U.S. Says Interscope Records Used in Cocaine Ring

Hey group, I posted the article onto this post because its from Wall Street Journal and you have to be a member to read some of the full articles.

This article is about James Rosemond from the company Interscope Records and how he used his position to deal cocaine. James, known as Jimmy, is a music-industry manager. He has been transporting cocaine from California to New York while on business trips with the company. He hid the coke in the cases of the instruments and when the instruments goes to cargo it is then switched with another case that is lined with cash. Someone wrote a letter to the government, I'm guessing an employee that accidently found out what was going on, detailing Jimmy's actions. Jimmy was then taken into custody by officials and facing drug charges.

I think what Jimmy did was one of the worst an employee can ever do. He used his position to do illegal activities and make money. I am sure that he gets paid well being the manager of a famous record company. Because of his greed and selfishness he was caught and will now get punished. His actions not only tainted his name, but it tainted the name of the company that he works for. People will continue to question if others in the company was apart of this drug dealing circle or people that were not apart of it knew and just did not say anything. Interscope Records will have to make some kind of announcement to clear the company's name, but I think it will take time. Muscians are always being stereotyped as drug users and this dilemma does not help.

As a person it is wrong to do this, but to bring down the company with you is just a whole new low. He used the company's money for business traveling, he used the company's equipment to transport the drugs, and he would do this during company events which uses the company's name. This is a GREAT example of a horrible, unethical employee of the month.

-Tina Nguyen

By ETHAN SMITH

The record company that distributes the music of U2 and Lady Gaga was used by a drug-trafficking ring as a way station for cases stuffed with cocaine and vacuum-packed $20 bills, according to federal prosecutors.
The allegation was contained in a letter detailing evidence against James Rosemond, a music-industry manager who was indicted in June on drug-trafficking and related charges. Mr. Rosemond, who goes by the nickname "Jimmy Henchmen," has been in custody since shortly after his indictment.
His lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, said he hasn't sought bail for his client, but denied the charges against him. Mr. Lichtman said he hadn't reviewed the evidence laid out in the prosecutors' Sept. 12 "discovery letter," which, like the 20-count indictment, was filed with the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, N.Y.
The letter doesn't assert that employees of Interscope Records, a division of Vivendi SA's Universal Music Group and one of the biggest record labels in the world, knew of or were involved in the alleged drug shipments. A Universal Music spokesman had no immediate comment.
According to the filing, between January 2010 and June 2011, members of Mr. Rosemond's organization used "road cases" made for musical equipment to send cocaine from Los Angeles to New York. On return trips, the same kinds of cases were stuffed with hundreds of thousands of dollars in cash, the filing said. The filing was reported Thursday by the Smoking Gun news website.
The cases were shipped by Rockit Cargo Ltd., which specializes in transporting music gear, though the filing didn't claim the shipper was aware of the containers' contents. Rockit's general counsel, Roberta Yang, declined to comment.
The letter doesn't detail how members of Mr. Rosemond's organization were believed to have gotten access to Interscope's Los Angeles-area headquarters to drop off and retrieve the shipments.
Among the acts managed by Mr. Rosemond and his firm, Czar Entertainment, is the Game, a rapper who is signed to Interscope Records, according to the firm's website.
The ring allegedly used a recording studio in New York at the other end of the drug and cash shipments.
Interscope Chairman Jimmy Iovine, long a high-profile executive within the music industry, has recently become something of a household name thanks to "American Idol," which he joined last season to provide creative guidance to contestants.

Penn State football scandal will cost millions

http://money.cnn.com/2011/11/10/news/companies/penn_state_football_scandal/index.htm

Being a big college football fan I decided to find an article about the biggest story in sports, the Penn State Jerry Sandusky.  It isn't a pleasant subject but it needs to be addressed.  This article deals with more of the business side of the situation, going into detail of what it will cost the prestigious university.  The scandal stems from defensive coordinator Jerry Sandusky who is accused of molesting several young boys over a period of about 15 years.  The reason it hit the university so hard was that it was reported the University president and vice president were told of the situation and did nothing.  Controversy erupted when legendary coach Joe Paterno was fired for also doing nothing with the information he had.
This story teaches us that even the greatest of people can have a slip in judgment sometimes and act unethically.  Paterno could have gone to the police and should have but did not want to tarnish the Penn State reputation.  The result is much worse now since he did not act.  Last year, according to the article ranked second in football profit, only trailing the University of Texas.  The support of the community has always been their for Penn State as they would pack into the 106,000 capacity stadium.  Now ticket prices how dropped and sellers have stopped selling Penn State tickets.
This scandal can be a classic case of how a lapse in ethics leads to the demise of a great business or in this case football program.  Penn State relied heavily on the image of Paterno to attract sponsors and donors to the program.  Now that the image is tarnished Penn State will need to find new ways to fund their extensive program.  They have already felt the affects in recruiting as some players seem to be straying away from the university due to the scandal.
I think that it will take Penn State at least 5 years to rebound from this scandal and hiring a new coach will start it.  To me firing Paterno was the right decision due to the circumstances of this unethical situation.  Do you think it was the right move to fire the legendary coach, and will Penn State ever recover from this?

Unethical Companies: Coca Cola

http://ethicalfootprint.wordpress.com/2010/04/28/unethical-companies-coca-cola/

On February 25^th, 2010 Coca Cola was sued by Guatemalan laborers for unethical practices. The workers claimed they experienced violence from people at the bottling and/or processing plant by Coke. One of the workers was shot at the plant and his family was threatened by the gun man too. There were also reports of gang activity, which included murders and rapes of family members. There have been other accounts of Coke being sued in the past. For example, there have been instances where Coke workers have been involved in murders in Columbia, but were cleared of any wrongs and the Coke name was cleared from the Lawsuit when it was presented in the U.S. Having your company name linked to a murder case is very suspicious, and I think that should not be over looked.

I think this is terrible. Coca Cola is one of the most powerful firms in the world. They need to understand that their actions and lack of consideration will not go unheard. I also think it is terrible because, so many companies have been caught doing unethical things in the past, and Coke needs to recognize that they are not immune to unethical practice lawsuits.

Obviously, Coke does not really care about ethics, since many lawsuits have been taken against them in the past. This shows the consumer that Coke is just interested in profits and does not care about its employees or the community. I think this is going to cost coke in the long run, since many people are looking for ethical companies to invest into.

Coca Cola needs to turn their organizational behavior around. They are a global leader in the soft drink industry. With that in mind, they are also a leader in the global marketplace as a whole. I suggest that they eliminate all unethical business practices within their organization. I also suggest, that consumers need to consider whether or not they want to purchase Coke products while these practices are being used. 

Trevor Goggin

Building Trust in Leadership in the Age of Twitter

http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/aug2009/ca2009087_680028.htm?chan=careers_managing+your+company+page_top+stories

Go into any class in the Start Farm Hall of Business and you'll see it, someone on Facebook or texting, or Tweeting about the kid in front of them.  While we are told on a daily basis that as students we should be focused and only taking notes in class, it's hard to deny that itch to post.  We all know those people that update their Facebook statuses every hour it seems with something new and pointless, "Going to the movies! txt me!" or "Almost the weekend, thank goodness!" txt me".  As we enter the business world and start to manage others it is ever important to remain cognoscente of the fact that these people will still exist, but in a different way.  These people will turn into those who Tweet "layoffs are coming up at our company" or "CEO of our company knows nothing about our concerns".
As those leaders we are currently grooming ourselves to be, we can learn a lesson from Mr. Salzberg and his methods of combating the rumors that could potential spread throughout social media.  Remaining ever vigilant and concerned with what our future employees may need and the culture we are creating within our company will become increasingly important.  As discussed in class, when a potential employee walks into a company one of us may be leading it will be of the utmost importance to be able to share our values and culture the minute they walk in for an interview.  To build on this idea, it will also become increasingly important to make sure that when potential employees are looking up our businesses on social media websites that they are getting a feel for our company culture.  This is where Mr. Salzberg's idea of building trust and transparency between employer and employee is particularly of interest.  Without this trust, rumors and misleading texts may show up on social media sites, throwing the culture we hope to emit off kilter.
Looking into the future, we will need to know who our demographic is; who we are managing, and how they operate.  This includes the kid that used to sit in front of us posting the weekend's pictures to Facebook, who has turned into the serial poster of all things related to our business, the good, the bad, and the rumors.  The strength in our ability to manage will be shown in how proactive we are with negating the negativity and rumors before they have the chance to start.
Amanda Inman 

Some questions and answers about Facebook and Privacy in wake of the FTC settlement

http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/some-questions-and-answers-about-facebook-and-privacy-in-wake-of-the-ftc-settlement/2011/11/29/gIQAZfK29N_story.html?tid=pm_business_pop

           The Company Facebook has always stirred up controversy about the information that they allow to be put on the website, and the amount of privacy that protects it.  On Tuesday November 29th Facebook agreed to settle on federal charges stating that Facebook had violated the users Privacy.  The angry parties were upset the Facebook was getting users to share more information then they would prefer when they sign up for the website.
            Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook believes that he has done nothing wrong.  He believes that his website is based on sharing information and its up to them to share as much as they would like.  In the article Mark says, "We made it easy for people to feel comfortable sharing things about their real lives."  However what the public rarely knows is that Facebook makes the majority of their profit from people sharing information.  The advertising strategy that Facebook uses focuses on the type of information people share, and use that to push similar products.
             This article reminded me of our class in many ways.  I first thought about if Facebook is being an unethical company which in many ways they kinda are.  They are constantly getting into trouble about using peoples privacy, and storing information that the users put on their site.  However in many ways it is the users fault.
             Its now up to Facebook to start controlling what they use and store on their site.  they need to make some very important strategic decisions to allow Facebook to continue to grow without getting caught up in privacy issues.  In a way Facebook is practicing escalation of commitment by holding onto information, and continuing to make new users share information they do not want on the website.  Mark Zuckerberg should start brainstorming, and come up with some creative decisions that will keep users happy, and still continue to grow the company as a whole.

                  Kevin Boyce

CSI case

1. With in the group, many members took on different roles. For example, Tina was able to collect all the data from us as we gave her the information. Kevin, Kyle, and I gathered the information. Amanda put all the information that Tina was giving her on the paper. With in the group, we had a members take on the task, social, and boundary spanning roles.

2. I think that forming an assembly line type style of work was smart. We had a lack of communication however.  We did not find out about the different sheets until Professor Sheep revealed it to the class. I think we needed to have a person become the leader, instead of all of us being on the same level. I think it is important to have someone in charge or at least overseeing the groups progress.

3. We are not forming because we have designated roles to each other. We are definitely not in the storming stage because we are rarely argue. I also do not think we are in the performing stage yet because we are not finished with project. I think we are in the norming stage.

Trevor Goggin

CSI Blog Post

1.  Everyone in the group played the role of contributor, communicator, and critic. We all provided facts from the case reading and verbally stated our opinions of who the murder could have and could not have been. We all also critic each other by disagreeing with some of the things stated. I remember I made a wrong analysis on why a certain person couldn’t have been the murderer because I interpret the reading incorrectly. Amanda played the role of contributor because she usually is the one that writes down all the information

2.  My group did not know that all the papers had different information until it was announced at the end. I think it would’ve helped, but we were still able to correctly solve the mystery by listening to each other. I think we worked well as a team so did not needed any role changes. I guess one role that would have been very helpful is a coordinator. We usually don’t plan things out in advance and just handle things as they come. We never have a real plan on action until we are in the situation or a problem arises.

3.  During this activity, I think that my group was in the norming stage of the development. We’ve been working together all semester so we were already passed the forming and storming stage. Everyone read the case and afterwards we started exchanging information. Talking about our findings out loud helped us realize why certain people could not have been the murderer. We all had equal roles in this activity because all of us were blurting out facts that we read and came to a consensus on one murderer, which ended up being the right one.

-Tina Nguyen