Do a study of Echostar's Ethics??

[mjz]

Hi, I am a college student who is taking a class this semester on business ethics. I need to pick a company and study the ethics and values behind its actions. I am looking to see if anyone has any opinions if I where to do it on Echostar, or if I would get too much bies information in my research.

[Mark Lamutt]

I would think it would depend on who you used for sources. If you were to base all of your research here or on the other satellite forums, then yeah, your info would be heavily biased.

[mjz]

Well I would like to use some personal testimonials along with more objective sources. I was hoping to get most of the stuff off of lexis-nexis suplimented by personal accounts on the dish-fourms.

[boba]

If you talk to DISH dealers you will find DISH has no ethics. If you talk to some customers like Bob Haller you will find he also is questioning DISH'S responsibility to the customer.

[Richard King]

What would be interesting is if you can find out if Echostar has a written statement of corporate ethics and values and if so, how they are performing in relation to that statement. I would think that they may have had such a statement in the distant past.

[Earl Zuberbelt]

Hi, I am a college student who is taking a class this semester on business ethics. I need to pick a company and study the ethics and values behind its actions. I am looking to see if anyone has any opinions if I where to do it on Echostar, or if I would get too much bies information in my research.

You could do worse than study a company like Echostar. Extraordinary success story by any and all measures.

You could do your paper on ethics, and "perceived" ethics by many of the riff-raff that post here.

Echostar has made many mistakes, but has also enjoyed huge success and accomplishment.

Last week's issue of BusinessWeek listed the best and worst managers of 2003. Chas Ergan and company weren't on either.

That's pretty good.

[Bill R]

MANY years ago I was taking a MBA course on business ethics and I had to write a paper like the one MJZ is writing. After doing a lot of digging I found that it was almost impossible to get unbiased information. ALMOST every company has something to hide and won't cooperate with outsiders. The only company that I was able to get information from was P & G (a local company) and the paper was written about "How major companies evoke ethices in their Managers". It was more about the "education" that managers go through than an indepth probe of ethics at a major company (that is what I originally planned).

I especially remember the course because a few years after I took it the part-time professor that taught it was indicted for some business scam that he was running. So much for business ethics!

MJZ, I think that Echostar would be a poor choice unless you know someone on the "inside" and even then you may not get reliable information (if you are intending to uncover some dirt). I would aim for a local company where you can talk to people one-on-one and just write about their policies and not try to expose another Enron.

[Richard King]

I am the type who would grab the bull by the horns and go to the top. I would give a call to Echostar's headquarters and try to talk directly to Charlie Ergan. Maybe start with an e-mail to ceo@echostar.com. Nothing ventured nothing gained. Sounds like a very interesting subject.

[lee635]

I think you need to define what you mean by business ethics.

To me, the minimum would be complying with applicable Federal, State and local law. What is the firm's history in regards to its employee treatment? Have they been sanctioned for discriminating on a prohibited basis? Such information could be gleaned from public records.

On the softer side, you might compare the firm's benefits package against some objective measure, for example, does the firm provide a fully paid major medical plan to full-time employees with the option to purchase coverage for dependents? Does the firm utilize overseas workers for IT, call centers, accounting? A phone call to the Human Resources Office would certainly answer the benefits question and might get some info on the overseas worker policy.

For service to customers, an excellent measure would be to demonstrate that the firm provides services in to all income groups, low-, moderate-, middle- and upper-income areas of a given city. In banking you can review a required report of the bank's customer makeup within its service area. For a satellite company, I don't know how you get a hold of this sort of analysis.

For quality of service, one might consult the Better Business Bureau, but remember that such a review will be skewed to identify only dissatisfied customers. A better measure might be the average number of years of a relationship with each customer, compared to some objective measure, perhaps average number of years for the cable industry.

But you really need to better define business ethics for the purposes of your exercise.

[mjz]

Here is the full description: http://opal.fgcu.edu/cfornaci/pdffiles/man3063/MAN_3063_ethical_assessment_spring2004.pdf

[Earl Zuberbelt]

Well I would like to use some personal testimonials along with more objective sources. I was hoping to get most of the stuff off of lexis-nexis suplimented by personal accounts on the dish-fourms.

Another poster is correct... call Charlie. You might might be surprised. You just might find him a very forthright and charming guy.

-Earl
Yankee born Southern bred

[TiredFerret]

Just look at the whole DishPlayer fiasco if you want to talk ethics. I worked at DISH for 3 1/2 years in customer service and training...I could probably tell you some stories.... :nono:

[Nick]

Yeah, well...my Dishplayer works just fine. I seriously question the ethics of those who repeatedly and unfairly bash a company because of a personal grudge.

Yes, it shows...

[Jacob S]

I do know that Dish Network had a settlement in the millions for falsely presenting its product or something to that nature. Perhaps you could get some information about that. I have also read on the forums where the most consumer complaints in Colorado (do not know about other states) were pertaining to Dish Network so you may want to add that to your report as well. Getting these facts and finding a pattern of problems could help you out. Perhaps you could find some reports on the internet about certain problems with the company.

[rtt2]

Choose a cable company

[TopCat99]

I couldn't get that link to load (snow is wreaking havoc with my ISP it seems...), so excuse me if these are redundant questions :)

Who is the target--the customer or the employee? What direction are you heading with your paper? Is it just morals/ethics in general, or do you have to be very specific (like "Echostar's policy on X violates Kantian ethics because...")? Are you allowed to be subjective at all or must it all be objective using principles learned in class?

Don't worry if you can't find enough "official" material on E*, you could always use everyone's favorite standby: the Ford Pinto :lol:

[TiredFerret]

Yeah, well...my Dishplayer works just fine. I seriously question the ethics of those who repeatedly and unfairly bash a company because of a personal grudge.

Yes, it shows...

Hey - I had Firestone tires and none of them ever blew up. I guess that means there really wasn't an issue with them.

Too bad you have no idea what you're talking about. Maybe it's just my imagination that when the Dishplayer probelms were at their peak reps and supervisors were told to not acknowledge that there were even any problems and not really spend much time resolving issues because there was nothing that could be done.

I do have somewhat of a grudge against them, yes. I don't deny it, but I can back it up with reasons why they are a crappy company. I'm not complaining just for the sake of complaining. A company cannot possibly have as many complainst as they do if there isn't a bigger problem somewhere. I happen to know the people responsible for customer service, training, marketing, etc., and in general, most of them are imbecils and/or airheads with little or no training or experience in their fields when given their jobs. Would you run your company like that when it comes to high-ranking positions? If you never worked there for any substantial amount of time, then your opinion of how you think they run their company on the inside is completely invalid. Why can't people see beyind their own personal views and look at the bigger picture? It's a very egocentric world we live in. :nono:

[Casual Observer]

You could do worse than study a company like Echostar. Extraordinary success story by any and all measures.

You could do your paper on ethics, and "perceived" ethics by many of the riff-raff that post here.

Echostar has made many mistakes, but has also enjoyed huge success and accomplishment.

Last week's issue of BusinessWeek listed the best and worst managers of 2003. Chas Ergan and company weren't on either.

That's pretty good.

Earl - take off your rose colored glasses! You aren't recognizing the difference between maintaining business ethics and building a successful business. One need only to point to Enron and Martha Stewart to realize that business success can hide unethical business behavior.

Do I think Ergan is an incredible business success story. Absolutely. Am I impressed with his drive, ambition and creativity. Yes. Do I think Echostar is unethical in its business practices? Not really. I think they reasonably comply with the laws when they pay attention to them, which is most of the time.

I do think though that they are unsophisticated and arrogant in their general approach to running the business, refuse to accept criticism or suggestions from anyone outside the company and believe that their way is the only way, which has led to many of the problems they are experiencing now. In terms of people management, after working inside the company for several years, I do think they allow their management teams to run the edge of ethical practices.

[ERSanders]

.....

I do think though that they are unsophisticated and arrogant in their general approach to running the business, refuse to accept criticism or suggestions from anyone outside the company and believe that their way is the only way, which has led to many of the problems they are experiencing now. In terms of people management, after working inside the company for several years, I do think they allow their management teams to run the edge of ethical practices.

...And they still call OVERHEAD SLIDES as SLATES! Is that a Tenessee thing or what? Talk about arrogant.