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> 3. Should a company headquartered in Canada follow the same letter of the law in other countries where bribe is a pre-requisite to business success? What if

> 3. Should a company headquartered in Canada follow the same letter of the law in other countries where bribe is a pre-requisite to business success? What if they contributed to getting someone locked up without cause and/or tortured or even disappeared in a country where that was commonplace (or if not commonplace, known to happen)? Even if it's the remote government doing it, if it was started at the behest of that company, is that okay? If that's not okay, why are bribes? Where's the line drawn if there's a distinction? This one is actually pretty tricky in my eyes, because it's not inconceivable that this gets used to punish some companies for allowing more liberal local customs. What if your company doesn't hire a minority in a remote company because they are repressed and not allowed to work. If one of them approaches your company for a job, are you allowed to turn them down because the law of the region disallows them working, or do the laws in your base country regarding equality come into play and you need to consider them? I think a lot of companies are dealing with a moral variation of this with China right now. Do you do business with China and honor their laws regarding information access, or do you refrain from doing business because of that. It's a very old question, is it better to stay involved with an organization you believe to be corrupt so you can enact change from the inside, or do you remove access your services or abilities to punish them for that corruption? It's made harder by the fact that a sizable portion of the population (in the west at least) seems to think that only one of those is correct, and doing the other helps perpetuate the problem. Unfortunately, they can't seem to decide which is which. > 7. Will there be lower quality c-suits because of the inherent risk of going to prison in that country? That seems like it would depend on how you judge quality. If quality doesn't consider willingness to bribe, or considers it a positive, then I'm sure quality would decrease. Otherwise, there's probably a lot of factors to consider.

Gpetrium 8y ago
These are all points that society has to think about, I am playing the devil's advocate to ensure people don't jump on their soap box without considering some of the real impacts it can have to you and your society in the long run simply because they are thinking from a single perspective. I will now respond to your comments: If your business doesn't take part in it, someone else or another country will. They will then have more resources and revenue to potentially become leaders in that area and in the long run, purchase the company from your country or outbid them in most environments. Also, if you have skin in the game, you may have more power to change their actions and get these actors to follow some of the rules and beliefs your country has. It is very tough to find where to draw the line, it is also true that lines are constantly moving depending on the beliefs of society and other nations. Your third paragraph looks great and is on point. You have made a good point regarding (7), I think it is worth adding that today we may talk about bribe, tomorrow there will be another unethical proponent and so on. At some point you may have so many laws and regulations (it already happens in some areas) that it becomes near impossible to take certain types of risks without breaching another law that even your lawyers are not aware of. For someone in management position, why would you take the next step in your career if it comes with 10x more risks to your life, including imprisonment?

Gpetrium 8y ago

These are all points that society has to think about, I am playing the devil's advocate to ensure people don't jump on their soap box without considering some of the real impacts it can have to you and your society in the long run simply because they are thinking from a single perspective. I will now respond to your comments: If your business doesn't take part in it, someone else or another country will. They will then have more resources and revenue to potentially become leaders in that area and in the long run, purchase the company from your country or outbid them in most environments. Also, if you have skin in the game, you may have more power to change their actions and get these actors to follow some of the rules and beliefs your country has. It is very tough to find where to draw the line, it is also true that lines are constantly moving depending on the beliefs of society and other nations. Your third paragraph looks great and is on point. You have made a good point regarding (7), I think it is worth adding that today we may talk about bribe, tomorrow there will be another unethical proponent and so on. At some point you may have so many laws and regulations (it already happens in some areas) that it becomes near impossible to take certain types of risks without breaching another law that even your lawyers are not aware of. For someone in management position, why would you take the next step in your career if it comes with 10x more risks to your life, including imprisonment?