Promoted to the Manager of Global Expansion
You have been promoted to the Manager of Global Expansion. The executive team in your company has made a decision to expand into two countries, which has become your first priority. Your first obstacle came when the governments of these two countries delayed approval of the expansion plans. You held a meeting with your employees to brainstorm on how to overcome the delay. One of your employees who has done business in these countries before suggests that if you offer a bribe to the government official, any future deals will go much smoother. Without a bribe, you might lose the deal altogether. This is a normal practice in these countries and is not considered to be illegal.
After the meeting, consider whether or not your company should agree to pay a bribe and why or why not?
offering bribes could damage the reputation of the business and cause mistrust from potential partners or customers. This could hurt the brand's credibility both locally and internationally, leading to decreased interest in its products or services. Additionally, bribery creates an unfair playing field for other businesses that do not partake in such activities and may lead to legal repercussions including fines or even jail time for those involved.
Moreover, paying a bribe does not necessarily guarantee success either; there are no guarantees that the government official will stay true to his/her word or perform as promised even after receiving money under-the-table. Furthermore, engaging in this kind of activity carries an inherent risk since any evidence of it can be used by authorities against your company later on down the line – thus placing corporate executives at high personal risk due to their involvement with such activities.
Instead of resorting to bribe payments as proposed by one employee at your meeting, there are other more ethical approaches that you can take instead which reflect positively on your company’s image while still achieving results efficiently without breaking any laws – such as building relationships with government officials through networking events or providing additional incentives (other than monetary) that would make them interested in supporting your expansion plans without having to resort into bribery practices which might end up doing more harm than good anyways when it comes down long-term sustainability for your business endeavors abroad.