The other day in the business ethics class that I teach, I mentioned two very different people with whom I crossed paths — Crooked Ole and Mr. Bowlby.
Crooked Ole owned a small boat factory in the neck of the woods in Montana where I grew up. I am not proud of the fact that I worked for him, but it was the only job I could find when I graduated from high school and needed a job in order to earn money for college.
Crooked Ole cared only about one thing — making money. He came up with a way to save money on his electric bill. He asked (told) one of his employees, who had worked as an electrician, to wire a shunt around the electric meter so that only part of the electricity he used ran through the meter.
On another occasion (which happened before I worked for him), he sold an outboard motor that a customer had brought in for repair to another customer. When the customer who owned the outboard motor that was sold came in to pick up his motor, Ole explained that a terrible mistake had been made and offered to give him another outboard motor in its place. The customer would have none of it and demanded that his own outboard motor be returned.
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