Dr. Amar Gopal Bose, Acoustics Pioneer and Inventor
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BUSINESS Cases in Corporate Ethics: Contemporary Challenges and Imperatives; Strategy & General Management, Ethics and Social Justice, Organizational Behavior, Human Resource, Operations, Technology and Innovation, Finance and Accounting. Case 3.3: Dr. Amar Gopal Bose, Acoustics Pioneer and Inventor Ozzie Mascarenhas SJ, PhD DRD Tata Chair Professor of Business Ethics, XLRI Jamshedpur, India | Published: June 2015 | Redistribution or use without the expressed, written permission of The Global Jesuit Case Series is prohibited. For information on usage rights, contact the Global Jesuit Case Series at [email protected] ________________________________________________________________________ Cases in Corporate Ethics: Contemporary Challenges and Imperatives Jesuit Series, Madden School of Business, Le Moyne College, Syracuse, NY Donated by: Ozzie Mascarenhas SJ, PhD JRD Tata Chair Professor of Business Ethics, XLRI, Jamshedpur, India June 15, 2015 The fifteen cases in Business ethics included here represent the first installment of the thirty cases promised to the Cases in Business Ethics – The Jesuit Series at the University of Le Moyne, Syracuse, NY. We have added three more. The remaining eighteen cases will follow shortly. The thirty three cases illustrate and depend upon the content of corporate ethics outlined in Table 1. As might be clear from Table I, the Course in Corporate Ethics has three parts: Part One explores the ethical quality of moral agents embedded in the capitalist markets such as the human person, the fraud-prone person, the virtuous actor (virtue ethics) and the trusting executive (ethics of trust). Part Two investigates the ethical quality of moral agencies of executive decisions, choices and actions when supported by ethics of critical thinking, moral reasoning, ethics of rights and duties, and ethics of moral leadership. Part Three examines the ethical quality of moral executive outcomes as seen through the ethics of executive moral responsibility and ethics of corporate social responsibility. Even as research method and methodology are determined by the specific subject matter of inquiry, so also a course method and pedagogy and business cases are dependent upon the specific subject matter of managerial ethics. The Business ethics theoretical framework visualizes eleven chapters as indicated in Table 1. Each Chapter is illustrated by three contemporary business cases, cases that happened or that got closed during the course of the semester when the courses was taught in 2012-2015. In general, one of the three cases is international in character, one is national (relating to the Indian economy and markets), and the third relates to industry market situations. The ethical questions provided at the end of each chapter are best answered with the aid of the corresponding chapter content. The cases and content are part of the Book on Corporate Ethics: Contemporary Challenges and Imperatives that is prepared for publication (Sage) by the end of 2015 by the author of the Cases. Most of the cases capture major current market events during 2012-2015, and the content of the cases is presented without much stylizing and dramatizing as is usual with formal cases. The cases pose several ethical and moral questions, responses to which welcome group dialog, debate and discussion. Some of the cases reflect “Shades of Grey Areas” in business ethics that do not necessarily require one correct answer in terms of right or wrong, good or evil, true or false, just or unjust, fair or unfair. The cases stimulate ethical and moral reasoning, deliberation, dialog, discussion, decision, choice, analysis of decision-choice consequences, and responsibilities of due compensation for harmed stakeholders. Multiple competing answers should be encouraged, and 1 the students should argue which solution alternative is better, more objective and defensible, and more socially desirable. Table 1: Business Ethics Theoretical Background for Situating the Cases Part Corporate Chapter Title Business Ethics Cases Focus: 1. Ethics of Free Enterprise Case 1.1: Worldwide Collapse of Financial Markets in 2008 Capitalism: Case 1.2: Europe’s Boat People: A Moral and Political Disgrace The Free Case 1.3: Radiation Village: The People of the Nuclear Test Market Fallout 2. Ethics of Capitalism Case 2.1: The Enron Corporate Fraud Context: Abused: Fraud and Case 2.2: Satyam Computer Services Ltd PART ONE: Corruption Case 2.3: Sherron Watkins and Whistle Blowing at Enron Ethics of 3. Ethics of the Corporate Case 3.1: Nelson Mandela and his Great Human Personhood Corporate Human Person Case 3.2: Freedom Fighter, Doctor, Communist, Lakshmi Sahgal Business Case 3.3: Dr. Amar Gopal Bose, Acoustics Pioneer and The Inventor Inputs 4. Ethics of Corporate Case 4.1: Panama Nature Fresh Pvt. Ltd. Corporate Virtue Case 4.2: The Horrors of Chicken Farms Moral Case 4.3: Sexual Harassment at the Workplace: A Violation of Human Personhood Agent 5. Ethics of Corporate Case 5.1: Managing Trusting Relationships in Indian Organized Trusting Relations Retailing Case 5.2: Bain sues EY over $60-m loss in Lilliput Kids-wear Case 5.3: Building Indo-Japan Trusting Business Relationships 6. Ethics of Corporate Case 6.1: GAIL Pipeline Blast Kills Critical Thinking Case 6.2: Closing of Nokia Plant at Chennai Corporate Case 6.3: POSCO: South Korean Mining Project in Odisha, India PART TWO: Agency: 7. Ethics of Corporate Case 7.1: Dassault Aviation and the Defense Ministry, India Moral Reasoning Case 7.2: Arun Jaitley, Modiy’s Chanakya Ethics of Decisions Case 7.3: Mukesh Ambani: The New Media Moghul in India! Corporate Dilemmas, 8. Ethics of Corporate Case 8.1: The Glory and Decline of Merrill Lynch: Violation of Business Acts and Moral Rights and Duties rights and Duties? toward all Stakeholders Case 8.2: The Debacle of “Paid News” Media in India Process Actions Case 8.3: Vedanta’s Rights on Bauxite Mining in Niyamgiri Hills, Odisha 9. Ethics of Moral Case 9.1: Infosys: Leadership Crisis with Top Management Corporate Leadership Case 9.2: Headhunting for CEOs Case 9.3: SBI Complies with BASEL III Reforms PART Corporate 10. Ethics of Corporate Case 10.1: The Tata House: Icon of Corporate Responsibility Justice Case 10.2: Dubious Outcomes at Starbucks Coffee Company THREE: Decision- Case 10.3: Bajaj Auto: Chakan Plant Relocation and Labor Ethics of Outcomes & Displacement Corporate Social 11. Ethics of Corporate Case 11.1: Should Reliance Industries Ltd Reform? Responsibility Case 11.2 : Maruti Plant Violence at Manesar and Thereafter Business Externalities Case 11.3: India’s Super Rich: The High Jumpers Outputs 2 ________________________________________________________________________ Case 3.3: Dr. Amar Gopal Bose, Acoustics Pioneer and Inventor (November 2, 1929 – July 12, 2013) Ozzie Mascarenhas SJ, PhD JRD Tata Chair Professor of Business Ethics, XLRI, Jamshedpur, India June 15, 2015 Amar Gopal Bose, the visionary MIT engineer, professor, inventor, billionaire entrepreneur, founder and CEO, Bose Corporation, dies peacefully at his home in Wayland, Massachusetts, Friday, July 12, 2013. He was 83. Vanu G. Bose, his son confirmed his death. Dr. Amar Gopal Bose (1929-2013), Acoustic Pioneer was the inventor of many acoustic products, among them: a) Bose 901 Direct/Reflecting audio speakers systems; b) Bose Wave Radio and, and c) Bose noise-cancelling headphones. AMAR GOPAL BOSE a pioneer in modern acoustic and founder of the Bose corporation which is known as the high end audio products bearing his last name, was inducted in the National Inventors Hall of Fame in the U.S, which previously honored the likes of Thomas Edison, Graham bell, and Wright Brothers. Key Events: 1947: Soon after graduating from high school in Philadelphia, Amar won admission in the prestigious Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) where he completed his bachelors, masters and doctorate degrees in electrical engineering. 1950s: He was deeply disappointed by the inferior sound of high-priced systems. Hence his urge to reinvent sound reproduction. 1956: Obtains PhD from MIT, and wins a faculty position at MIT. 1960s: Early 1960s, Bose invented a new type of stereo speaker based on psychoacoustics, the study of sound perception. 1 1960s: His design incorporated multiple small speakers directed towards the surrounding walls of concert hall such that the reflected sound reaches the listener rather than directly facing the listener. Hence, larger sound is heard in concert halls. 1964, at the urging of his mentor and advisor at MIT, Professor Y. W. Lee, Bose founded his company to pursue long-term research in acoustics. Bose founded his company “The Bose Corporation”. 1968: Amar used the concept of blending the direct and reflect sound instead of the conventional concept wherein loud speakers radiated sound only forward. Thus he invented “Bose 901 Direct/Reflecting audio speakers systems.” 1982: Bose audio systems found its way in vehicles of world’s top automakers including Mercedes and Porsche 1983: Introduced industry’s first custom-engineered, factory-installed sound system. 1988: Bose became the first company to pay for the title of official Olympics sound system supplier. 1993: Opened its first store in Kittery, Maine. Since then Bose has opened 190 stores in the U.S and numerous locations worldwide. 2004: Unveiled a prototype application of the technology after more than 20 years of research. 2007: Won International Telematics Award for the “Best Storage solution for In-Car Environment.” 2010: Introduced Bose Ride, an active system that reduces road-induced vibration in the driver’s seat. 2011: Having taught at MIT for more than 45 years, Amar Bose donated a majority of his company’s (The Bose Corporation) shares to his alma mater MIT. His name and company became synonymous with high quality audio systems and speakers for home users, auditoriums and automobiles. He was born of Noni Gopal Bose, a Bengali freedom fighter who had fled to the USA in 1920, who later married an American schoolteacher. Noni was studying physics at Calcutta University when he was arrested and imprisoned for his opposition to British rule in India.