Q.

Ramalinga Raju, a management graduate from Ohio University, founded Satyam

Computer Services Ltd., a Hyderabad-based software Company in 1987. It catered
to the IT needs of various sectors like Healthcare, Bio-Tec., Telecommunication
and Media, Automotive Banking & Finance, etc. Prior to the year 2009, the
Company was one of the few fastest growing companies in India, generating $ 2.1
billion revenue and having about 9%  of the market share. It had 53000 employees
and perhaps was the first Indian Company to be listed on three International
Exchanges, i.e., NYSE, DOW and EURO NEXT. This Company had development
centers in about 66 Countries, and its export accounted for about 76% of total sales
revenue. Ramalinga Raju, founder, and CEO of Satyam Computers announced on
January 7, 2009, that his company had been falsifying its accounts for years,
overstating revenues and inflating profits.Prior to that Raju made an attempt to
have Satyam invest about Rs. 7000 Crore in Maytas Properties and Maytas
Infrastructure two firms promoted and controlled by his family members.On
December 16, 2008, Satyam’s Board cleared the investment, but investors opposed
it. The Board of Satyam, later on, was reconvened the same day and called off the
proposed investment. Thereafter resignations followed from Satyam’s non-
executive Directors. Resigning as Satyam’s chairman and CEO, Raju said in a
letter addressed to his Board, the stock exchanges and the market regulator,
Securities & Exchange Board of India (SEBI) that Satyam’s profits were inflated
over several years to “unmanageable proportions” and that it was forced to carry
more assets and resources than its real operations justified. He took sole
responsibility for those acts. He further stated that “it was like riding a tiger, not
knowing how to get off without being eaten,” “The aborted Maytas acquisition was
the last attempt to fill the fictitious assets with real ones.” Ramalinga Raju,
founder, and CEO of Satyam Computers announced on January 7, 2009, that his
company had been falsifying its accounts for years, overstating revenues and
inflating profits. Raju acknowledged that Satyam’s Balance Sheet included Rs.
7,136 crore in non-existent cash and bank balances, accrued interest and
misstatements. It had also inflated its 2008 second quarter revenues by Rs. 588
crores to Rs. 2,700 crores and actual operating margins were less than a tenth of
the stated Rs. 649 crore.The company’s fixed deposits documents were
forged, diverting  Rs 1,250 crore at the rate of Rs 20 crore per month over a period
of many years. It held more than 400 Benami land transactions of thousands of
acres. The Company claimed that the strength of the company was 53,000 against
actual employee strength of only 40,000.

Corporate governance refers to the set of systems, principles, and processes by

which a company is governed. They provide guidelines as to how the company can
be directed or controlled such that it can fulfill its goals and objectives in a manner
that adds to the value of  Stakeholders, in this case, would include everyone
ranging from the Board of Directors, management, shareholders to customers,
employees, and society. The management of the company assumes the role of a
trustee for all the others. Good corporate governance means conducting the
business in a transparent manner with integrity and fairness. It involves a
commitment to conduct business in an ethical manner by complying with all the
laws of the land and be accountable to all the stakeholders. Good corporate
governance is one of the important criteria for the Investors including foreign
investors for taking an investment decision in the company. Companies with a
clean image can source capital at more reasonable costs. Good corporate
governance makes sure that all shareholders get a voice at general meetings and are
allowed to take an active part. Even non-shareholder stakeholder’s interest needs to
be taken care off. A code of conduct regarding ethical decisions is established for
all the Board members. Business transparency should be the key to promoting
shareholder trust.

After the scandal, the Confederation of Indian Industries set up a task force to
suggest reforms. National Association of Software and Services Companies
established a corporate governance and ethics committee headed by Narayana
Murthy. This Committee suggested reforms relating to audit committees,
shareholder rights, and whistleblower policy. SEBI’s committee on disclosure and
accounting standards issued a discussion paper in 2009 to deliberate on the
voluntary adoption of international financial reporting standards the appointment
of chief financial officers by audit committees based on qualifications, experience,
and background; and the rotation of auditors every five years so that familiarity
does not lead to corporate malpractice and mismanagement. After that scam The
Ministry of Corporate Affairs in 2009, issued a set of voluntary guidelines for
corporate governance on various issues.

The Ministry of Corporate Affairs in 2009, issued a set of voluntary guidelines for
corporate governance on the following  issues:

The Independence of Directors

The roles and responsibilities of audit committees

The roles and responsibilities of the Boards of companies

Whistleblower policies

The separation of the offices of the chairman and the CEO to ensure independence.
A system of checks and balances. Terms and conditions of appointment of
Directors such as their tenures, remuneration, evaluation, the issuance of a formal
letter of appointment, and placing limits on the number of Companies in which an
individual can be a Director.

In 2010, SEBI amended the Listing Agreement to include the provision dealing
with the appointment of a chief financial officer

Thus corporate governance after Satyam scandal has to be in conformity with the
amended Companies Act and other guidelines. This scandal has also exposed the
role of dishonest external auditors and has forced the Government to provide for
checks and balances.

Q.2

Women’s safety and its issues are discussed and debated all around the globe. Still
every year the number of reports on sexual harassment is increasing at an alarming
rate.

In the past decade, women have progressively earned a higher standard in the
workplace. Women are now gaining higher positions and form a big/huge section
of any working sector around the globe.
Women now are more independent in every sense. They are competent enough to
take care of themselves and their families. They are more able to make their own
life choices and live in their own terms.

However, everyday women are mistreated in the workplace by their co-workers.

After the #metoo and #timesup movement in the U.S, more women are coming
forward to tell their horror stories. Susan Fowler, an ex-employee from Uber
claimed how her team manager harassed her on the very first day at her work. The
incident led her to leave her team and eventually Uber. Following the incident,
many other harassment complaints were filed. In the mid-2017, Uber fired 20
employees after investigating into the sexual harassment claims and workplace
culture.

The statistics on sexual harassment in the workplace is very shocking. And it

varies from place to place. According to the survey, 81 percent of women have
faced some form of sexual harassment in their lives.

Sexual harassment can lead to anxiety, depression, lower self-esteem, alienation

and overall degradation of their physical and mental health.

It’s a disturbing fact that women in work still face sexual asexual harassment is the
unwanted or inappropriate promise of rewards in exchange for sexual favors.
It is the unwelcome sexual behavior, which makes a person feel offended,
humiliated, degraded or intimidated. It is non-consensual and unacceptable
harassment, which is why many of them even quit their jobs.

The victim and The harasser can be a member of the same or opposite gender. The
harasser can be the victim’s supervisor, the employer’s agent, a supervisor in
another area, a co-worker, or a non-employee. The victim does not have to be the
person harassed. It could be anyone affected by the offensive conduct. Unlawful
sexual harassment may not bring economic injury to the victim or discharge of the
victim. The harasser’s conduct must be offensive or unwelcome.

Create awareness among the employees:

It’s sad that many organization and people, in general, are still not aware of
women’s safety in the workplace. It’s very clear from the statistics and cases on
sexual harassment in the workplace.

To create awareness among the employees on women’s safety and their health is
vital. You can use all possible techniques and ideas to spread awareness.
Workshops, open group discussions or activities can help to create awareness on
Wellness programmes are must when it comes to the physical and psychological
health of your workers.

Awareness starts with the implementation of guidelines, and laws against sexual
harassment in a workplace. Therefore without understanding the root cause you
cannot stop any Encourage women to express. Generally, women facing sexual
harassment doesn’t speak up. We as a society are responsible for this. We teach
our girl child to behave and act in a particular way. Since childhood, we give them
a set of do’s and don’t. This conditioning later stops women to express. They are
ashamed. They fear consequences. Other reasons are low self-esteem and lack of
information. You must encourage the female employees to express and come out
of their discomfort. This can be done by boosting their confidence by
implementing equal opportunities for both male and female workers in the
workplace. The sense of equality in the workplace will make them fight the social
stigma .Discrimination against women.
Role of an HR:

HR needs to explain to the employees about the safe work environment. And must
play the role an intermediate to highlight any complaint or any women issues to
higher authorities .In the Employee Orientation Program me, the HR needs to give
strict guidelines on sexual harassment to the new employees .It is HR’s role to
bring notice any unwelcome behavior faced by the employees to higher authorities.
Since the authority needs to take unbiased actions. The participation of the HR is
most important In an interview, Richard Lobo, an Executive Vice President and
Head of Human Resources at Infosys Ltd, said that whenever people join their
organization, especially at the entry level, they have to undergo training sessions
where they give them case studies of what is okay and what is not okay at the
workplace.

They also explain the mechanisms to bring misconduct to the attention of someone
who can do something about it. therefore, they make sure counseling and support
are available.

Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) on Women’s Safety:

The Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace (Prevention, Prohibition and

Redressal) Act, 2013 (“POSH Act”) has made ICC compulsory for both the private
and non-private for women’s safety on sexual harassment. A woman who is
harassed can make the complaint within 90 days of the incident. If the woman is
not comfortable to express near ICC, in that case, her co-worker, friend or a
relative ICC then takes the responsibility to properly investigate the issue. The
inquiry should take place within 90 days. And once completed, a report has to be
issued within 10 days. Any workplace that has 10 or more than 10 employees
needs to form ICC to address sexual harassment in the workplace. ICC should have
a team of at least 4 members. At least 50% of the members should be women. The
chairperson of ICC has to be a woman. And half of the members of the committee
must have some experience in social work/legal knowledge. There must also be a
third party member, who is a social worker from NGO committed to the cause of
women.

Organizations needs come up with tactics and ideas which suits them best to ensure
women’s safety in a workplace. And they must have a sexual harassment policy.
And it could vary with the demographic and types of harassment one face in the
organizations.

Sexual harassment and degradation of women in the workplace is not a recent

story. It is prevailing in the world for decades. As a part of the society, it’s our duty
to make a healthy and safe environment our women in the workplace.

Q.3

Ethics in Fairness Cream Advertisements

The aspect of ethics has always been severely compromised when it comes to
fairness products advertisements. To secure market and increase sale the
advertisers have been boldly promoting racism and thriving on people’s already
existing sense of inadequacy and thus a firming them. The Advertising Standards
Council of India (ASCI) prescribes ethical norms of advertising in India. ASCI
seeks to ensure that advertisements conform to its Code for Self-Regulation, which
requires advertisements to be legal, decent, honest and truthful and not hazardous
or harmful while observing fairness in competition. In contradiction to the Code,
television ads of Fairness creams do not only promise lighter skin tone but also
associate skin tone with success, to scare dark skinned people, who are the
majority of the Indian population. Through subtle or not so subtle use of fear
technique the ads do not only create false notions but also take the risk of causing
mental injury to a sizable portion of our population. Now, the need for fairness has
found its way into deodorant industry that emphasizes the need for fairer under
arms. However ridiculous these advertisements might seem, but while consuming
the glossy happy advertised world, where success is just a few steps away, a world
brought to light by the most advanced techniques, one is hardly able to note the
absurd yet harmful messages that these ads disseminate, unless of course one is
armed to ward off these encoded messages by other discourses.

Fair & Lovely cream ad: the product targets women, as is evident from the name;
in one of “Fair & Lovely” ad featuring Bollywood film actress Yami Gautam, we
see a man convincing his daughter to get married to a well settled man as a
proposal like this does not come every day. In the next scene, the girl is seen
pondering over the possibility of her finding a job. However, once Yami Gautam
hands her the tube of Fair& Lovely, she finds confidence to tell her father that she
would marry after three years, when she too would be well settled in her career, to
form a relation based on equality. Apparently, an ad promoting women’s
empowerment is actually bent on disempowering the entire population irrespective
of sex; the call here is to purchase success via the advertised product, a call that
immediately renders all acquired qualities and skills powerless.
Emami’s Fair & Handsome cream ad: As the name suggest, the target audience of
this cream happens to be men. In one of the Emami’s “Fair & Handsome” cream
advertisements we will find a boy who seems to be embarrassed for his dark
complexions hiding his face from girls. This ad, features film star Shahrukh Khan,
who repeatedly warns the boy against using fairness creams meant for girl; he
suggested a special fairness cream meant for men .The obvious happens after the
boy uses the suggested cream he gains confidence and girls swarm around him.
The measure of success, source of confidence and meaning of beauty, in fact the
entire life pattern like most other ads are decided, defined and handed to the
consumers, by this ad too.
Every fairness cream uses so many chemicals in their product which is very
harmful for natural skin. And this truth every company does not tell to their
customer which is a big disadvantage of advertising facial creams By
advertisement they show that if the people are using these creams will look
different from others which is not truth and this is another advantage

Q.4

As business leaders we routinely find ourselves in the middle of arguments. At

least we hope so. Because the more passion we generate about our company and
its mission, the more our people will engage in arguments about strategy, structure,
budgets, and action plans.

Peak performance leaders know arguments and debates are inevitable. They also

know how to best resolve the arguments and get the team aligned and moving
forward together. This skill is an essential part of leading anything.
Managers often face ethical dilemmas in the workplace but may not aware of it.
One reason is the manager is not trained in ethics so it is difficult to know when an
ethical issue exists. The first step in making ethical decisions is to be sensitive to
the ethical signposts. For example, consider whether conflicting interests exist in
the situation. Ask whether your decision harms one or more parties while
benefitting others. Ethical decision making requires that we consider the
consequences of our actions on others – the stakeholders in the situation -- prior to
making a decision. For example, members of top management should always
consider how their actions affect shareholders, creditors and employees. A
production manager should consider the effects of operational decisions on
production workers, suppliers and the customer. A marketing manager should be
sensitive to whether advertised product information is truthful and does not
mislead consumers.

Once the ethical issues are identified, the next step is to identify alternative courses
of action and evaluate the alternatives using ethical reasoning. This is the tricky
part since most people are not trained ethicists. Still, certain basic principles can be
followed. First, be sure to follow the law and company policy including code of
conduct provisions. From an ethical perspective certain guidelines apply such as
don’t violate anyone’s rights; be fair-minded in deciding how best to resolve the
dilemma; and follow basic virtues in deciding what to do including honesty,
integrity, reliability, and being responsible and accountable for one’s actions.

After evaluating the alternatives from an ethical perspective, it’s time to think back
on how your potential decisions might affect the stakeholders. You do not want to
sacrifice the trust placed in you and your company. When I conduct ethics
seminars I ask the group to always remember that it takes a long time to build a
reputation of trust but not very long to tear it down.

The final step in ethical decision-making is the most difficult one. It is to have the
courage (integrity) to carry out an ethical decision with ethical action. Sometimes
pressure exists in the workplace that is contrary to making ethical decisions but
somehow benefits the company. For example, in a financial reporting situation the
chief executive officer and/or chief financial officer might pressure the controller
to go along with an accounting treatment that crosses the line between being
ethical and not ethical. In other words it violates accounting standards but, at the
same time, it may enable the company to meet financial analysts’ earnings
expectations for the year. The result is higher bonuses and an increased stock price.
Everyone is happy, right? Not so because the shareholders are misled and
accounting principles have been violated. Moreover, it is wrong to manage
earnings in a way that best portrays what the company wants to show rather than
what is in accordance with accepted standards of accounting practice.

Oftentimes, when financial decisions are made to “manipulate” earnings in one

year it has a snowball effect on future years. In a sense you are borrowing revenue
from a later period to make the current period look better, a practice known
accelerating revenue. The practical problem is that you now need to cover the
second year’s revenue shortfall by borrowing from the next period and then the
next. Before you know it, you have taken the first step down the proverbial “ethical
slippery slope” and it becomes very difficult to turn around and head back up to the
high ground if, all of a sudden, you “grow a conscience.” More often than not the
initial action leads to a cover-up and matters eventually spin out of control.