Rule Number One of my approach to marketing is to treat the customer right. As I say in my books, it’s far cheaper to bring back an existing customer than to have to go out and recruit a new one. And even in the following case, where there is no likelihood of a repeat purchase, [...]
Entries Tagged as 'Business Ethics'
Another Case of Customer Service Stupidity
January 17th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Business Ethics, Customer Service as Marketing, Shel's Personal Life
Advice to New Entreprenurs
December 16th, 2009 · 6 Comments · Abundance and Prosperity, Business Ethics, Entrepreneurship
My friend Denise O’Berry is running a contest for the best advice to new entrepreneurs. I don’t have much use for the prize (a year of blog hosting at Network Solutions–I’m happy hosting my own blog), but it felt like a fun and seasonal thing to do. Here’s what I posted:
1. Be as helpful and [...]
Tags: entrepreneurship advice
Ben Franklin: Genius and Contradictions
November 27th, 2009 · 5 Comments · Business Ethics, Entrepreneurship, Ethics: General, Publishing, Transparency vs. Secrecy, propaganda
While visiting Minneapolis, I took in the opening day of the new Ben Franklin exhibit at the Minnesota History Center in downtown Saint Paul. I’ve long ben a Franklin fan. To me, his far-reaching curiosity, big-picture viewpoint, multiple interests, creativity, willingness to question authority and even make fun of it, media and persuasion skills, dedication [...]
Tags: abolitionism·Ben Franklin·Benjamin Franklin·contradictions·diplomacy·ethics·invention·morality·science·slavery
Social Responsibility: A Global Virtual Summit–Q&A with John Gerstner/Discount Offer
November 2nd, 2009 · 2 Comments · Business Ethics, Energy & Sustainability
What motivated you to organize this conference?
You could say this was an alignment of some stars that had been orbiting for quite awhile. First, social responsibility (or sustainability, corporate citizenship and green) is a topic I’m very interested in, going back to when I was Manager of Environmental & Safety Communication at John Deere [...]
Tags: global virtual summit·john gerstner·New Models of Social Responsibility·november 5 2009·november 9 2009
The Unethical Nature of Anti-Competitive Behavior
October 26th, 2009 · 1 Comment · Business Ethics, Transparency vs. Secrecy
Guest post by Elizabeth Johnson
I was very proud of the notebook computer I had purchased a year ago; in my mind, I felt I had secured a good deal and that it was value for money. The only flaw (if you could call it that) was that it came with the Norton Antivirus security solution. [...]
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Earth to Marketers: Don’t Act Like We’re Stupid!
October 20th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Advertising, Business Ethics, Marketing Techniques and Philosophies
Respect your prospect’s intelligence! It’s one of the points I make repeatedly in Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First–and with good reason. To succeed in business, you need long-term relationships. And you don’t get them by insulting people.
I could list bad-practice examples from now until the end of time. Every once in a while, [...]
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Sidewiki Makes Me Question Google’s “Don’t Be Evil” Mantra
October 7th, 2009 · 2 Comments · Business Ethics, Ethics-International, Media Ethics, Transparency vs. Secrecy, Uncategorized, Web 2.0/Social Media
mmediate spark of this post (which has been brewing for over a week), is my deep concern about Google’s Sidewiki.Sidewiki, as I understand it, allows users who have the Google Toolbar installed to comment, unmoderated, in an area that appears on the left side of the webpage–but those comments are only visible to others who have the Toolbar installed! Among the many evils this can lead to: spamming, blocking site owners’ sources of revenue (or even replacing them with links that benefit those commenting), loss of control over one’s own website, black hat search technique, slander of site owners or contributors, unethical business practices such as deceptive advertising, and even something as simple as wrecking the aesthetic and content integrity of a carefully designed website
Tags: censorship·don't be evil·google·intellectual property rights·privacy·sidewiki
Your Comment? Porritt: CSR Won’t Save Amoral Businesses
September 22nd, 2009 · No Comments · Business Ethics, Energy & Sustainability
Fascinating interview with Jonathan Porritt, long-time environmental activist and outgoing environmental advisor to UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
I find this statement particularly worthy of discussion, and would love to hear what y’all think on this:
Still, he says there are also too many examples of corporate responsibility deployed by companies with fundamentally amoral business models that [...]
Tags: amoral business models·csr·gordon brown·jonathan porritt
Don’t Publishers Have an Obligation to Tell Authors They’re Publishing?
September 3rd, 2009 · No Comments · Business Ethics, Publishing
While going through the claiming process in the Google Books settlement (if you’re an author, you should do so too–by tomorrow!–so you get royalties if they sell your stuff, or can opt out), I discovered that my very first book, co-authored with a well-known NYC literary agent and a subject-matter expert, had been published as [...]
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