Last week, Luis Aldofo Cardona delivered a speech here at the UW-Madison. He told of his experiences with the Coca-Cola company in his native Colombia and how it was complicit in the killings of his union brethren because they went on strike at the popular drink's bottling plant. Cardona is now touring America telling his side of a potential blockbuster story.
And what if it is true? What if Coca-Cola's claims that those events were simply internal Colombian problems are lies? Well, as it turns out, the UW System has an exclusive contract with this business, so someone is going to have to think of something, should the rumors be proved factual.
In this scenario, some would demand that the school cut all ties with Coca-Cola and that nobody buy its product anymore. This is unrealistic at best because the fact of the matter is UW-Madison is already involved with companies with spotty track records. Anyone who heads to Camp Randall Saturday morning sees a team clad in Adidas jerseys; over the years more than a few people have accused this shoe giant of forcing both adults and children into deplorable sweatshops with little pay. This unpleasantry, however, is ignored by most.
And herein lies the problem. Too many students at this great institution of higher education are completely apathetic in regards to issues like these. Maybe Adidas and Coca-Cola do not deserve boycotts-that is up to the individual-but then again maybe the troubles surrounding them are important enough to not be ignored.
Then again, we are a people whose lives revolve around convenience. Let's assume that Cardona is completely right and that Coca-Cola was involved in the killings of people for profit. In this scenario, most people on this campus are far more likely to put such news to the back of their minds, because it is easier to not think about it than to be indignant and have to pick a different drink at lunch.
People constantly complain about how \business ethics"" is a contradictory term, how it is disgustingly unethical to profit by paying minimum wage to workers in Southeast Asia and how they do not understand how those up top can conduct their respective businesses in this way. It is ironic that these same people who ignore issues out of convenience wonder how these problems occur.
The solution to this problem is not apparent. Students can be taught a plethora of things, but they cannot be taught a sense of right and wrong. This is a character issue, and at some point every individual must decide where they will draw the moral line. For many business heads out there, that line goes as far as the dollar sign.
No solution to this problem can be present, but here is a start. UW-Madison's School of Business, among many others, can begin to tackle these issues. Teach that maximizing profits is not always the way to go and that the wealth of those on top should not be a result of the exploitation of those below. At some point, the heads of Coca-Cola and Adidas, if the rumors are true, decided to abandon ethics and increase their own well-being (not the company's, as the blue-collar workers will not see an extra dime as a result of their bosses' duplicity).
Currently, UW-Madison does offer some business ethics courses, but they do not pertain to these real-world issues. The school should educate students in something that could or does apply to them, like the already mentioned issues, rather than hypothetical or off-topic scenarios that they could not care less about.
Honorable behavior must be developed early on in life, not after a person makes his way up in the world and is escorted by a fleet of ""yes-men"" wherever he goes. Though the university may not be guilty of distributing Coke, it is certainly guilty of negligence if it does not make a serious effort to teach its students that success in the business world is only as praiseworthy as the route taken to get there. No, it's not a solution-only a start.
