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RSS FeedWas Whole Foods CEO John Mackey using business smarts or acting unethically when he promoted his company through an online alias?
Results so far:
| Unethical | 49% | 41 votes | Total: 84 votes | |
| Smart | 51% | 43 votes |
Unethical
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Add to FavoritesJohn Mackey's behavior definitely should not be described as being smart. Wasn't his alias his wife's name spelled backwards. How unimaginative and uncreative. Seriously, I think a third grader could come up with a better plan for how to acheive the same ends.
That aside I'm not sure how ethics has anything to do with intelligence. There are plenty of people who are very intelligent and very unethical and many simple minded people who are saintly. Then there are those like Mackey who are not intelligent or ethical.
Anyone who argues that his subversive scam was pretty clever should go back to middle school because that's the same type of crap that gets pulled there. Let's just spread a whole bunch of rumors about the other guy so that he's not as popular. Honestly the best way he could think of to push past the competition was to pretend he was someone else and trash talk them, how immature. If the embarrassment alone from hatching such a hair brained idea and attempting to execute it isn't enough to dissuade any other would be John Mackey's then lets hope that people can realize how unethical his behavior was and how it works to the benefit of no one but Mackey. His company already had an unheard of market share and his greed and monopolistic visions pushed him to this. What was his next step? Was he going to roll back prices so that we can all enjoy his ultra healthy product? Of course not, the only thing he did was to endanger the future of whole and organic supermarkets. I think any consumer of whole or organic foods is lucky that he got caught because his intelligence probably would have driven the company straight into the ground.
The only thing I can really do is shake my head and wonder. I will admit it was a ballsy move but it doesn't take a genius to realize that balls alone don't get you as far as they once did, and we're all the better because of that.
Learn more about this author, Sol Rayos.
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Smart
How many commercials have you seen by a business blatantly bashing its competition? For example, Altel has a new commercial every month with those guys who each represent one of their competitors. Fast food companies do it all the time. Why was what Mackey did so different? Companies use everything from sex to plain exaggeration to outsell there competition and sell everyday items, EVERYDAY. Advertising alone is suggestive, manipulative, and misleading yet leads to billions in sales every year. Now that's unethical.
While I could provide a very convincing argument on the "unethical" side of this debate, I honestly feel that many businesses often behave in such a manner and are just more subtle or simply haven't gotten caught yet. This has been going on in some form or another since the beginning of "doing business." Does that make it ethical? Of course not. But can we blame Mackey? Not really.
Mackey's being accused of purposely misrepresenting his identity in attempt to deceive people. Since when does using an alias mean "purposely deceive?" That's perfectly normal and expected in the online world. I'm sure half the writers on Helium have some sort of nickname. I do and I've used it for 10 years now. So am I trying to purposely deceive people? Not at all.
Learn more about this author, Tamara Michelle.
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