The Marketing Manager in a small privately-held wealth advisory firm has her bonus tied directly to annual sales. The higher the sales, the bigger the bonus.
The Manager can pursue an aggressive strategy of heavy fourth-quarter advertising and product discounts that will increase the firm’s annual sales above budgeted levels and allow her to collect her bonus.
This approach, however, could mean that the firm may struggle in the first quarter of the new year as it will have less to spend on advertising. Heavy discounting may also send the message to clients that they should expect discounts (and they may delay purchases when the price isn’t cut).
What would you do? What ethical considerations would you give to your decision-making? Why? Why not?
We encourage you to post your answers in the comments so we can create a healthy discussion, with the aim of learning from our peers, becoming aware of differing perspectives and challenging our own biases.
We need more dilemmas please! If you would like to submit an ethical dilemma to feature in an upcoming weekly challenge please email: dilemma@bfso.org.
Photo by Carlos Alberto Gomez Iniguez on Unsplash
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