Stephen Hicks, Ph.D.

Rocket Singh, Salesman of the Year

Check out Rocket Singh, Salesman of the Year, an engaging movie with a healthy business ethics kick.

The main character is a young college graduate with mediocre grades who lands a job at a computer sales company. He is soon confronted with corrupt-but-usual practices in the company, and his naïveté puts him on the fast track to failure. And then the plot thickens.

Rocket Singh takes up negative themes of corrupt in sales, bribery, and conflicts of interest, but the emphasis is on the positive: the sources of self-respect, win-win business relations, and the spirit of entrepreneurship. I responded to the very human challenges of honesty, integrity, necessity as the mother of invention and ingenuity, growing pains, guts, and semi-redemption.

Stating the themes abstractly like that could make Rocket sound saccharine and didactic, but it works as a real movie, with engaging characters, tension, and drama.

Related:
My earlier recommendation of Guru: “A villager, Gurukant Desai, arrives in Bombay in 1958, and rises from its streets to become the GURU, the biggest tycoon in Indian history.”
Interview with Nimish Adhia on Bollywood and the new India.
Shikha Dalmia on India and Slumdog Millionaire.
Gurcharan Das’s India Unbound.

Business in Argentina — interview with Fernández and Sarano

Federico Fernández and Martin Sarano of Argentina’s Bases Foundation spoke at Rockford College on the challenging political economy of Argentina and its impact on current business. A century ago Argentina’s economy was in the top ten in the world, but has declined significantly. Doingbusiness.org currently ranks Argentina ranked 115th.

In the interview we talk about Argentina’s general economic malaise, its history of pragmatic authoritarianism, the ethical challenges caused by a culture of bribery and rent-seeking, and the paradox of freedom in an over-regulated economy but with an often-incompetent bureaucracy.

Part I:

Part II:

Jerry Kirkpatrick on philosophy’s importance to business

Professor Jerry Kirkpatrick gave a talk at Rockford College on October 27 on “The Importance of Philosophy to Business.” Dr. Kirkpatrick is Professor of International Business at California State Polytechnic University, Pomona. His talk was sponsored by the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship.

In the following two-part interview after his talk, I speak with Dr. Kirkpatrick about his education in philosophy and business and the relevance of moral philosophy and epistemology to practicing business professionals.

Part I:

Part II:

This interview is also available at the Center for Ethics and Entrepreneurship’s site. More of my interviews with CEE’s guest speakers are available here.