Will there ever be an end to corporate corruption scandals?

renata

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Et tu, Coca Cola?

I am crushed!

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/South/06/18/coke.lawsuit.ap/index.html

Coca-Cola Co. admitted that employees rigged a marketing test of Frozen Coke at Burger King, as a former manager alleged last month in a whistleblower lawsuit.

An internal Coke document filed as part of the suit said an outside consultant was hired to spend up to $10,000 to boost demand for Frozen Coke and other frozen drinks during the test three years ago in Richmond, Virginia.

Steven Heyer, Coke's president and chief operating officer, apologized in a letter late Tuesday to Burger King CEO Brad Blum.

"These actions were wrong and inconsistent with the values of the Coca-Cola Co.," Heyer wrote. "Our relationships with Burger King and all of our customers are of the utmost importance to us and should be firmly grounded in only the highest-integrity actions."

.....

Miami-based Burger King said it was disappointed by the manipulation and is continuing its own probe. The fast-food chain is among Coke's largest customers, and according to the lawsuit, the Richmond promotion resulted in a $65 million Frozen Coke investment by Burger King.

......
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Will there ever be an end to corporate corruption scandals?

Yeah, verily. The lion shall lie down with the lamb. The PLO and Mossad will have a pig roast to ◊◊◊◊◊◊◊◊ about the good old days.
British Airways shall brew a decent cup of coffee. There shall be lightnings and signs in the Heavens.

And the dead shall rise up, waving worthless share certificates and point the finger at CEOs and false accountants, crying "Many, many shekels stolen".

(Add candles, beasts and thigs with horns. Final Trumpet.
Curtain. Exeunt Omnes).

In short, (oops!. Renata) one has one's doubts.




Edited for typo, but I shall leave "thigs". There may well be thigs.
 
When greed and ego are the big motivators, stuff like this will happen.

And when aren't greed and ego the big motivators behind any size company?
 
Blaming myself for poor choice of topic title

Actually, I thought the Coke bit was really funny. Coke is one of the quintessential American companies and they rigged market tests to sell slushies. Somehow it seems much funnier than Global Crossing or Enron. Probably does not seem too funny to SEC or Bruger King, I guess.

What is going to be the next big corporate scandal? Did Pepsi rig the "Pepsi Challenge"? :)
 
renata said:
Did Pepsi rig the "Pepsi Challenge"? :)
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According to one of the posters here (can't remember who you are, sorry!) - Yes, they did.

The Coca-Cola was served flat and warm, while the Pepsi was ice-cold and fizzy. Allegedly.
 
Badger said:
When greed and ego are the big motivators, stuff like this will happen.

And when aren't greed and ego the big motivators behind any size company?
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Well not behind all companies - some do have other values that are held very dearly.
 
Anyone remember when McDonalds admitted its employees rigged the Monopoly scratch games? Turns out 6-8 people shared something like 85% of all the prize money. Or Lucent, Enron, Global Crossing, Savings and Loans, Junk Bonds etc etc. Corruption is eternal. My biggest problem is that the USA is obsessed with short term gains, and the executives are rewarded for failure. Lets go back a few decades where the CEO's had to rely mainly on the stock for their pay to keep them honest.
 
Darat said:


Well not behind all companies - some do have other values that are held very dearly.
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Um, ya. Sure.

I bet those values get compromised before the bottom line does.

Money is the point. If a company has to say something, or do something to keep more money coming in than going out, they tend to do whatever it takes.

To be successful in business, one must make money and look good doing it. Corporations tend to pay lip service to whatever makes them look good.

Guess how cynical I am, on a scale of 1 to 10.
 
Pepsi challenge is rigged? LOL! These are such cute corruption scandals. What is the next one going to be?
 
renata said:
Pepsi challenge is rigged? LOL! These are such cute corruption scandals. What is the next one going to be?
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While I can understand your mirth at how corporations do stupid little stuff to trick the unsuspecting consumer, the underlying risk is that one of these quaint stunts opens a can of worms that ends with hundreds or thousands of employees losing large portions of their investments due to collapse of the companies stock.

No, I didn't work for Enron.
 
Badger said:


While I can understand your mirth at how corporations do stupid little stuff to trick the unsuspecting consumer, the underlying risk is that one of these quaint stunts opens a can of worms that ends with hundreds or thousands of employees losing large portions of their investments due to collapse of the companies stock.

No, I didn't work for Enron.
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Badger,
I agree. I am not condoning it. Indeed I know millions of people lost a lot of money, and hundreds of thousands lost their livelyhoods. My commentary was only based on small items, not of course on the pervasive and dangerous corruption permeation corporate world today. If that is offensive, my apologies.
 
Badger said:


While I can understand your mirth at how corporations do stupid little stuff to trick the unsuspecting consumer, the underlying risk is that one of these quaint stunts opens a can of worms that ends with hundreds or thousands of employees losing large portions of their investments due to collapse of the companies stock.

No, I didn't work for Enron.
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Hang on a moment: You're not saying that companies shouldn't do these stupid little things because that might reveal the dreadful big things, are you?

You're not suggesting that it's better that the can of worms remains closed because of the damage it might do to employees?
 
Badger said:


Um, ya. Sure.

I bet those values get compromised before the bottom line does.

Money is the point. If a company has to say something, or do something to keep more money coming in than going out, they tend to do whatever it takes.

To be successful in business, one must make money and look good doing it. Corporations tend to pay lip service to whatever makes them look good.

Guess how cynical I am, on a scale of 1 to 10.
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I'll not disagree that you are probably right for the majority of companies however some, especially privately held companies do operate for different reasons.

Obviously companies have to make money else, eventually, they wouldn't be able to pay the bills but not all companies are willing to do whatever it takes.
 
Renata, I'm sorry. I don't mean to seem like I'm taking offense.

The dishonest nature of corporations is a sore spot with me, is all. I'll shut up now.

Richard M, no that's not what I'm getting at. My point is that the people in charge of these companies are dishonest. And it bugs me.
 
Darat, I'm not against companies making money. It's when they pretend to care about their employees and customers and the environment and health when in fact it's only a marketing ploy that I have a problem.
 
Badger said:
Richard M, no that's not what I'm getting at. My point is that the people in charge of these companies are dishonest. And it bugs me.
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Ah! I thought you must have meant something like that, but couldn't get the sense of it from what you wrote. Phew!
 
richardm said:
According to one of the posters here (can't remember who you are, sorry!) - Yes, they did.

The Coca-Cola was served flat and warm, while the Pepsi was ice-cold and fizzy. Allegedly.
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That might've been me. It happened a few years back at the Taste of Minnesota festival, and when I asked why they had let the Coke go flat, the tester merely mumbled something about how my preference would be noted, and called for the next rube.

Another fave from a while back was when the local Hardees franchises (known as Carl's Jr. in other parts of the country) posted signs touting the fact that a survey showed that Hardees french fries were the best tasting fries in all of fast-food-dom. In small print at the bottom of the signs was the fact that the group polled was made up of Hardees employees.
 
This thing with Frozen Coke doesn't surprise me. Lot's of corporations make big money decieving the public, the government, etc. Why should it come as a shock that they also deceive each other?

I think it is just a side effect of hman nature. Where there is money to be made, ther is always going to be some corruption. The more money there is, the more likely someone will decide to get his hands on it through dishonest means, sort of a corrolary to the cliche 'everyone has their price'. Since both Coke and Burger King are multi-billion dollar operations, it shouldn't come as any surprise that one tried to cheat the other.
 
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