05
Jan
07

You’ve wondered if there’s any way to rationalize picking up a tobacco company as a client

By Joshua Steimle 7 Comments Categories: You Might Be An Entrepreneur If

You might be an entrepreneur if…you’ve wondered if there’s any way to rationalize picking up a tobacco company as a client.

There are many types of companies I will never work with, and a tobacco company is just one of them. You can add alcohol, gambling/gaming/lottery, and porn companies as those I would rather than face bankruptcy than do business with. Other organizations that are in a gray area where it would depend on the details include MLM (Xango no, Stampin’ Up yes), bizopp, and politicians (I’m bipartisan–I don’t like any of them).


But there are days when I wonder if there’s some way to justify it. After all, those people are going to smoke anyway, right? And if they don’t hire my firm they’ll just hire another, right? And let’s not forget the piles and piles of money tobacco companies have acquired over the dead bodies of their customers. Why shouldn’t I take advantage of it if I can get it? I’ve got mouths to feed here at MWI, after all.

One of my associates has similar opinions, and yet his company ended up doing work for a tobacco company. An independent sales person came to them and said he/she (I don’t know which it was, but to keep it simple let’s say it was a he) had a deal he was working on with a large company and were they interested. They said sure, but he couldn’t reveal who the company was until the deal was done, lest he get cut out as the middleman.

They went through the process, and had fully committed to the project and had even bought inventory and gone into production when they found out they were doing a deal for one of the large tobacco companies. At that point they were left in the quandary of keeping their word or refusing to do work for an industry they abhorred. What would you do? Oh, and to make the decision harder, they were going to make a ton of money on the deal.

If it were me, I think I’d stick to keeping my word. And then in the future I’d make sure I knew who I was going to do business with, and if an independent sales person wouldn’t tell me then I’d at least find out what the industry was or tell the person which industries I wouldn’t do work for.

Although now that I think about it, if it were a porn company I think I’d break my word. For some reason that just goes too far for me, whereas for some reason tobacco seems different. Maybe I’m still forumulating my moral code. But seriously, what would you do in my friend’s shoes, assuming you shared his moral stance on tobacco?

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  • Scott Schlegel

    I do a lot of side work and have run into this on two occassions. Both times it happend the same, so you thing that would have I learned my lesson. I agreed to meet with a perspective client who needed some web work done. Then at the meeting the work turns out to be pronographic or online gambling. Both times I just plain walked out with out an apology. It is really ackward. No I mean really really ackward. Doing the right thing isn’t easy, but turning down garbage work has never hurt my career.

  • http://www.chrisknudsen.biz Chris

    I am aware of a Utah Internet company that struggeld until they allowed porn companies to use their software. The owners sold the business and made a boat load of money. I often wonder if they traded business success for something more important.

  • http://voxpopdesign.com/bloomburst Matthew Reinbold

    Moby, regardless of what you think of his music, has an interesting quote on this. When asked by a reporter about how he could justify “selling out” 11 of the 12 tracks on play for commercials (I think that was the number) he responded that he could (1) take the moral high ground and feel superior about himself while the commercials used different music that sounded like his anyway or (2) he could take the money that they gave him and do something positive with it; like donate it to charities or causes that otherwise wouldn’t see that money.

    While that makes a lot of sense to me I can’t bring myself to use it to justify a project I’m at odds with. If I’m not happy I’m not going to do good work; if I’m not doing good work I’m cheating both the client and myself. I agree that your friend was already committed and has an obligation to go through with the job. However, in the future perhaps they can very clearly, upfront, say that they will not work with certain kinds of companies before ‘secret’ negotiations begin. ?

    I also feel similar about tobacco vs porn – if I was facing bankruptcy I could probably justify a tobacco account but not porn on any level. Why is that? Is it a matter of social acceptance? The fact that tobacco companies also make stuff like Ritz crackers?

  • http://www.mwi.com Joshua Steimle

    Maybe my stance on tobacco vs. porn is that porn destroys families and lives on a mental/spiritual level while tobacco just kills people or makes them sick physically. A lot of people in this world would probably see tobacco as destructive and porn as relatively harmless but to me porn is causing more people to be unhappy than smoking is. Now if only Phillip Morris would buy up a bunch of porn and alcohol companies and sell it all in a combined package through a network marketing business model that’s advertised via spam and which sponsors casinos–there’s a company I could really refuse to do work for.

  • http://crowelladv.com Jeremy Votaw

    What if you were hired to do anti-smoking work with the bill footed by said Phillip Morris? That seems questionable to me as that advertising is actually somewhat geared to be ineffective.

    What if you did work for Wal-Mart? Who – despite their great entrepreneur success story – contribute greatly to unemployement and the lowering of employee valuation and compensation? Could you do work for them? They are probably responsible for hundreds of suicides every year.

    Now what if you received Big Tobacco money, as the result of a settlement, and had free reign to use that money to actually get people to stop smoking. Ah Hah! Now we have The TRUTH. And personally, I wake up with a smile on my face that I get to do great work for that great group everyday.

  • http://www.russpage.net Russell Page

    Ethics is funny because unless you just decide what you will and won’t do beforehand, then everything starts to get real easy to waffle on.

    I’m completely against porn, but I read the comments, and I see how a lot of “logic” is being used to say why it’s bad, and it’s just as easy for someone to give reasons why it’s good. Not that I would agree with them, but they can still give reasons/justification.

    The idea isn’t to give reason as to why you feel it’s right or wrong, but to just decide based on principle why it’s wrong for you. If you don’t, you’re still justifying because you’re justifiying why you won’t do work for an industry while others justify why they do. Justification is the same problem with the abortion debate. I’ve heard great reasoning for why it should be legally okay. The point is to not have that argument. If you believe it’s wrong.

    @Jeremy.I don’t see what Wal-Mart has to do with lowering employee valuation and compensation. How does a company that employs 1.6 million people contribute to unemployment? Any employee who doesn’t like what they get paid either chooses to take the pay at Wal-Mart or not take the pay and do something else. It’s the employee who ultimately chooses the pay and not Wal-Mart.

    Wal-Mart has no responsibility for what people choose. That Wal-Mart paragraph is complete nonsense and is influenced by political rhetoric in the media. Wal-Mart pays what the free market allows Wal-Mart to pay so long as it doesn’t go below a government-mandated minimum wage. And when I say free market I mean employees choose to accept the pay that Wal-Mart offers.

  • http://www.eransworld.com/blogger.htm Eran

    “Wal-Mart has no responsibility for what people choose. That Wal-Mart paragraph is complete nonsense and is influenced by political rhetoric in the media. Wal-Mart pays what the free market allows Wal-Mart to pay so long as it doesn’t go below a government-mandated minimum wage. And when I say free market I mean employees choose to accept the pay that Wal-Mart offers.” by Russell Page

    Amen brother…

    People are also able to choose where to spend their money. Cost and ease of shopping seem to rank as priorities in retail. Wal-Mat seems to be master of their domain. I personally believe their positive out weighs their negative. Then again I think mainstream media has lost touch in reporting fairly. (In my personal career I have seen enough hoaxes or half-truths to fill a book) Link http://www.answers.com/topic/wal-mart-stores-inc I read an article today on Wal-Mart trying to save energy and reduce waste but was unable to find the link. I hate to tell it to you but Wal-Mart isn’t the first or last company to offer crappy wages and little or no healthcare. I have experienced it first hand several times in my life including from a famous ultra liberal local actor who has a net worth in the $300 million range.

    I love bandwagon hatred. It seems to show the sheep in their clothes. Media says baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaad as do the rest of the sheep.

    In the 70′s everyone hated GM
    In the 80′s everyone hated IBM
    In the 90′s everyone hated Microsoft/Bill Gates
    In the 00′s everyone hates Wal-Mart
    Other notables on the list are Standard Oil, US Steel Corp, and Union Pacific
    Who is next on the ladder for Success Hate? My guess is Google?

    And yes I agree with make your choices ahead of time so when the event arises you are already prepared with your answer to moral dilemmas. In business often times decision makers fail to decide right from wrong ahead of time and get caught up in the rationalization of lower standards later. Draw your line in the sand and stick to your guns.