Case Problem:
Question 1. Geneva Mapack, a recent graduate of Drexel University, is a first-year associate with the MacAndrews Consulting Group. The partner in charge of a major strategy study for an important new client in the shipping business has asked Mapack to call low-level employees in competing shipping companies to gather competitive data to be used to devise a winning strategy for the client. She was instructed not to identify the client but to introduce herself as a consultant doing an analysis of the shipping industry.
Assume that Mapack knows that senior managers in the competing firms would consider the data she is collecting proprietary and would not talk with her at all if they knew that she worked for a direct competitor. Is it ethical for Mapack to question the lower-level employees without revealing that she is working for a direct competitor? What should she do if after telling the partner that she considers it unethical to make the calls, she is told that consultants do this all the time and that refusal to do it would be a career-limiting move?
Question 2. Cassandra Washington is a manager/buyer in charge of purchasing children’s shoes for a large retail store chain. She is also a die-hard football fan.This year, the Super Bowl will be played in the Superdome in New Orleans, Louisiana, her hometown. Washington’s favorite team, the Eagles, is expected to reach the Super Bowl.
Currently, the store chain carries four brands of children’s rain boots. In an effort to streamline its product line, the CEO has decided to cut back to three brands of rain boots, leaving to Washington the decision of which brand to cut. Assume that all four brands are equally profitable. If the makers of Brand One send Washington a pair of Super Bowl tickets, should she accept them? Does it matter whether the maker of Brand One is also a close friend of hers?