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How Would You Like a Business to Behave?
professorhojo asks: "These days on the 'net, it seems like a company can go from being regarded as a Good Citizen to Evildoer in a matter of hours (witness Yahoo!'s willingness to time and time again reinterpret their own privacy policy as it suits them and their advertisers). I am at the helm of a new software company and I want us to stand apart from the rest with rock solid ethics, and policies that put the user first, that won't change or waver at the behest of advertising money. What I want to know from you is simple:what are the essential things a company has to promise and stick to? More importantly, what things have companies done, which have made you do a double-take and totally reconsider doing business with them? Why am I asking this? Well, I believe that in the future, the ethics of a company will greatly impact on their bottom line. What's good for our customers is good for us, and customers will be drawn to us BECAUSE of it." It sounds good, but reality has a tendency of getting in the way of good ethics. What suggestions would you make to keep difficult choices from compromising the ethics you would like your company to embody?
. . . but it sure sounds like you're already on the right track.
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For your customers who are individuals (vs companies):
Simple pricing structures with simple paper work and no hidden costs.
Simple, honest price increases. If you just need more cash, say so. Don't blame it on "market events."
Especially in advertising. You know how a company will compare their product to their competitors? One example comes to mind: Medicine. Tylenol, for years, compared the effectiveness of extra-strength Tylenol to regular-strength aspirin. Do your comparisons honestly.
Itemized features? The kind that have a column for yours, and a column for theirs? Shock your potential customers by putting in a few of the features they have but you don't, and put a "NO" in your column and a "YES" in theirs. This kind of advertising would make me move the despisometer from zero to "surprising respect".
I've gotten to where I automatically reject as dishonest EVERY ad I see on TV or read anywhere.
Honest advertising that was obviously honest would be such a huge change from the norm that you would definitely stand out in a positive way. (Think "Miracle on 34th Street")
Pavlov wouldn't be so famous if he'd used a can opener instead of a bell.
Selling Office Equipment in the 80's and 90's?
What? Oh those things, like charging $60,000. for a mail handling machine? It was worth $4,000. OR Renew a lease so often, so early, that all that was left in the end were BIG payments over a long period of time and a lot of AIR?
What not to do?
Automatically increase the price of support or service every month or second month?
Lease everything in low monthly payments over 4 - 5 years.
Get your sales department on a tiered commision system so they have a reason to lie.
Think money is everything.
"Don't be evil."
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Whatever you see SCO do, do the exact opposite.
Pavlov wouldn't be so famous if he'd used a can opener instead of a bell.
However, the founder of the Computer Game Developers' Conference, Chris Crawford, wanted to CGDC to be a non-profit organization. But their treasurer wanted a for-profit corporation, he convinced the other members of the board that this was the way to go. Eventually the board members kicked Crawford out, took his stock and sold the conference for $3 million, giving Crawford only a small piece of what the others got.
I had second thoughts when I read this in the book "Chris Crawford on Game Design." All it takes is the other people in your company to decide your ethical ways of doing things are compromising profit. If this happens your screwed.
But by all means don't let something like this stop you from trying, I'm sure there are ways to prevent take overs, I just don't know what they are.
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What I want in a company is a good product that has a niche. Not just a code monkeys college product turned commercial (not that that is always bad... think samba).
Provide a good product that does something your competitors dont do or dont do well.
Document it and make it idiot proof and then back it up!
Good luck, good ethics will help you alot. Keep to your goals.
Boredom's not a burden anyone should bear.
Well, two things come to mind instantly.
First, register your software's copyright, and include a full and complete copy of the source, sufficiently well-commented that once the copyright expires, people will be able to make reasonable use of it. (not to mention learn from it whilst still copyrighted)
Second, don't use adhesive use contracts e.g. EULAs. There's nothing wrong with just outright selling software instead of making dubious claims of licensing it, and it doesn't leave you unprotected to do so. The last book you bought at Amazon didn't have a EULA -- why should your software?
-- This and all my posts are in the public domain. I am a lawyer. I am not your lawyer, and this is not legal advice.
One of the most important commodity you'll have to maintain is trust. This is not simply not changing your policies repeatedly; it is a combination of factors:
Privacy
Your customer's data is important information. Almost every type of company imaginable now takes andvantage of it, and shares it with others. This includes, but is not limited to: banks, phone, cable, utility and insurance companies, subscription-based services, etc. It's scary just how many companies will "opt you in" to their marketing schemes, some of which they no longer control once it leaves the company.
It is important that you protect your customer's data, both from fraud and industrial espianage... as well as from your own company. It's pretty straightforward: Think about what your company will do with the data, then ask yourself if you would trust your own personal information to your own company. If the answer is no, you might want to make some policy changes.
Customer Service
The United States is an interesting place. Customer service seems to be a far greater deal than it is elsewhere, according to all of my international friends and relatives. Because of this, your customer-facing employees can win you evangelist customers, or sink your company just with words over the phone. Here's a couple of tips:
Communication
Your actual policies aren't all that important. You will discover which ones will work, and which ones won't, based on customer response. But you must stick with those policies. From a customer perspective, what you tell them you will do is your policy. If you break your policy for a customer, you'd better be damn sure that they know that they shouldn't expect it in the future. It's even safer to not break your policies at all... but that is sometimes necessary to appease a disgruntled customer. But also bear in mind that this customer might not be in the right. If this is the case, it's not necessarily y
The important thing is not what you promise, but that when you make a promise you stick to it, whatever it is.
That said, realize that this takes time--years. I need to see promise after promise to not be broken, each held commitment increasing the company's credibility in my esteem. You can't do it in just one quarter.
And you need to have consistent management--every senior management change, and you basically start from scratch. And one of the quickest ways to lose control over the process is to go public--don't forget that means that you are selling part of the company off. To investors who don't care about any long-term strategy beyond tomorrow's opening bell. So even if you intend to build credibility, an IPO can derail your best intentions.
Finally, tell me the bad news, in the plainest terms possible, as soon as possible--although I may stay with you as a customer, I need to know the bad news with as much warning as possible, so I can start planning work-arounds.
--
$tar -xvf
Let bottom line not be the bottom line. Let the ends not justify the means.
For instance, if a company's lifespan has come to an end, and if they extend it past this, only undue suffering for all and the corruption of capitalism will be the result, because these companies usually resort to unethical methods in order to survive (see SCO).
#1: Don't lay off people when you're posting record profits.
#2: Don't get yourself a generic patent meant to serve as suing fodder years down the line instead of something being designed for a specific product/piece of S/W.
#3: Check out any downbeat memo at internalmemos.com or stories from fuckedcompany.com and try not to re-create them.
#4: Don't sacrifice experienced employees for cheap ones.
#5: Try not to have employees living under the constant threat of layoffs. Sticks instead of dangling carrots get annoying after a while.
Most of these points run into each other. A lot of them seem like common sense and can be boiled down to "Don't be a greedy bastard."
There are people out there in business who aren't complete sleazeballs, who understand that spamming (either via email or fax) is not an ethical way to grow a business, that 'human resources' means more than just hiring and firing. Find them and hire them. Listen to them, and let their ethical lead create an honest workplace.
While we're at it, resist the lure of VC funds for as long as you can. VCs are (almost-universally) ethically-suspect, not-very-smart people who have too much money and lots of friends at the golf course. As soon as they get a hook into your company, the rot will set in - even if it's only you having to BS them at board meetings.
Just be yourself. I'll figure out for myself an appropriate level of trust and respect. I mean, I don't really understand your question. What people want is usually pretty obvious. It's also impossible to give everyone everything they want and remain in business. Figuring out the balance between those two is what management is there to do. It's not something you can sum up in a neat formula.
make the bug reporting/documenting process open, so that when we do run into a suspected bug we can do a quick search to find out if you know about it.
Nothing I hate more than doing a google search, not finding anything, then spending time to prepare a tested step by step description to repeat the bug, only to have a 2nd level support guy tell me that it's been in their private bugbase for months.
Use your company's organizing documents as tools to keep your company on the right path. For instance, write your charter and bylaws (or equivalent) in such a way that they will be difficult to change. Make the ways of changing those documents dependent on buy-in from people who are NOT stockholders or officers. Perhaps use third-party interest groups or trustees whose requirements are to act in consideration of the highest ethical standard for the business, best interest of the customers, and best interest of the community.
Then write the documents to make your company uninteresting to professional beancounters who simply want to be officers for personal pecuniary reasons. For instance, you could put executive compensation directly into the hands of lower-level employees, or into compensation committees composed of customer representatives, third-parties, and employees.
Consider NOT going public, and writing that limit directly into the difficult-to-change bylaws. So few companies go public for useful reasons, it's an almost-certain death-knell to ethical behavior anymore.
On the doing-business side, this is something that would earn my profound respect:
Consider offering a full warranty on your product (i.e. Magnuson-Moss FULL warranty, if your products are consumer grade, or the equivalent if they're not). Knowing that you'll have consequential damages to face if your product is lousy is an incredible incentive to making a non-lousy product. By doing that, you could also create an EULA of approximately a paragraph of big text, understandable by humans. THAT would set you apart from any company I'm aware of.
Just some thoughts.
~~~~~~~~~
"A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds." -Emerson
I would like toremind you that the ethics of a company is not determined jsut by how it treats its customers.
I currently work for an evil company, and they are not evil just because they disrespect the customer, they are evil because they also direspect there employee's.
so treat everyone you deal with with respect, and try to be fair also
--meh--
When your company is down on its luck, it's easy to say things like, "oh, our customers would really love to hear about all of these great offers we have for them," as opposed to, "let's not spam these people who trusted us not to inundate them with crap."
It's probably a fair guess that most companies don't start making ethically questionable decisions like the above example unless they would otherwise go out of business. What you really need to ask yourself is whether or not you are prepared to let your company go under rather than letting go of your ethical standards. It's not an easy question to answer.
That's all they should do. Companies have no morals, and no ethics, unless they need it for public relations, or they are too small. Otherwise they get trampled by aggressive competition.
Sounds hopeless? Tired of the Microsofts and SCOs in this world? Well, the solution is to pressure government to pass better laws.
Having said that, there *are* different "personalities" of companies. For instance I would rather hang out with Apple (snobbish artist) than Microsoft (arrogant prick).
The personality I like to see in a software company are
1) minimalism/simplicity. keep your product lines simple. Maybe a "Pro" and "Standard" version (I have no idea what you are selling), but please no confusion in the product line. Keep the licensing model simple ($100 per employee for instance, or $100 per copy, or whatever).
2) Predicitability. Don't change anything without good reason and without warning the user base ahead of time (I'm thinking EULAs, support, end-of-life, phone numbers, web URLs, whatever).
3) Honesty. Don't try and sneak stuff into your EULAs when you think nobody is looking. Put your bug tracking on the web. Let your support folks communicate "off the cuff" ("Yeah I don't like the way that feature works either. I'll put a note in to have Bob look at it" rather than "Thanks for your comment. This issue has been noted")
4) Quality. Don't put out shitty products and charge $1000 for them (I run into this all the time with specialized software, example I just dealt with: the software that comes with the ColorVision Spyder monitor calibration device is a total piece of crap (at least the OS X version). Very confusing. Of course there is no way to write your own software without violating the EULA. Thanks guys.)
Good luck to you.
Well, I believe that in the future, the ethics of a company will greatly impact on their bottom line. What's good for our customers is good for us, and customers will be drawn to us BECAUSE of it.
I'm glad you said that, because "future" is the key word here. I believe that libertarian and Adam Smith economics can work, but they're based on the idea of people looking at what's in their own long-term best interest.
Every time you make a decision, ask yourself how it impacts your profits in the long run. If you maximize your long-term profits, you'll automatically -- invisible-hand style -- make the decision that best serves both you and your customers.
Five percent of one year's DoD budget puts us on Mars.
Just having that kind of a desire to be ethical is a step in the right direction. One thing to keep in mind is that when you are fixing bugs and implementing features it is plain as day to the customer weather your priority is yourself or your customer. A perfect example of this: We use an accounting package where I work that is licenced on a concurrent users model. We have run tight on our licences and people are regularly not able to log in. However getting another five seats is so expensive we can't get approval to buy more. We discovered that lots of people have the application open for long periods of time with out using it. Ever since we ran tight on licences we have been begging to have a feature in the software that will time out and log off a user if they are inactive for an hour or two. Is the company going to give us that feature? Of course not. There is no incentive because otherwise we will eventually have to break down and buy more licences. This leaves us feeling like we are being taken advantage of. We are loyal customers, we do beta testing for them, but they still pull this little stunt that makes them look money hungry. Just remember that your customers arn't all dumb, and your true priorities come through if you like it or not.
SCO.com uses Linux
The #1 thing that pisses me off about many companies is their disregard for the customer when they discontinue products. One month they are hyping the product as the optimal solution to your problems, the next month, they kill the product, drop support for it, remove all references to the product from their web site, and pretend it never existed.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
Furthermore, the big disappointment will be the customers themselves. As you strive to ship a quality product for a fair price, they will beat you up wanting more, for less before it's done. Or as a friend said, "they want God in a box for free"
I wish you well. You will live in exciting times.
"Eve of Destruction", it's not just for old hippies anymore...
As a consultant / system administrator / programmer in business for myself, I have one rule: all I sell is labor. Because of that, I don't sell software and I don't charge a markup on hardware I recommend. It makes everything so much simpler, and I never have to defend my choices as being self-serving. Here are some other suggestions, some of which I've learned the hard way:
sigs, as if you care.
1) Honesty in all things. Be honest with your investors, your employees and your customers. Don't "stretch" the truth in your advertisements. Make sure you're sales force understand exactly what the product does, so that they don't "oversell" it.
2) Respect the property of the customer. If you're not sure, err on the side of the customer. Although you may own the copyright to the software, the particular copy on my system is *mine*, so don't try to control it. If that's not the way you want it, don't pretend to sell me the software when you're really selling a license to use it (see number one above).
3) Don't hassle me or enable others to hassle me. Don't sell my personal information. Don't assume that just because I bought your product that I want to be on your mailing list (email or snail). Stay away from popups, popunders, and excessive ads in your webpages. No nag screens. If you think there is a need for privacy agreements, you've already stepped over the line.
Don't blame me, I didn't vote for either of them!
Providing the consumer with something that they actually want and feel value for is something that can make a difference. In reference to you question, take the RIAA, SCO and Amazon as examples:
... also bought ..." feature. I don't mind paying a little extra than other Internet retailers (it's still cheaper than the local bookstore anyway).
Amazon aren't the cheapest place to buys books from. But I have remained a loyal customer due to the excellent "people who bought
However take the RIAA. Or the music industry in general. I feel quite strongly that the rise of napster and subsequent p2p networks is to do in part with the quality of the product. And the fall in music CD sales is also due to the quality of the product and not to do with p2p. Consumers aren't interested in pop music which is samey and generic and meaningless. A boy band in 2000 regurgitating the same cheesy song the Osmonds sang in the 70's isn't appealing to most. What the music industry today has done is instead of making music that some consumers will really enjoy (and some will detest) they have created a bland product which everyone finds inoffensive.
SCO have got people's backs up because they are appear to be trying to destroy Linux, which many people are passionate about. However I would argue that the reason they are probably currently the most unpopular company in the technology industry is because they don't have something of their own which they can sell to consumers but instead are taking advantage of others hard work.
My point is that if you create a good product and don't just adhere to the risk averse bean counter methodology then people will notice this. Promote what makes you stand out and if it's good enough people will love you.
The Romans didn't find algebra very challenging, because X was always 10
There are some businesses who say, obeying the law and keeping people safe is all business ethics should be about.
To me, though, great businesses are all about truth. They know the truth of their own capabilities, the truth of what their customers need, the truth of what works and what doesn't, and without bullshitting anyone, they just get on and do the business.
That's not to say you dont have marketers or lawyers or accountants: you need these in modern business. But as soon as you have marketers and lawyers battling over just how much to lie to the public, and accountants doing "creative accounting", you might as well shut up shop.
"Well, put a stake in my heart and drag me into sunlight."
I don't care what a company promises, so long as they KEEP those promises.
A good example of this is Google who right from the start have followed an ethical policy because of the beliefs of the two guys who founded the company.
Another example (but this time of lack of ethics) are companies like Yahoo who change the terms and conditions at the drop of a hat then expect the users to follow.
Maybe the CEO of a company should be forced to take ethics 101 once a year to make sure they fly straight.
Ed
The more corrupt the state, the more numerous the laws. - Tacitus, 56-120 A.D.
Let your 'Yes' be 'Yes,' and your 'No,' 'No'; to strengthen your promise with a vow/oath shows that something is wrong.
So much to do, so little bandwidth.
--
Try Mozilla
besides don't be evil, can i recomend keeping your company private. i realize money can be made hand over fist by becoming a publicly traded company, but why don't you try having valued workers (i.e. the ones who do shit, and understand shit) be the only people besideds yourself holding shares. it seems to me where most companys go wrong is letting share holders decide where a company can and should go as opposed to it's engineers and the rest of it's workers setting pace. yes it's wonderful to have a visonary ceo telling you where the next amazingly adopted product is going to come from, but 99.99999 percent of the time (yeah thats better than e15k uptime) ceo's know about as much as my last bowel movement.
think smart and share all responsibilitys.
1337
All in the eye of the beholder. Unless you have the definative guide to ethics for all cultures, societies and social norms, you will be unethical to someone.
In reality do what matches your belief system and follow the law. That is all you need to do.
Remember a corporation is a legal entity that doesn't expire. Unfortunately most companies operate like a sociopath, no conscience.
Decide how you're going to act, and DO THAT. Do NOT change policy simply because a few people start whining. This doesn't mean that you stagnate, but it does mean that you understand that no matter what you do, it's going to piss somebody off.
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Speaking as one who has been in business for some time, I'd say if you think being ethical is going to help you get ahead in business you are engaging in wishful thinking.
What is right is not always expedient.
What is expedient is not always what is right.
Honesty starts with yourself: exactly how much are you willing to compromise on your beliefs? Which ones are really important?
If the answer to the first is zero and the second is all of them, then you either are purer than virtually anyone else in business or you haven't really figured out where you want to draw the line. If you don't decide in advance then you'll probably end up letting circumstances draw the line for you.
In the end, the main check is this: what would be the result if the thing I am about to do were made public? In a sense, ethical behavior can help reduce certain downsides from recklessly unethical behavior. On the other hand, in extreme circumstances, if expedience is your only guide then you will take the Faustian bargain: either your company continues with tainted ethics, or it dies and the people workig for it are let go. This is hard because, selfishness aside, people depend on you and if you are sensitive you will feel this as a moral obligation, and you will have a hard time teasing out what is purely selfish and what you are doing for your people.
Integrity is the one ethical virtue which is a true business asset.
Integrity in the business sense is when your deeds reflect your words. This can be a competitive advantage. But it's harder, because it means knowing when (and how) to say no.
But in the end, the full spectrum of ethics doesn't do much for your business. You must choose the ethical way because it is what you believe in, because of your self-regard, the desire to preserve your own character.
Post may contain irony: discontinue use if experiencing mood swings, nausea or elevated blood pressure.
I would take issue to the oft-quoted (even in this discussion) statement "The customer is always right".
.0001 point microfont on the bottom says "by cashing this check you agree to join this plan that is going to cost you and arm, leg, and the gonad of your choice, for a cost orders of magnitude greater than this check is worth."
The customer is not always right. However, the customer always thinks he is right.
If you blindly follow your customer's whims you will end up with a car designed by Homer Simpson that nobody wants.
If you LISTEN to your customers, and then THINK about what they said, however, you will end up with a product that they will want to buy.
However, the tricky bit is dealing with a customer that you disagree with - you must show tact in how you blow them off.
Case in point: I used to be a regular customer of the Super8 motel chain when I travelled. I would stay there preferentially to other chains. (you may note the use of the past tense in those statements).
One day I received one of those "fake check" mails from them - what looks like a real check, but in
Those sorts of things piss me off. I found the name of the CEO of the company, and sent him a nice letter explaining that I felt such advertising was unacceptable, and that while I was sure that they didn't really MEAN to do that, they should look into the company that they hired to do this and re-evaluate their position.
In short, I gave them every possible out to use to say "OOPS! Sorry!". I was NOT accusitory in the letter.
I seriously injured my jaw on the floor upon reading their response. It wasn't a polite-but-bland "YourConcernsAreImportantToUsThankYou" form response. It was not a "You are right, the responsible individuals have been sacked" reponse.
It was a "Shut up! You Suck! We aren't doing anything wrong! This is NOT misleading! IS NOT! NEENER NEENER NEENER! We are making money doing this, HOW DARE YOU CRITICIZE US!" response.
Needless to say, they lost my business, and I take every opportunity to pass this story along to others.
In summary - listen to your customers - they may not always BE right, but they always THINK they are right. If you don't THINK they are right, then DON'T just blow them off.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Ok, answer this.
Business has been going ok for a while, you have several employees who depend on you including one with a sick kid, but now you have a desert experience. Cash reserves are almost exhausted, there is no sight of a customer for miles and you're about to bite the dust.
Then Customer X turns up and offers you wads of cash. The company will be sorted for at least the next ten years, everyone will get pay rises, little Jimmy will get his kidney and so on.
The problem: Customer X requires you to break little tiny insignificant Ethic Y.
Do you take the cash, do the job, get Jimmy his kidney, and give everyone pay rises, or do you go out of business?
I see too many companies take something that has been in an open-source product (like a Linux window manager) for years, and rewrite it, add a few features, and release it on Windows, for money. Probably the simplest example is popup blocking, even though most of them are free -- Mozilla and Firebird supported popup blocking long before even the first freeware plugin for Internet Explorer.
So the way to do this right is to do your homework. Before you even start planning on a project, make sure it is a unique project, and not something that could be a 3 kilobyte plugin to an existing project. If you want to try to sell 3 kilobyte plugins, it has to really be a killer app -- the only company I've seen do that successfully is CrossOver.
I realize that you could make an entirely new product with one killer feature, but if that feature could be implemented as a plugin to an existing product, it would take much less work for your competitor to do that, and it would annoy customers who don't want to have to use three different programs that do the same thing because each one has its own killer feature.
Next, if you think you can do it right and still make money, release your source code. Namesys has done this right, and though they make less money than they would otherwise, if you believe in good karma, they must be basking in it. A somewhat less successful way is to do what Netscape did with Mozilla and Sun did with StarOffice, which is based on OpenOffice -- create an open project, then make and sell a product based on that, possibly with a few added killer features (Netscape had spell checking before Mozilla did).
Perhaps the best way to do this is to make an open product and give it away, but charge for techsupport. I believe Mozilla has telephone techsupport now.
If you can't do that, at least be open about your development process. Release early and often. Document everything. Allow people to extend your product somehow, even if it's not with source code -- Half-life does this extremely well. Only charge for the really major updates, and charge less for an update. Listen to your community, and make them a community, not just a consumer base. You want a dialog with that community.
And remember that it's software, and that while there are real costs to developing it, the cost of distributing it (and making new copies) can be very close to 0, so charge appropriately.
Be independent. By that, I mean don't leech off of other companies -- particularly their weaknesses. For example, Symantec and many others sell products that would not exist if Windows was better, and ultimately make a worse experience for the consumer. There's a lot of websites out there that sell products designed to erase your internet history -- do NOT make a product like that. If people really cared so much about their history, they would use a product other than Microsoft Internet Explorer -- a product that deletes your history when you tell it to.
Whatever else your website is, don't just make it a brochure. Make it informative. Even redhat has, as long as I can remember, made their homepage in a way that's designed to hype rather than inform. I should be able to go to your site and click on "about" or "overview" for a description of what your product does -- if not in technical terms, at least not in marketing terms. I don't want to hear about a product that "enhances productivity" but won't say how it "enhances productivity". I should also be able to click on something like "contact" to send you an email.
An open bug database and a forum are also very useful things. Make sure they are open. Don't censor the forum based on content, and for the love of God don't censor the bug database! Good rea
Don't thank God, thank a doctor!
KANE: Declaration of Principles. Don't smile, Jedediah. Got it all written out. Declaration of Principles.
BERNSTEIN: You don't wanna make any promises, Mr. Kane, you don't wanna keep.
KANE: These will be kept. I'll provide the people of this city with a daily paper that will tell all the news honestly. I will also provide them...
LELAND: That's the second sentence you've started with "I."
KANE: People are gonna know who's responsible. And they're gonna get the truth in the Inquirer quickly and simply and entertainingly and no special interests are gonna be allowed to interfere with the truth. I will also provide them with a fighting and tireless champion of their rights as citizens and as human beings. Signed, Charles Foster Kane.
What suggestions would you make to keep difficult choices from compromising the ethics you would like your company to embody?
Once you go public, you're at the mercy and whim of those who hold the stock.
In general, once the founder of a company retires or leaves, special interests will rush in to fill the void and bend the company to serve their needs instead of those of the customer.
better get a patent on "ethical business decission" before some other ethical company does...
A lot of it depends on the type of software you make, but:
X day money back guarantee if dissatisfied. Many companies won't offer it because someone could just lie, get their money back, and keep the software. But on the other hand, most people will not use that option if satisfied, and those that will could have alternately looked to other methods of piracy. A lot of business software purchases are high risk, and a big question on many potential customers' minds is "What if we spend all this money and it doesn't work for us?" You have a good chance of this policy getting you more customers than it costs in refunds.
Another concern to people is if they buy a piece of software and the company goes out of business. Having the source code available to high paying customers under a non-resell, non-distribution, send your mods back to us sort of license can have many benefits, from accelerated development to levels of customization and interoperability that your company alone couldn't offer.
And lastly (because I can't type forever), is licensing flexibility. This is a very complicated topic.
Perhaps he could put aside some of the profits into some kind of contingency fund to cover the eventually that doing the right thing costs money.
You make the mistake of thinking you can educate the fundamental stupidity out of people. You can't.
While I agree that many companies can lean toward dishonesty when their focus is quarterly earnings numbers (which are a terrible metric for cyclical businesses), private companies are often as bad or worse because they face less scrutiny (which is what OS folks are all about, right?).
Having worked for both types of companies (and worked in the public sector too), I found that more sketchy things happened in private companies (like dozens of partners bonusing themselves instead of making needed capital investments).
"All I ever wanted was to see Larry Wall give Bill Gates a Perl necklace."
http://www.eisenschmidt.org/jweisen
I'm sure this isn't the ONLY reason you want to be ethical, but it's a little disconcerting that you cite it as your main one. I'm not saying I'm the MOST ethical person out there, but I do believe in an absolute standard for what is right and wrong, and I believe that a person should adhere to those standards regardless of wether it makes more or less money.
I do believe that the ethics of a company will have an impact on its bottom line. However, at times you may be tempted to suspect that good ethics are having a negative impact. It's at those times when, if your ethics are fundamentally based on economics rather than unshakeable principles of what is good and evil, you may lose your way.
www.clarke.ca
Do your best to try not to understand your customers. Get rid of any of their personal information as soon as you possibly can. It sounds counterintuitive, but it's not. Stop trying to think for your customer, anticipate or guide his needs, etc. Let the customer define and re-define the relationship and guide all interactions, at all times.
The people who have posted things like "respect your customers' personal information and keep it private" are not thinking at a level of sufficient complexity. Just get rid of that personal information! NEVER fall into the trap of thinking that you can think for your customer. If your customer gives you information for one purpose, for example to buy an instance of your software, sell them the software, and then end the "relationship". Let the customer always define the substance and extent of their interaction with you. If the customer calls you and says, "Hey, I'd like you to take my e-mail address and sell it to somebody", only then should you EVER do that. But what customer ever asks something like that? That's not what they want, that's not what they're about. Then why do so many companies waste their time trying to fulfill what their customers don't even need? Answer, they're either mistakenly trying to think for their customers, or are serving their own selfish interests rather than their customers' interests, or both. No, it's not selfish to want to make money. But make money only by fulfilling your customers' wants, not your own.
If you respect and honor your customer by limiting anything you do concerning your customer only to what your customer has expressly asked of you, you will be providing golden service and fulfilling the reality of the otherwise tritely cliched phrase, "the customer is always right." Think about what that phrase means, and act completely on it. If your customer didn't ask you to do x or y or z, then why the fuck are you doing it? If you are doing it, when your customer didn't ask you to, then you're serving someone else and not your customer, and you're pissing your customer off.
I think it's pretty well agreed upon that e.g. spewing toxic waste everywhere and allowing your customers to die due to your negligence is PROBABLY a pretty unethical thing for a company to do. There aren't really any societies that look DOWN upon a company being well-behaved at the expense of profit. (Except maybe the U.S.) The law doesn't help much when companies can flout it with vast legal dept. funds. and get around it by globalizing and relocating operations to more acquiescent world regions.
What I see in this thread is a bunch of whiny libertarians moaning about how corporations do so many stupid, wrong things. Well, DUH! You can either have unrestricted corporations and low prices and bad behavior, or you can have relatively restricted corporations and relatively high prices and relatively good behavior. You can't have your cake and eat it too. As much as libertarian philosophy would like to have us believe that corporations will do what is in their long-term self-interest, I think it's pretty clear that that is FAUX.
But the silly thing is, Stupor8 is NOT cheap - they are consistently $10 or more a night more expensive than Motel6 or other chains.
The reason I *used* to do business with them was that they *used* to have a pretty good continental breakfast. However, other motels are offering that, and more and more Stupid8s think "Continental breakfast" means some nasty coffee that has been on the burner since the '60s and a couple of cheap donuts, "served" starting at 7:00 (by which time I am usually 200 miles way).
But your point is correct - Stupid8 does not care about its customers, and they are starting to see the effect on their bottom line. Rather than correcting the fundimental problem, they are resorting to spam, misleading mail, and other nasty tricks to try to make more money.
www.eFax.com are spammers
Open your mind way, way up and go find and read the following book:
"Fabled Service: Ordinary Acts, Extraordinary Outcomes" by Bonnie Jameson, Betsy Sanders.
The reason I say "open your mind" is that the book is about Nordstrom's, the upscale department store. They have survived, and they thrive, because they have empowered each and every employee to offer the highest level of service to everyone who walks into one of their stores--including people who "have no business" being in such an exalted atmosphere.
Their model can be applied to all kinds of enterprises and to businesses both large and small, old or just starting out. It's an interesting concept if it is wholeheartedly embraced. What doesn't work is paying it "lip service."
Anyway, a good book for anybody just starting up a business.
Anne
DUCT TAPE: The Election Supervisors' Secret Weapon
If the customer is unhappy, and it's your fault then it's your fault.
If the customer is unhappy, and it isn't your fault, it's still your problem. Frequently, they're unhappy about something other than the problem they're nattering on about and it's your job to figure out what and where the real problem is and fix it.
In practical terms, this means staffing your customer support team so that they can spend time with your customers working through their issues. Don't punish them for spending more time on the phone with the customer. Make sure that there's an easy flow of information from customer support to your engineers, and vice versa.
Also, have a short, easy to understand employee handbook that lays out rules that aren't stupid. Don't make your employees guess what the dress code is, don't make them ask what the comp time arrangement is ... and if you don't pay your salaried workers overtime, you better have a comp time plan.
This doesn't have to be complex, this doesn't have to be 40 pages long. It's not ethical (in the sense that it isn't fair) to not lay out your expectations in advance, or to make people guess.
Give your customers a place to say anything they want--even if it's Bad--and you will find yourself supporting them the way they want to be supported.
Put that community up and leave it up, rain or shine. Politely answer everybody, even the lamers and flamers, and do it quickly. To hide the off-topic crap, allow your customers to gently moderate the discussion--link to hidden messages, never delete--and don't touch that button yourself.
You will also reap fanatical user loyalty, repeat business, and priceless word-of-mouth advertising, not to mention thousands of free hits from Google searches.
"Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth"
We've been having this 20-something, moral relativistic, why are humans animals, why are corporations greedy discussions on Slashdot for a while. Why are corporations greedy? Because it's easy and fun. Either you believe in absolutes and a higher power or you don't. It's that simple. If you don't believe in a higher power, than why should you act ethically? Especially if you can legally do so? You say you care about other people? So, what. That only will go so far. I might care so much that I'm willing to help you out if I can afford it. However, will I help you out at my own cost? That is the question. Some people consider religion for the weak. However, I've learned that when man is at his weakest is when religion is at it's most powerful.
What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean my sig is repetitive? What do you mean....
Whatever you do don't forget that when it boils down to it your customers are truly #1. Mistakes will be made, some customers will be unsatisfied but whatever you do make sure to make it right for them. The number 1 reason I cease doing business with a company is that they make a mistake and then tell me to pound sand. This has happened to me quite a bit lately and so I've had to switch banks, cell phone companies and cable companies.
The parent is 100% correct in defining communication as one of the things your customers will notice. I've discovered that the timing of communication is even more important than the content, and can make or break certain aspects of your business.
The most pertinent advice I can give is this: never let your inboxes turn into blackholes. Nothing will ruin your reputation faster than slacking on email. I've had to do this on occasion (there are only 3 of us in my company, and when we're all very busy with a project, email tends to take a back burner). Believe me when I say that neglecting your business email will take its toll slowly but suddenly: you don't notice there's a problem for a couple of days, then 10 people email you telling you they want a refund, and by that time, you've alienated those people and lost potential business from their friends.
During business hours, every single email that comes into your company should be replied to within 1 hour, tops. Notice I'm not saying that every support request should be resolved within an hour, that's ridiculously optimistic. I'm just saying that that everything should get a response within an hour. You'll be amazed at how well this works towards placating existing customers, and impressing potential ones.
Don't use autoresponders or form letters. Even if you don't have time to deal with the issue right now, even if you won't be able to get around to it until tomorrow, take 30 seconds and type a brief personal reply to let them know you received their message and will be getting back to them ASAP.
Most of the time people contact your company, it will be because they want to clarify something before making a purchase, or they want help with something they've already purchased. If you make them wait for a response, even for a day, I've found that one of two things will often happen:
1) If it's a potential customer, they'll give up on you and seek a competing product/service. They won't be afraid to tell you, either; when you email them 36 hours later they'll reply "Sorry, I didn't hear back so I went with $COMPETITOR_X."
2) If it's an existing customer, they become much more likely to dispute any amount you've billed them. I have had customers demand refunds because I took a day to reply to their support request. We don't offer or guarantee any sort of response time, but once they've sent in a support request and waited a few hours, they're going to get antsy.
"Hi Bob, I got your email and I'm looking into this issue. I'll get back to you with a resolution either tonight or tomorrow. Thanks!" is a lot better than 24 hours of silence. The customer knows you got the message, knows you're aware of the issue, and knows it may be awhile before you take care of it. While he or she might have hoped for a faster resolution, that one little email might prevent a chargeback, or it might keep a potential customer from going to the competition.
Reply to everything the moment you see it, whether you have time to handle it then or not. Your customers will appreciate it.
Good luck to you!
I started a corporation 2 years ago (well, started it with my dad's help anyways, i was 16 at the time), doing consulting/technical work for local residential and commercial customers. It's VERY small scale and VERY word-of-mouth. I have at least one job a week (paying $40-$80, decent for a H.S. senior working 2 hours a week). I level with my customers, since everything is one-on-one, it teaches you MANY things, the customer is always right... as long as they know what they're talking about. An irate client will think something is wrong when they don't understand things. make them understand. In the past two years, I've had ONE botched client, and I was the one who screwed up, he was my first client in over three months, and wanted to upgrade his (very slow) box, i saw $$$ and went to work trying to milk him for money. the plan backfired. Fortunatly my reputation was not damaged. If you're just starting out, make sure you have cash to live off of for two years. in my case, I'm living at home, this all expenses are paid for. A relaxed atmosphere works wonders, even though i'm a one-man op, i cannot see it staying that way. Timely E-mail replies are key, as others said, phone support is also a must. When someone calls me with a problem and explains it in their limited way, I offer to come out and take a look, instead of: 1) they explain things vaguely 2) you try to gather more specific information, irritating the customer who is confused 3) you try a solution, they get confused and Irate. 4) you finaly suggest you send someone to take a looksee, they, already in a bad mood, and having had much time wasted, insist on asking how many $$$ it'll cost, and reject it 5) you wind up losing a client Proper way of doing things: 1) they explain things vaguely 2) get more info by asking what programs are acting up 3) offer to go out/send someone to take a look at the problem, ask them when is covenient, most residential customers will accept a 24 hour delay, depends on when the call was recieved if pulling same day (Do not charge extra for same-day service). 4)Client will accept, and spend the money because they are in a good mood (your quick willingness to cut to the chase) 5) client tells friends about your good service 6) Profit!!! be friendly, above all, if you get 'my cupholder is broken' level stuff, be calm, and immediatly say you'll come and fix/take a look at it, put them at ease ASAP. Drop business cards with every client, let your good service sell for you (one res.client referred my services to three others, I've gotten ove $1500 from that single referral. Another business client helped, too, I do the support for the office staff's home boxes now too :)
And don't be money hungry, quick fixes backfire.
Logistical Chaos Officer http://www.slagg.org - LAN Gaming in Sarasota FL,USA
Another thing to keep you on the straight and narrow: Not everyone who wants to be your customer should be. Be selective.
> While we're at it, resist the lure of VC funds for as long as you can
Once you sell out to VCs or go public you've lost, because your company invariably ends up with the "we have a responsibility to our share-holders" line that is used whenever something "unethical" happens. Whether you founded it, or even hold a controlling share of the stock won't make much difference...
So basically, keep control of your company, and you probably know what customers want anyway!
Ponxx
Do not claim ownership of your employees' thoughts. Do not claim ownership of projects done by your employees on their own time that are unrelated to what they do at work. Do not try to impose non-compete agreements that are not legal.
The text you'll find at Omnigroup where they present themselves as a company hasn't changed much over the years. I also like their job opportunites page... too bad I don't live in Seattle (6000 miles from where I live)
--------
* Sigh *
...making a decision:
"How would I feel if I was a customer who was affected by this?"
For example, many people have proppsed on the privacy front to never sell the names of contacts or clients. That database, however, might wind up being an incredibly valuble asset. Instead, I would humbly suggest to put a clause that is restrictive but clear cut: "We will never disclose a client's name or contact information to another party without that client's consent. Should we wish to sell this information, we may request your permission. Should you refuse, it will not be given out."
Perhaps not the best example, but I hope you get what I'm trying to illustrate. Can anyone think of other rights that the original poster should explictly reserve?
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
While I do not know the legal standard for such things, it would not be surprising for a court to treat your posted policies as legally binding agreements with the client. An attorney can help you avoid any unforseen pitfalls (e.g. Could a loophole in your warranty policy expose you to unforseen damages?). Your lawyer will also help you put in the legal boilerplate to allow you to comply with any subpeonas or warrants against a client by a third party (divorcing spouse seeking financial records, investigators wanting to search private files archived by you on the client's behalf for kiddie porn, etc.) without exposing yourself to liability.
"Prepare for the worst - hope for the best."
Yeah, I know it's lousy writing, and pedantic, and repetitive, but... it's core theme is valid. So slog though it, and take it to heart.
Communicate with your customers, partners, suppliers, and employees in clear, simple, unambiguous, TRUE language. Don't mislead by omission. Don't obfuscate. Don't hide the truth in-amongst tons of verbiage. Make sure the letter of your message is the same as the spirit of your message. Don't hide behind legalities and technicalities. Say what you mean, and mean what you say.
Made a product or provide a service. Become profitable then leve it alone. It seems like every company, including my own wants to wrench out every penny they can out of consumers. They tend to forget they are consumers too. They are just hurting themselves. I guess going public has a lot to do with it. The more the comapny makes the bigger the dividends the more likely the CEO is to keep his job. Bummer.
Funny... p2p stats seem to indicate that the most-traded songs are precisely the 'samey' 'generic' RIAA-propped 'artists' that are suffering the largest slump in sales(only top 10 pop album sales are down, all other genres are up).
this more indicates the public's dissatisfaction with the single-driven nature of pop albums. $20 an album, and only 2 or 3 songs they like is just not a good deal anymore. though they're angry with the legal distribution channels, the download statistics show that most people -do- actually prefer what's on the radio.
but the RIAA is no more abhorrent than WalMart to the consumer. They aren't customers in search of the best product, or an outlet that deals only in the highest quality goods. They are customers in search of the best deal. That WalMart and the RIAA are only middle-men peddling 'good enough' simply doesn't matter. The only difference between the acceptance of the two, is that one of these anticompetitive monsters isn't providing the best deal anymore.
SCO on the other hand is simply trying to -steal- Linux. they don't want to -kill- linux. they want to get rich off it. whether SCO has a legitimate product or not doesn't matter to the OS-buying public. they aren't revolting, they're waiting to see if they have to recalculate their ROI.
the people who -are- revolting are the community that supports Linux, and the companies that have given away their work to that commmunity. the OS consumer doesn't seem to have their dander up, they're just waiting for the smoke to clear. Only those with something to lose from SCO appropriating their hard work, or charging fees they don't have the resources to pay are reacting.
True, consumers always recognize quality products. BMW, Apple, DeWalt -- these are recognized names that are synonymous with quality in their fields. Yet they are also not market leaders in the consumer arena.
one would be wise not to underestimate the market's tolerance for an inferior product, if it's cheap enough.
// "Can't clowns and pirates just -try- to get along?"