Business Ethics and the Fyre Festival: A Case Study Analysis

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of the Fyre Festival, focusing on the ethical failures that led to its disastrous outcome. It examines the lack of ethical considerations from the organizers' perspective, including CEO Billy McFarland and co-organizer Ja Rule, and their impact on various stakeholders such as customers, suppliers, and legislators. The report delves into the ethical implications of the event's promotion, financial mismanagement, and overall lack of transparency. It analyzes the festival through different ethical frameworks, such as individualism, Kantianism, utilitarianism, and virtue theory, to highlight the ethical breaches. The report concludes with recommendations on how Fyre Media could have promoted ethics within their organization, emphasizing the vital role of ethical decision-making in business and its impact on brand image, profitability, and stakeholder relationships.

FYRE FESTIVAL

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
ANALYSIS......................................................................................................................................1
Whether organizers of Fyre festival thought ethics to their one of the main priorities...............2
Whether customers of the organization think ethics should be one of the main priorities of the
organization.................................................................................................................................2
Whether suppliers of the Fyre festival though that ethics should be main priority.....................3
Whether legislators think that ethics should be main priority of the organization......................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................4
RECOMMENDATIONS.................................................................................................................4
REREFENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Business ethics can be defined as implementation of business practises and polices
related to potential controversial subjects that includes corporate governance, corporate social
responsibility, fiduciary responsibilities and many more. Other than this business ethics within an
organization helps in including discrimination issues, inequality issues etc. Business ethics of an
organization help a company to ensure basic level of trust between them, their customers and
other participants of the business (Purwanto and et. al., 2019). It helps the customers of an
organization to develop an understanding that they will receive fair and equal treatment from the
organization. It is one of the most important things which is required to be focus upon by
organization. It not only helps in guarantying public of fair treatment and business operations but
also develops and maintain a significant level of social responsibility that further helps in
maintaining brand image and benefits the business in a certain way. Focusing upon business
ethics can help an organization in attracting a greater number of customers which can further
help them to enhance their overall sales and profit, increases overall employee retention rate and
reduce employee turnover rate. This case study is about Fyre Festival that was due to took place
in 2016. It was a luxury musical event that was launched by CEO of Fyre Media and hip- hop
artist Ja Rule. This was dur to took place upon Bahamas island. It was a luxurious event in which
offered price ranged from $500 to $250,000. But due to poor communication and mis
management this event was a complete disaster and as an emergency step this event was
cancelled at the very end moment. As a result, company had suffered various kinds of law suits
including $100 million class action suit. There are various organizations that do organize such
kind of luxurious events but with complete planning and expert advice and only after full proof
planning these events are organized. Fyre Media committee one mistake that was even after
expert advice of delaying event by 1 year this event was carried out. This report will lay
emphasis upon business ethics that should have been focused upon by Fyre Media in organizing
such kind of high budget luxurious event.
ANALYSIS
In every sector, business ethics are one of the most important things which is required to
be focused upon by the organizations (Gilbert, Childers and Boatwright, 2020). These ethics are
one of the main factors that helps organization to maintain or enhance their brand name and
image, develop and maintain their relationship with their customers, suppliers and with other
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people associated with the business. Organizations that only focus upon revenue and profitability
without adopting ethics can never achieve success. this analysis will focus upon business ethics
from different point of views. This analysis will focus upon following factors such as:
Whether organizers of Fyre festival thought ethics to their one of the main priorities
This Fyre Festival controversy clearly explains that Ethics was never one of the main
priority of organizers, Billy McFarland. If he would have thought that ethics should be main
priority of their organization then he would have postponed the festival when his experts had
advised him that this kind of festival would require at least one year for organizing this festival at
such a large scale. Organizers of the event promoted this event with the help of social media
influencers without disclosing that they were being compensated. It was not only against ethics
of the organization but was also against federal law violation. This can be explained with the
help of a concept of individualism (Goanta and Ranchordás, 2020). IT is an ethical concept in
which an organization is expected to do things that are best for them as well as for their
stakeholders. According to this concept a business should definitely focus upon making profit
but they should do it ethically. As per individualism perspective Fyre festival was a disaster.
Organizers of Fyre festival clearly did not focus upon organizing the festival ethically because of
which company flew straight towards bankruptcy and at last they collapsed financially. Not only
the organizers but all the investors were also scammed out of their money. If the organizers of
the festival would have thought of organizing this festival by keeping business ethics in mind of
even if they would have made their customers aware of the situation and refunded their money
on time then the disaster this event had created would have been avoided. Due to lack of focus
upon ethics by the organizers of the Fyre festival then the drastic impact upon all the
stakeholders of the festival could have been avoided.
Whether customers of the organization think ethics should be one of the main priorities of the
organization
Yes, the customers of the organization think that their main priority should always be
ethics. They should have organized the festival ethically and should have created a transparency
about reality of the festival organizing (Roberts, 2020). Company was well aware of the situation
of the festival they were even aware that the villas or hotels are way out of their budget and they
will not be able to provide customers with the same then in such case they should have made
their customers well aware about the situation and condition of the festival. Instead of cancelling
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the festival at the very end moment after their guest arrived, they should have cancelled the event
much earlier before arrival of guest to Bahamas. When they were doing promotions though
social networking promoters should have made transparency with the customers. they should
have listened to their experts when they said that this type of event require much more time and
cannot be organized properly in a very short notice. All the customers who had filed a case of
fraud upon the organization said that company should have followed basic general company
ethics and should have developed transparency i.e. organization should not have kept the them in
blind fold (Holden and Ehrlich, 2017). Customers think that the company themselves is
responsible for bankruptcy condition of their organization. This can be explained with the help of
Kantianism. It is an ethical concept that all the actions must be done rationally for right reason
without using people as a means to an end. None of the event of fyre festival were rational and
failed to provide relaxation to their customers with entertainment. All the customers thought that
they were used only for their money and were treated as afterthought when they should have
been treated as a primary concern.
Whether suppliers of the Fyre festival though that ethics should be main priority
All the suppliers of the festival also thought that the main concern of the organization
should have been ethics. All the caters of the festival clearly explained that the buffet would not
be able to arrange with the budget specified by them and they clearly said that it would not be
arranged so the organization only arranged a sandwich for their guest. They should have clearly
focused upon making arrangements with their caterers so that buffet can be arranged. Ja Rule is a
Hip- hop artist and he clearly did not think that company should have focused upon ethics or
ethics should have been one of the main priorities of the organization as he was one of the co-
organizers of the event (Winship, 2020). If he would have thought about ethics being one of the
main priorities that he would have taken an initiative to cancel the even by knowing the current
condition of the event. He only thought of maximum profit for all the stakeholders who are
involved but miserably failed to do so. This can be explained with the help of utilitarianism
ethical theory. The main goal of this theory is to focus upon happiness of everyone who is
involved like all stakeholders. All the main stakeholders of the festival including suppliers like
caterers, artist, organizers tried to keep everyone happy but failed miserably.
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Whether legislators think that ethics should be main priority of the organization
Legislators did think that Fyre media should have focused upon business ethics and should
have made ethics their main priority. Fyre media had undergone various kinds of lawsuits in
which they had to face various allegation’s such as fraud, breech of contract and many more.
They had faced almost eight cases for defrauding ticket buyers (Fiero, 2018). Main organizers of
Fyre festival were also brought against court by FBI. Not only this they had to face $100 million
class action suit in California because of which the was forced to bankruptcy though US
bankruptcy court. Court, FBI and US bankruptcy court pledged Fyre media guilt on the basis of
four main traits of ethics that are: courage, honesty, temperance, justice as they had none of
them. This can be explained with the help of virtue theory which says that intentions of good
character were based upon four traits. FYRE media lack in honesty, had no self-restraint used
and did not do justice with their guest (Edgmon, 2019). Legislator do think that Fyre media did
had any of these trains then a smaller number of people would had been affected because of this
festival and company might not had gone under bankruptcy.
CONCLUSION
From the above analysis of the report it has been summarized that Fyre media did not
focus upon organizing Fyre festival in an ethical manner. They only focused upon making profits
from this festival. Despite of advice of experts that such kind of events require at least a year to
be organized in a proper and accurate manner. Despite of this advice they tried to organize such
kind of events within a matter of weeks. Organizers of the event tried to do promotion of the
event on social media but did not focus upon maintaining transparency within them and their
guest. They did have an idea that accommodations for the guest cannot be done arranged in the
allotted budget and they arranged tents for the guest. Not only this in order to cut the cost they
provided pre packed sandwiches to the guest. They should have cancelled the festival initially
only and should also have maintained transparency with the guest. This could have reduced the
damage that had occurred and a smaller number of people would have been affected.
RECOMMENDATIONS
This analysis of Fyre festival have helped in explaining that what kind of vital and
important role does ethics have in an organization. Completing a task or activity by adhering all
kinds of business ethics not only helps in increasing successful completion of a task but also
helps in increasing overall profitability for the organization and its brand image as well. Here are
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few recommendations that could have helped Fyre Media to promote ethics within their
organization.
 All the stakeholders of the organization should have boycotted the unethical decisions taken
by the organization (Roberts, 2020). They could have raised an issue and should have made
the organizers of the event aware about the ethical dilemma and issue that can be faced by
the organization in future. Investors of the festival should have made the organization aware
about the failure of the unethical decision taken by the organization.
 Investors of the festival should have taken action in the middle and should have made Fyre
media aware of the unethical ways they are adopting to organize the event and despite of this
effort if the organizers would not have cancelled the event at initial stage then they should
have stopped funding the event. This would have made the company realize their unethical
actions and they would have cancelled the event.
 Workers of the event should have made the organization realize about four main traits of
ethics that are courage, honesty, temperance, justice and ways in which they can adopt all of
these traits (Thornton, 2018). Investors of the organization could have shown another way of
enhancing their brand image and retaining their customers by showing them ethical way of
organizing such a huge event so that organization could have adopted new way of organizing
event in an ethical manner.
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REREFENCES
Books and Journals
Edgmon, M., 2019. Building a Music Festival: Understanding Media Industry Lore.
Fiero, J.D., 2018. Music Festival Insolvencies: What Happens When the Music Stops?. American
Bankruptcy Institute Journal. 37(4). pp.48-82.
Gilbert, L.G., Childers, C. and Boatwright, B., 2020. Fyre Festival: The good, the bad, the ugly
and its impact on influencer marketing.
Goanta, C. and Ranchordás, S., 2020. The regulation of social media influencers: an
introduction. In The Regulation of Social Media Influencers. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Holden, J.T. and Ehrlich, S.C., 2017. Esports, skins betting, and wire fraud
vulnerability. Gaming Law Review. 21(8). pp.566-574.
Purwanto, M.R., and et. al., 2019. Study the importance of business ethics and ethical marketing
in digital era. Journal of Critical Reviews. 6(5). pp.150-154.
Roberts, A.J., 2020. False Influencing. Georgetown Law Journal. 109(1).
Roberts, A.J., 2020. False Influencing. Georgetown Law Journal. 109(1).
Thornton, C.E., 2018. Intimacy issues: a content analysis of intimacy levels and engagement
rates between celebrities and influencers (Doctoral dissertation).
Winship, V., 2020. Private Company Fraud. University of Illinois College of Law Legal Studies
Research Paper, (20-13).
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