Summer holiday was a peak season for travelling.  There was a high demand for air tickets, especially the discounted offers with limited supply.

William, a ticketing officer of a travel agent, was inundated with inquiries about discounted air tickets.  Because of the high demand for discounted air tickets, William saw it as a good opportunity to make up for his recent credit card payment.  William secretly contacted several regular customers, informing them about the upcoming special offers.  He implied rewarding him would grant them priority access to these limited discounted tickets.  Without much deliberation, several customers agreed to pay William $500 as a reward and successfully purchased the discounted tickets.  For other customers, William recommended high-fare tickets so that he could reserve low-fare tickets to the regular customers.

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?

Fagin was a sole agent for a sports bag imported from a foreign country.  The bags appealed to teenagers and came in various striking colours.  They were renowned for its high quality and being colour-fast.  One day, Fagin received a complaint from a customer that the colour of the bag ran off shortly after the purchase.  Fagin quickly made a refund and hushed up the matter.  To avoid further financial loss, he was planning to get rid of all the stocks by a massive sale on the bags before the related news broke out.  Meanwhile, he also wondered if he should disclose the defect to the distributors in Hong Kong.  He thought it would be fine during massive sale as long as he did not lie about the flaw but simply avoid mentioning it.

Was Fagin acting wrongly?  Would his failure to disclose relevant information be as bad as making false claims about his products?  Should he call back all the defected products from the market in order to maintain a good business reputation?

Ivy was a sales manager of a sportswear distributor. The company had a discount policy for bulk purchase of sportswear that every 100 sports jerseys sold would enjoy a discount of 10%. The soccer jersey of the latest winning team was selling like hot cakes.  A small sportswear shop in Mongkok placed an order for 50 of this jersey and another shop in the area also ordered another 50.  Since they were in the same district, the delivery would be made together.  A thought struck Ivy.  Why didn’t she combine the two orders and make out an order for 100?  She could doctor the invoices up. The discount would be a source of her extra income. And it would not harm anyone.

But would it be considered as cheating the company? Should she split the gains into three and share with the two sportswear shops?

After graduation, Becky worked in a company that distributed electronic appliances.  When customers phoned the office asking for information on certain electrical appliances, Becky would look up the model, the price, and the inventory level in the computer database.  The boss always instructed Becky to tell the customers that they had the goods in stock, even if it wasn’t true. The boss explained that this tactic was to secure the orders first even when the required model was certainly out of stock in the market.  He argued that, as long as the customers did not know the stock situation, it was no harm for customers to wait and new models could even be suggested while they were waiting.  This stalling tactic was better than letting customers go to the competitors.  The boss’ argument sounded justified, but Becky did not feel comfortable because this meant she had to lie frequently.

What should Becky do?  Would she lose her sense of integrity?  Should she try to win customers in another way?

Jasper worked as a sales associate for a renowned audio-visual equipment company for many years.  Through his expertise and friendly demeanor, he gradually established an extensive customer network.

Some customers hoped Jasper could sell products at a "favourable price". As a result, they started giving him red packets, hoping he would offer them lower prices.  They even asked for company gifts when their purchases did not meet the limit.  Jasper happily accepted these offers and believed that this would not only satisfy his customers and strengthen his relationships with them, but also help him meet his sales targets, ultimately benefiting the company.  It seemed like a win-win situation.

However, Jasper soon became indifferent to customers who did not provide red packets, and even deliberately neglected their requests, leading to a growing number of complaints against Jasper.

Gloria, a regional manager for a chain retail store, was responsible for overseeing daily operations and staff management across multiple branches.  Her duties included handling employee transfers, approving leaves, and recommending promotions.

Gigi, a sales associate, revealed that over the past two years, Gloria had repeatedly demanded gifts from her subordinates, including luxury handbags and jewellery.  Gloria implied that only those who provided gifts would be considered for desirable positions, extended leave, or promotions.  As a result, many employees, including Gigi, felt pressured to comply to avoid jeopardising their careers.  Gloria viewed this practice as a usual way to foster friendly relationships with her subordinates and did not anticipate any problem with accepting gifts from them.