Prelims

Half Title Page

Ethics and Hidden Greed

Endorsements

Praise for Ethics and Hidden Greed

I find the argument in this book highly interesting. It may apply to the general public, or find use in academic environments.

Most commercial enterprises engage in greedy and unethical tactics – knowingly or unknowingly. This text is seminal work in understanding the evolution of commercial greed, its sources, root causes, and even intergenerational sources. The authors focus on the often-unethical methods, tactics, and traps deployed by commercial enterprises to seize excess rent from unsuspecting buyers. The book casts sunshine on less-than-ethical behaviors by applying the Cambridge Utilitarianism ethical approach and a clear framework which also addresses soulless technologies such as AI and powerful tech monopolies. This offers buyers insight and countertactics to avoid being cheated.

Finally, it shows why unethical strategies are ultimately value debasing.

Professor Raul L. Katz, Columbia University, New York.

The world continues to change, raising questions about ethics, which perhaps we do not even know to ask. This provocative book reminds us, especially those whose faith leads them to seek a just society, to constantly keep vigil in the emerging corporate and technological world.

The Rev Richard Witt, Executive Director, Rural & Migrant Ministry. Former Chaplain at Vassar College. In 2022 Richard was named by the City and State of New York as one of its top 100 faith leaders.

Most commercial enterprises sometimes deploy greedy and unethical tactics – knowingly or unwittingly. This text is inspiring work in understanding the evolution of commercial greed, its sources, root causes, and even intergenerational sources. The authors focus on the often-unethical methods, tactics, and traps deployed by commercial enterprises to seize excess rent from unsuspecting buyers. The book casts sunshine on less-than-ethical behaviors by providing examples and a clear framework. This offers buyers insight and counter-tactics to avoid being cheated.

This work helps to find the path between ethical and strategically sound tactics and those that are short term and unethical. It shows why unethical strategies are ultimately value debasing. That is true increasingly as soulless technologies such as AI and powerful tech monopolies fall into the heavy gravitational pull of greed. As a result, ethical leadership is needed more than ever.

Daniel E. Aks, President and CEO, Undertone, Inc. before that, Chairman and CEO, Antenna International.

Unethical and greedy behavior can be found in the market, and within companies.

I have found that many companies are not aware of all material unethical behavior by employees, until it becomes a legal liability. This book shows how to spot unethical behaviors which have evolved to be less obvious, and so harder to detect. This is requisite knowledge for attorneys – and particularly corporate counsel. Finally, the authors have shown how classic ethics are a tool which can go beyond legal guidelines and result in fairer, more profitable and humane practices. A must-read.

Bruce Cranner, Partner at Talley, Anthony, Hughes and Knight, Member of the Louisiana Bar, Board Member, Louisiana Association of Defense, Federation of Defense and Corporate Counsel, Hearing Officer for Louisiana Board of Dentistry. Former Board Member National Foundation for Judicial Excellence.

The authors have surveyed the evolution of two important technologies: Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality, in sufficient depth to identify some of the potential ethical and criminal threats posed. The book applies traditional rules of ethics to form a weapon against (sometimes covert) unethical and criminal threats to corporate governance.

Pritish Purohit, Group Head of Information Security at NinjaVan (Singapore).

This book ties together practical advice with ethical and organizational psychology. The authors outline how forms of greed drive behavior, and how different titles within a company have very different motivations: some are there to grow revenues, others are there to defend the company from financial and ethical misbehavior. Well worth a look for any CFO or manager who wants to uphold ethical standards.

Julio Zamora, Chief Financial Officer, North American Development Bank.

Title Page

Ethics and Hidden Greed

Your Defense Against Unethical Strategies and Violations of Trust

By

Rob Docters

And

Hans Gieskes

United Kingdom – North America – Japan – India – Malaysia – China

Copyright Page

Emerald Publishing Limited

Howard House, Wagon Lane, Bingley BD16 1WA, UK

First edition 2023

Copyright © 2023 Rob Docters and Hans Gieskes.

Published under exclusive licence by Emerald Publishing Limited.

Reprints and permissions service

Contact: permissions@emeraldinsight.com

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, transmitted in any form or by any means electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise without either the prior written permission of the publisher or a licence permitting restricted copying issued in the UK by The Copyright Licensing Agency and in the USA by The Copyright Clearance Center. Any opinions expressed in the chapters are those of the authors. Whilst Emerald makes every effort to ensure the quality and accuracy of its content, Emerald makes no representation implied or otherwise, as to the chapters' suitability and application and disclaims any warranties, express or implied, to their use.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-1-80455-871-3 (Print)

ISBN: 978-1-80455-868-3 (Online)

ISBN: 978-1-80455-870-6 (Epub)

List of Tables and Figures

About the Authors

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Rob Docters is the lead author of Ethics and Hidden Greed.

He has held senior positions in consulting, industry, and academia. Consulting experience includes:

• Head of Asia Enablement Center, and Pricing Team, Boston Consulting Group, in Singapore.

• Senior Vice President at Ernst & Young, and Co-Leader of the Toronto strategy practice.

• Senior Expert, McKinsey and Company, in New York, and

• Principal at Booz, Allen and Hamilton, Inc., in New York.

Corporate experience includes:

• Head of New Market Innovation, Bloomberg LLP,

• Senior Vice President of Strategy, Business Development, and Pricing at LexisNexis, and

• Executive Head of Revenue Growth, Reed Exhibitions.

Educational and professional credentials Include:

• A.B. Stanford University, 1979 (Economics); J. D. The College of William and Mary, School of Law (1982); M. B. A. Columbia University, School of Business (1984)

• Member, New York Bar

• Lecturer in Management, Yale University, School of Management (2017 and 2018). Taught courses as part of the marketing core. He has also taught at the National University of Singapore.

Rob is the primary author of two influential books on pricing strategy: Contextual Pricing and Winning the Profit Game, which were published in the United States, Germany, Norway, and China. These books are assigned as supplementary texts at several leading universities. He has authored over 24 articles for peer-reviewed publications, including the groundbreaking “Pricing as a Language” in the Journal of Business Strategy, and EMBA.

Rob is a competitive yachtsman, and lives with his wife and dog. His email address is RDocters@AbbeyLLP.com.

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Hans Gieskes is coauthor of Ethics and Greed.

Hans has been turn-around CEO and Chairman of companies in a range of industries, such as information services, publishing, and data and professional services.

Relevant professional experiences include:

• LexisNexis Group. President and CEO

• Houghton Mifflin Publishing Co. (Boston). Chairman and CEO

• Elsevier (London and Amsterdam). CEO Elsevier UK and EVP roles at Elsevier Group

• Cision.com Group (Stockholm). CEO

• Monster.com (Boston). President

• OneOcean.com Group (London). Chairman

• AXIO Data Group. (London). Chairman

• Non-Executive Director for a dozen VC backed start-ups and other companies

• Leadership involvement in 30 major M&A transactions worldwide, two of which greater are than $1.6B

Educational Credentials Include:

• Netherlands Institute for Marketing, BA (1982)

• Henley Management College – The Senior Course (1988)

Other:

• Honorary Consul for Kingdom of The Netherlands

Hans and his wife spend their time in Boston, MA, upstate NY, and Hilton Head Island SC

Acknowledgments

The authors would like to thank and acknowledge the contributions of: Nancy Lothrop, Leonie Gieskes, Stephen Lipton, Gordon Daily, Pritish Purohit, Bruce Cranner, Pam Docters, Bill Moran, Vicky Baker, Peter Garand, Mr Muffin, Ade van Duyn, Dan Aks, Martijn Gieskes, Julio Zamora, Dan Jansenson, Michael Barzelay, Mark Nevins, J. M. Izaret, Paul Brown, Petra Recter, Larry Oliver, Patrick Thiede, Phebe Prescott, Ursula Moran, Linda Sullivan, Gayle Maurin, Meryl Moss, and Kirsty Woods. These individuals all offered new insight and corrections.