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Messy Business: An Ethics Dilemma

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Zahara Khan Program Lead, SEDP| Silver Jubilee Development Agency Karachi, Sindh, Pakistan
Your small company based in a developed, industrialized nation would like to do business in a developing country, and the most expedient method requires collaboration with a larger, local firm or NGO. It is well-known that this developing country offers no legal protection for intellectual property and the local collaborator is likely to add your company’s intellectual property to their own knowledge and product base without compensating your firm. They consider this activity to be a normal practice.

You are the decision-maker for the small company. The potential situation violates your personal ethical standards, but the issue in question is a business matter. You recognize that the local organizations are operating according to their cultural, legal and business environment. What do you do? Accommodate to the local environment or pass on the business opportunity? How do you weigh and measure the risk? How much of your decision is financial versus ethics-driven? What factors are you weighing? How do you decide?
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