Ethics

Ethics is a topic in which many people or groups of people tend to disregard. There can be many reasons supporting the decisions that business firms or individuals make. In many cases, money or monetary gain can influence people to do unethical things either in the workplace or in everyday life. Ethics can be defined as beliefs that distinguish right from wrong. These beliefs are normally passed down from family so you make the right decisions in the future. Morals are also on the same line as ethics when talking about doing the right thing. People's morals can be totally different but should follow the same overall pattern in determining right from wrong. The presenter gave a speech about how a business firm he was very involved with bribed a government in Costa Rica to allow for the production of a computer chip that would make multiple millions of dollars in the United States.

A lot of money, time, effort and planning went into the production of this product because the leaders of the business knew that it would be worth their time in the long run. According to the speaker, what happened with the Costa Rica project started out very innocent. It consisted of a group of individuals working to achieve a common goal, which was the launch of a particular product. They took all appropriate measures and did everything the way they were supposed to according to their business plan. Where they ran into problems was when they were hiring people to make sure their facility and product would meet with the appropriate code in their area. They went about this by hiring specialists from America to come to Costa Rica and evaluate the set up that they had running. This cost them a half a million dollars or so to even have the task force come and do this procedure. After the project was approved by them, the government of the country denied the launch for the product. The reason being was because they wanted the people from their own country to make the money, not some Americans. Eventually, they hired some natives from the country to do the inspection and of course it was approved with the right dollar amount.

The problem was that there was an act formed by the United States government saying that doing things that they were doing was unethical and not allowed in the states. It just so happened that the speaker as well as three other top executives running the Costa Rica project