Business Ethics Case
A ethics paper from Business ethics that is based on Google exiting China- Boodle exiting China.The invitation letter with the proud Eagle Seal lies on the desk. Secretary Serena just brought in a full tray of food from the party outside. Andrew Wong, the cofounder and Chairman of Boodle, signaled her to close the door on her way out and re-sank into the couch to ponder the meaning of this dinner invitation letter from the State Department.
The boisterous Christmas party outside was cheerful as employees knew they had another great year globally. Data came in from the booming China branch announced exciting statistics in both finance and user approval. But the success has not come as easy as the numbers suggested. Andrew, Lula Chen – President and the other cofounder, Boodles board members and senior management team felt constant pressure from both Chinese and their own government demanding Boodle to corporate in national security matters by giving government access to its user information. And ever since operation in China started 5 years ago, Boodle often stood in the center of heated media topics on business ethics. Numbers tells that Boodle, while growing steadily in China, is stuck in the 2nd place in market share. Without further bending and sacrificing its own ethical standards, there will be no chance of catching up with Gaodu, its major competitor. Being accused of double standards and putting money ahead of moral issues, Andrew is not alone in feeling tired to continue its operation in China. Worse still, days ago, news came in about large-scale systematic hack-in incidents in China, suspected to have been backed by the Chinese government to access dissidents information.
Boodle, the International Icon of Innovation and Idealism
Boodle, the worlds largest search engine, was founded in 1998 by a great partnership of two Stanford Ph.D. Students-Andrew Wong and Lula Chen from computer Science Department. The technology – RankPage invented by the duo was most advanced and accurate in analysing webpages and retrieving the most pertinent information for any given