Re: Bribing Corporate Clients; was Billing Problems...

[Bill Burns <BillDB -at- ILE -dot- COM>]

Tom writes:

        ----------8<

> The CEO clearly stated that the
> corporation's employees should not do anything that could be construed
> as favortism or accepting bribes. As punishment, employees could be
> dismissed for accepting fishing trips, dinners, tickets to sporting
> events or any other "gratuity." Employees were to inform any vendor
> that
> "offered" such benefits that these benefits were unacceptable and
> further approaches could result in a cessation of business with the
> vendor.
>
> How well they enforce that, I'm not sure. But it makes a lot of sense
> for a company to implement a policy like that.
>
        -----------8<

Well, I think most of the examples noted here are certainly
questionable, but how do you draw the line between a dinner offered as a
gratuity and a lunch where you pick your clients' brains so you can
better address their needs? I take clients to lunch regularly because
it's a good way for me to build a working relationship with them. They
also get a chance to listen to my ideas in a less formal context (albeit
also in much less detail).

I'd hope the difference is obvious to the clients' management, but
sometimes policies like this are applied so blindly that they rule out
legitimate methods of doing business.

Bill Burns
Senior Technical Writer
ILE Communications Group
billdb -at- ile -dot- com