[Cialug] Mandriva - open letter to Steve Ballmer

[Dave J. Hala Jr.]

I don't really know what Ballmer did. But after reading the Mandriva
"open letter" it would appear that Francios thinks Ballmer did something
unethical. Also remember that ethics are "relative"

Bribing officials in Nigeria probably isn't any different than making
large campaign contributions in the US. Granted, I think its wrong, but
one wonders if I had the resources, would it be a viable business
practice? When was the last time you saw a business person go to jail
for making campaign contributions to a legislator that was friendly
toward the contributing company?


:) Dave




On Fri, 2007-11-02 at 09:16 -0500, Nathan Stien wrote:
> On Nov 2, 2007 9:06 AM, Dave J. Hala Jr. <dave at 58ghz.net> wrote:
> > Its really about ethics. Business is business and there are people that
> > will do *whatever* it takes to get the job done. Of that group of
> > people, there are some where ethics isn't considered.
> 
> Ok, so in your view has Balmer committed an ethics violation?  If so,
> what was it?  He clearly got the job done one way or another.
> 
> In the case of bribing officials, I presume you would find ethical fault there.
> 
> But as a hypothetical, let's just say he phoned up the Nigerians and
> through sheer salesmanship convinced them they'd be better off with
> Windows, and they bought it.  Would his conduct in this case be
> unethical?
> 
> Is there any other means, ethical or unethical, by which he could have
> closed this deal?  I'd be curious to hear other speculations.
> 
> - Nathan
> _______________________________________________
> Cialug mailing list
> Cialug at cialug.org
> http://cialug.org/mailman/listinfo/cialug