Business Report: Thinking Out of the Box and Ethical Considerations

This report delves into the concept of 'Thinking Out of the Box' in a business context, emphasizing the role of creativity and innovation for achieving success. It begins with an introduction that highlights the importance of creative thinking and how it differentiates successful leaders. The literature review explores how successful entrepreneurs think differently from traditional structures, emphasizing the importance of product and process innovation, and the need to experiment with new ideas, even if they challenge ethical norms. The report then examines two case studies: Cambridge Analytica's data breach scandal, and 7-Eleven's labor exploitation controversy, both illustrating ethical dilemmas that can arise from business practices. The conclusion reiterates the need for companies to act ethically while pursuing innovation for sustainable growth. The report analyzes these instances to draw conclusions about the balance between creative leadership and ethical responsibility within business environments.

Running head: THINKING OUT OF THE BOX
THINKING OUT OF THE BOX
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Table of Contents
Introduction:...............................................................................................................................2
Literature review:.......................................................................................................................2
Case study 1...............................................................................................................................4
Case study 2...............................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:................................................................................................................................7
References:.................................................................................................................................8

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Introduction:
Successful people do very common things very differently. This difference lies in the
use of creativity in what they do. The business leaders who have gained success in their fields
have gift of creativity along with proper knowledge what to do, how to do and when to do.
The fear of failure, self-defeating behavior and perfectionism inhibit creativity hence elusive.
Thinking differently includes the function of knowledge, imagination, evaluation and
curiosity. The greater is the knowledge base as well as level of curiosity, the more types of
patterns and ideas will be evolving (Greenbaum et al. 2017). These gradually correlate to
create innovative products and services. The process of different thinking, put emphasis on
the action of discovery to gain ample knowledge about the process which will be later
developed through unique thinking.
In gaining success, the business leaders follow various means which are often
unethical or unacceptable in the business moralities. The leaders or the managers of the
companies often discriminate among the workers on the basis of race or gender. They behave
harshly with the employees so that they can dominate them to increase production (Kets de
Vries 1985). In addition to this the organizations have some responsibilities to the
environment and society which they often avoid to perform. For sustainable growth, the
elements of creativity and innovation need to be matched with the companies’ actions.
Literature review:
In order to innovate, the business need to be have creative ideas and for doing so, the
business entrepreneurs need to think creatively. For being a successful entrepreneur, one
therefore needs to think differently from the traditional structure (Askew, Beisler and Keel
2015). The successful entrepreneurs always want to stay at the top of their market or the
industry. Hence they need to make some decisions which changes the structure and strategies

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of their companies. This aim of retaining the top most position in the industry, there is an
importance of product and process innovation. The leaders need to have unique ideas so that
they can innovate new business models.
According to the scholars like Overall (2016), the business leaders must not think
traditionally or need not to follow the rules or theories blindly. Thinking out of the traditional
views however have helped all the successful leaders. The rules and procedures of the
organizations are used to increase the productivity of the employees and add valued to the
current and potential customers. The successful business leaders need to experiment all new
ideas so that they can reach to more customers in a unique way. The leaders should be
experimenters, learners and then implementers of rules. To Vadastreanu, Maier and Maier
(2015), the business leaders need to try different things without fear without thinking much
about the consequences, otherwise they will not be able to achieve their expectations. The
power of creative thinking in the business leaders gradually influence their employees and
they can contribute in the development process of the companies. They may look outside of
their own industries or markets so that they can discover possible new ideas and implement
them in their own industries and in doing so, they must not be prevented by the issue of
unethical behaviors can be accepted (Effelsberg, Solga and Gurt 2014). Sometimes the
perfectionist leaders mix different ideas to create services from the current ones and develop
new products from the current products.
According to the theory of creative leadership, the leaders tend to create conditions
that promote creativity in their organizations (Kilduff et al. 2016). Creating such conditions,
often revered as supportive contributions have social material and psychological supports
which enable as well as sustain the thinking of the others. In the year 2010, the IBM Global
CEO research indicated that according to the polled CEOs, creative thinking was the most
important factor to build successful business, outranking veracity and global thinking

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(Greenbaum et al. 2017). The fear of risk averse is the chief opposing factor which limits the
innovation thinking process of the business leaders and compel them to maintain status quo.
This also lead to fear of unethical behavior which most of the business leaders do not want to
be associated with. However, the theories of creative leadership espouse that this unique
thinking process may lead to unique style of actions which affect the stakeholders but help
the business revenues greatly.
The process of fostering and sharing new ideas or implementing them in the
organizations may affect the ideology or ethical responsibilities of the organizations but for
progressing in the competitive markets, the business leaders need to act according to their
unique ideas. Searching for recognizable patterns in the disconnected domains may question
the responsibilities of the organizations or result in issues but these are all short term and the
creative leaders follow the long term goals. This helps to challenge the outer limits of
alternatives thus gaining the profits in all the disciplines. In this context the brutal work
culture of Jeff Bezos in Amazon can be referred. It is important to discuss that what he as a
successful business leader thinks and implement in his organization, may lead to have
unethical issues for the employees but this does neither hamper the revenue of Amazon nor
affect its popularity.
Case study 1.
Cambridge Analytica Ltd was a British political consulting company which was
founded by Robert Mercer, Stephen K. Bannon. The function of this company was to
combine data mining, data analysis, and data brokerage with the strategic communication for
various types of electoral process. This particular company was started in the year 2013 as a
branch of the famous SCL Group (Strategic Communication Laboratories). This company
was partially owned by family of Robert Mercer. He was an American hedge-fund manager
and supported many politically conservative causes. The another partner was Bannon who

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supported the firm in ethical way. The company maintained offices in various cities of
London, Washington, DC and New York. This case study basically revolves round the ethical
data breach by this particular company with Facebook.
The Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal includes the assortment of the personally
identifiable data of up to 87 million of Facebook users as well as almost surely a much
greater amount which this Cambridge Analytica had begun to collect since 2014. Facebook
had examined earlier in the year 2011. These data were allegedly utilized to attempt for
influencing voter opinions on behalf of the politicians as the clients who hired this company.
Following this detection, Facebook made an apology amid the public outcry which ultimately
led to fall stock prices. The problem was the way which Cambridge Analytica collected the
personally identifiable information was called inappropriate.
In December of 2015, The Guardian reported that Senator Ted Cruz of the United States, was
using information from this particular company scandal and such data was utilized for
generating more amount of polls, which eventually turned into some of the unethical
practices. In the year 2018, The media like The Guardian , The New York Times
and Channel 4 News had presented some comprehensive as well as detailed reports which
were purely based on the data scandal. This had included many unknown and new
information from some of the former Cambridge Analytica employee. It turned into
whistleblower Christopher Wylie, who provided detailed in-depth information about the data
as well as the nature of these personal information which were stolen unethically. It is also
observed that the communication among Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and who hired
Cambridge Analytica was all about the use of personal data which greatly influenced the
opinion of the voters.

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This particular scandal between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica was important for
inciting intense public discussion. This is because there are issues constantly emerging in
ethical standards for various social media companies, politicians and the political consulting
organizations. The impact of this type of actions have many aspects therefore the results were
far reaching. The consumer advocates called for a greater consumer protection in both aspects
of online media as well as right to privacy who want curb on the misinformation and political
propaganda. Despite the fact that Cambridge Analytica released statement denying that the
data obtained from Kogan were not used in the presidential campaigns of the USA, the
company was ceased in 2018, 1 May.
Case study 2.
This particular case study is associated with the convenience stores namely, 7-Eleven and its
entrepreneur Joe C. Thompson. It is one of the largest convenience as well as gas steps and
has been name the franchiser of the year in Australia. Although the minimum wage in the
employment agreement is legal but those who work for minimum wage may not be able to
manage their daily expenses. This leaves them buried in the debt hence bitter toward the
employers. This same this happened with 7-Eleven. In 2015, the media revealed that the
company owner had decided to help the thousands of international students by
employing them in the company’s stores in reduced wages (Ferguson 2018).
However, this idea was transformed into labor exploitation then the
company started to use this legal practice to reduce their labor costs. The
young and foreign labors especially the students were being grossly
underpaid sometimes their wages were 50% below the minimum wage.
This type of unethical practices was much common for many of the
companies operating in Australia. Almost more than 50% of foreign workers were

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facing these issues. This ethical controversy at this particular company was highly exploited
which led to the resignations of the chairman Russ Withers and CEO Warren Wilmot.
It had been argued that the wage fraud and labor exploitation aimed to keep the costs
down of the stores and increased profits for both the franchisees and of the parent company.
Many of the staff who used to work in the company’s stores were international students and
their visas only allowed them to work only 20 hours per week. It appeared that most of these
students had been effectually blackmailed by the company’s franchisee and threatened if they
complained to the employee unions or agencies in Australia regarding the issues of being
underpaid, they would be punished by the authorities for breaching their visa regulations
therefore would be deported. 7-Eleven Australia however, attempted to detach itself from this
problem by suggesting that this issue has been instigated by small numbers of Franchisees
and this practice is nothing new in the country. However, the problem is not limited to its
small number of Franchisees. This issue also highlights the predicaments of the franchisees,
many of whom have employees migrated to Australia. Most surprisingly, the company did
not face any punitive measure by the Australian law yet and gained success to earn profit in
the country. The franchise business model has proved not to be appropriate which can work
in the business structure of Australia. This is because the paying structure of the Franchisees
are meant to pay according to Australian Law.
Conclusion:
Therefore, it can be concluded that for gaining sustainable growth the companies need
to play fair in their fields. The elements of innovation, creativity and other unique features are
essential for successful business because the traditional ways do not provide much scope for
soaring high. Despite the fact that each and every leader want to reach their desired positions
but in doing so they do such thing which are often considered to be unethical. The case
studies of both Cambridge Analytica and 7 Eleven, the leaders wanted to have high

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productivity hence applied legal policies but somehow those became unethical according to
the business morality. As the theories of creativity analyses, the business leaders must be
unique in their thinking and identify the most exclusive ways to attain the success but can
make unethical moves to serve their own interest. The unethical behavior of paying half
wages to the international students directly hurt the business ethics of 7 Eleven, but that did
not affect their business or revenues, on the contrary, the global company Cambridge
Analytica used forced labor through their supply chain and faced failure.

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References:
Askew, O.A., Beisler, J.M. and Keel, J., 2015. Current trends of unethical behavior within
organizations. International Journal of Management & Information Systems (Online), 19(3),
p.107.
Effelsberg, D., Solga, M. and Gurt, J., 2014. Transformational leadership and follower’s
unethical behavior for the benefit of the company: A two-study investigation. Journal of
Business Ethics, 120(1), pp.81-93.
Ferguson, A. (2018). Revealed: How 7 Eleven is ripping off its workers. [online]
Smh.com.au. Available at: https://www.smh.com.au/interactive/2015/7-eleven-revealed/
[Accessed 4 May 2018].
Greenbaum, R.L., Hill, A., Mawritz, M.B. and Quade, M.J., 2017. Employee
Machiavellianism to unethical behavior: The role of abusive supervision as a trait
activator. Journal of Management, 43(2), pp.585-609.
Kets de Vries, M.F., 1985. The dark side of entrepreneurship Harvard Business Review,
Nov/Dec 1985, Vol.63(6), p.160
Kilduff, G.J., Galinsky, A.D., Gallo, E. and Reade, J.J., 2016. Whatever it takes to win:
Rivalry increases unethical behavior. Academy of Management Journal, 59(5), pp.1508-1534.
Overall, J., 2016. Unethical behavior in organizations: empirical findings that challenge CSR
and egoism theory. Business Ethics: A European Review, 25(2), pp.113-127.
Vadastreanu, A.M., Maier, D. and Maier, A., 2015. Is the success possible in compliance
with ethics and deontology in business?. Procedia Economics and Finance, 26, pp.1068-
1073.