Discussion:
Ques: Create a one-page, typed, single-spaced essay. Identify the ethical concerns in the story, if any, and discuss how the consultant potentially justified his actions.
Story:
A new college graduate hired by a small consulting firm is excited to be placed on a project that involves helping a technology start-up determine a strategy for bringing a new software product to market. The software will help large businesses run their operations more efficiently and it could potentially save them a lot of time and money. The young consultant feels lucky to have been selected to work on the project and is eager to start. At the first team meeting, he learns that his role will be to find out what the client's competitors currently charge for their software, in order to help the client decide how much to charge. This kind of software is sold through contracts that are negotiated privately between software makers and their customers, so there is no price list or other public information about how much customers pay. The young consultant is uncomfortable to learn that his role will be to contact the competitor companies and pose as a potential customer, pretending that he works at a firm that is interested in purchasing their software. After he has made some calls and met with some of the sales reps-introducing himself as a project manager for a made-up company-he stops worrying and writes a detailed report on the competitive landscape and he ends up earning a bonus for his contribution to the project. Based on the work of the consulting team, the client successfully launches the product and captures a significant share of the market.