less secure sign-in technology To help keep your account secure, Google will no longer support the use of third-party apps or devices which ask you to sign in to your Google Account …
Category: business
business
Sep 29 2019
Business, Responsibility, and the Environment
The following is the introduction to Chapter 10, Business and the Environment, of my business ethics text, Ethical Issues in Business 2e, Peg Tittle (Broadview Press, 2016). I post it here, motivated by the recent astounding meltdown of the Greenland ice sheet, and the reports that the Alaska glaciers are melting 100 times faster than …
Apr 02 2018
New and Improved
‘New and improved’ is not just a bit of harmless puffery; it’s a two-party addiction. Stupid consumers must have and stupid companies must produce – new and improved stuff. And it hurts third parties. Such as the animals who are used to test a product every time it changes, every time it becomes new and …
Jan 15 2018
Change the way we do business
Looking back at the last fifty years, we see protests against deception and injustice: the anti-war movement, the civil rights movement, feminism, the gay rights movement, environmentalism, the animal rights movement, the Occupy movement. What’s left? What should be the current generation’s crusade? Big Business. Big Oil, Big Ag, Big Pharma, Big Media. “In 2011, …
Jun 05 2017
Business in Denial
‘We’re just providing what the market, what people, demand.’ ‘The customer is squarely in the driver’s seat.’ Yeah right. Gosh, shucks, don’t-look-at-me. One, I doubt that’s true. I mean, if people really wanted your product, you wouldn’t (have to) spend millions on advertising, advertising to persuade them to buy it. Supply isn’t (just) following demand; …
May 02 2017
Visionary?
Reading about Nipissing University’s Students in Free Enterprise (NUSIFE), which is a group of students who undertake projects “intended to increase the public’s awareness of entrepreneurship and business-related subjects,” it occurs to me to wonder why such an endeavour is undertaken only by business students. Consider the projects listed below – and imagine… – “Global …
Apr 25 2017
Mentoring
Studies show that people who have had mentors, who have had someone to provide “sponsorship, exposure, visibility, coaching, protection, and challenging assignments – activities which directly relate to the protégé’s career” do indeed experience more career advancement than people who have not had mentors [1]. In a study of 1241 American executives, 67% of all …
Feb 13 2017
The Problem with Business Ethics Courses
The problem with business ethics courses is that all too often they’re taught by business faculty. And ethics is, after all, a field of philosophy. And with all due respect to my business colleagues, philosophy faculty are far better qualified to teach ethics than business faculty. As far as I can see, business ethics when …
Dec 27 2016
Telling our Members of Parliament How to Dress
So I recently found this on the Parliament of Canada website: While there is no Standing Order setting down a dress code for Members participating in debate, [84] Speakers have ruled that to be recognized to speak in debate, on points of order or during Question Period, tradition and practice require all Members, male or female, …
Aug 18 2016
Blood & Oil
[since I’m at it — posting about tv that happened oh, a year ago…see June 1 post] About a year ago, the weather reports became dramatic. Forecasters started talking about “extreme weather events” with voices and gestures that rivalled sports game commentary, making droughts, wildfires, floods, tornados, and high temperatures all so—exciting. My god, I …
fiction
