Charging triple on a festival day is perfectly legal. Would you be happy to see it as tomorrow's front page? This week is about the decisions that pass the law and still fail the test.
Learning objectives. After this week you can (1) analyze a decision through its stakeholders; (2) explain CSR, the triple bottom line and Carroll's pyramid; and (3) apply three simple ethical tests to a small business.
Remember this: legal is the floor, not the goal.
1) Stakeholders
The shareholder view says a business exists to maximize returns to its owners. The stakeholder view says durable businesses balance everyone affected: customers (fair prices, safe food), crew (funded wages), suppliers, the community and owners. Trade-offs are allowed; a price rise moves money from customers to owners. The test is to make them with your eyes open. Even your $25 a day of permits is a stakeholder line: the fee on your license to operate.
2) CSR and the pyramid
Corporate social responsibility (CSR) means taking those wider obligations seriously. The triple bottom line scores a firm on people, planet and profit. Archie Carroll's pyramid of CSR stacks the duties from the base up: be profitable, be legal, be ethical, and be philanthropic (give back). The order matters: a charity sponsor that underpays its own crew has built the pyramid upside down. Claiming virtue you don't practice is greenwashing.
3) Three tests for a gray-zone call
- Utility: does it create more total benefit than harm across all stakeholders?
- Rights: does it respect people rather than merely use them?
- Front page: would you be comfortable seeing it as tomorrow's headline?
Price gouging, extreme prices aimed at customers with few alternatives, fails all three. So does reporting only your best day: cherry-picking numbers is cooking the books in miniature.
4) People and planet on your Daily Report
Your report already prints a people line (Wages paid) and a planet line (Spoilage, food you bought and wasted).
Spoilage Rate = Spoilage ÷ Prep Bought × 100
A week with $24 of spoilage on $3,000 of prep bought is 24 ÷ 3,000 = 0.8%. Matching prep to demand is good operations and good for the planet at the same time.
Quick self-check
(a) Which test asks about tomorrow's headline? (b) Spoilage $15 on $600 of prep bought: spoilage rate? (c) What sits at the base of Carroll's pyramid? (Answers: the front-page test; 2.5%; being profitable.)
Common mistakes
- Treating legal as ethical. Plenty of legal choices fail every test above.
- "Everyone does it." What rivals do doesn't change what a decision does to people.
- Scoring only profit. Read your people and planet lines too.
This week in the arena
Run an ethics audit on your truck. Add up this week's Spoilage and Prep bought, and your Wages paid and revenue. Then write one rule your team will keep, such as "we fund wages before marketing," and report the audit's numbers beside it.