York, the owner of a handbag shop, noticed that many tourists were visiting a watch store nearby.  Realising the potential for increased business from inbound visitors, he planned to have his shop registered with the Travel Industry Authority (TIA) through a travel agent's recommendation.

One day, when tourist guide Yvette brought a tour group to the watch store, York approached her with an offer of $10,000 and discounts from his store in exchange for recommending his shop to her travel agent.  Tempted by the proposal, Yvette recommended York's shop to her travel agent for registration without thoroughly verifying its quality, pricing, or service standards.

Once York's shop became registered, Yvette frequently brought tour groups to patronise it.  To show appreciation for Yvette's assistance, York rewarded her with an additional $5,000.

Timothy had been working as a tourist guide for a travel agent for nearly ten years.  All along, his company and several jewellery shops had agreed that the shops would rebate his company 10% of the total sales proceeds from tourists.  With the company’s expansion, Timothy was also assigned to guide inbound Mainland tour groups.  

One day, as usual, Timothy guided the tourists to the jewellery shop registered by his company.  After settling the tourists, he chatted with Tom, the shop’s proprietor.  Tom remarked that Mainland groups always brought him good profits.  In response, Timothy suggested that if Tom provided him personally with an additional 5% rebate on top of the 10% given to the company, it would give him higher incentive to promote Tom’s shop to the tourists.  He added that a tourist guide’s enthusiasm in promotion could significantly influence the tourists’ purchasing decisions.  Unable to bear the potential loss, Tom reluctantly succumbed to Timothy’s request.  To compensate for the extra commission, Tom began misleading tourists into purchasing newly launched brands, falsely claiming they were well-known models and selling them at inflated prices.

That evening after the tourists had returned to their hotel, Troy, the Mainland escort of the tour group, offered Timothy a red packet and hinted that it would bring him good luck and ensure their smooth cooperation in the future.  Thinking it was a “first-meeting gift”, Timothy accepted it gratefully.

William had emigrated to Malaysia for years and set up a restaurant in a renowned seafood centre there. At a recent travel trade exhibition held in Malaysia, William met his friend Patrick from Hong Kong. Patrick, a general manager of a Hong Kong travel agency, was responsible for designing itineraries for his company’s group tours. In order to secure Patrick’s assistance in putting his restaurant on the company’s approved list, William proposed giving Patrick $30,000 plus a further commission of $10 per head for future referral of tourists. William added that the money could be deposited in the bank account of Patrick’s wife to avoid any trouble.

Later, William’s restaurant was successfully included in the travel agency’s approved list upon Patrick’s recommendation. Soon after that, William deposited $30,000 into the bank account of Patrick’s wife.

Clara worked for Maria, the buyer of a gourmet food department. They received a shipment of thin little wafers from a foreign country that had cream filling with fruits. The wafers were packed in foil-covered boxes, but somehow some wafers were infested with insects. Clara and Maria assumed that the news was not widely spread out yet because not all of the customers brought back the contaminated product.  But some customers did return the product.  Obviously, Clara and Maria could not continue to sell them. They couldn’t inspect all the boxes and keep the uninfected ones because there were too many boxes.  Also, the inspection would involve damaging the foil-covered boxes which would lead to a loss of products worth $900,000.

Maria said that the manufacturer would not refund them because the infestation occurred very possibly during the shipment or even during the storage at the food department’s warehouse.   Maria told Clara to get rid of the product by all means.  Clara thought that Maria meant a disposal of the product; but Maria then clearly said, “Absolutely not disposal. Call YY and KK. They operate retail stores in the new towns and sell almost anything. We’ve got to get some of our money back.” Clara was shocked when hearing the instructions.

Should Clara follow Maria’s instructions? Would it be better if she told YY and KK the truth?   What if the product brought in thousands of complaints?  Clara found herself in the middle of a nightmare.

As the head of the marketing department of a toy company, Donald strongly felt that the company’s recent TV ads which were full of violence were unsuitable for children.  He knew that his criticisms of the ads at executive meetings did not make him popular among the senior management.  However, Donald was shocked when the company’s president warned him in a firm tone to keep quite on the matter in the coming executive meeting because the ads generated a lot of sales.  The president added that the company had to pay dividends to the shareholders and could not afford to turn down the profit.  

What should Donald do?  Should he refrain from expressing his views because of the president’s warning?   Should he follow his conscience?  Would it be possible to replace the existing advertisements with “healthier” ones?