Advanced Business Culture ESL Lesson Plan: Warm-up (Pair Work)
1) What’s the best way to invest for your future?
2) What companies do you feel overcharge or abuse their customers?
3) What is the purpose of a corporation or financial institution?
4) Have you ever quit a job for ethical reasons?
5) What are the values of the company you work for?
Reading: Why Greg Smith Left Goldman Sachs (March, 2012)
Greg Smith has created a significant buzz on Wall Street. When he resigned on March 14th as
an executive director at Goldman Sachs, one of the world’s largest investment banks, he
decided to publish his resignation letter in the New York Times. Needless to say, he has
definitely burned his bridges with his former employer. After 12 years at Goldman Sachs,
which he writes was “long enough to understand the trajectory of [the company’s] culture”,
Smith claims he could no longer in good conscience identify with what the company stood for.
He complains of a shift in the company’s practices from protecting client interests towards a
culture of money-grubbing in which the client’s interests are sidelined. According to Smith, the
mission today is to get clients to trade whatever brings the biggest profit to Goldman. He writes:
“Integrity? It is eroding. I don’t know of any illegal behavior, but will people push the
envelope and pitch lucrative and complicated products to clients even if they are not the
simplest investments or the ones most directly aligned with the client’s goals? Absolutely.
Every day, in fact.”
He described an environment where colleagues callously boast about ripping off clients, whom
directors refer to as “muppets.”
Smith concludes his letter by stating:
“I hope this can be a wake-up call to the board of directors. Make the client the focal
point of your business again. Without clients you will not make money. In fact, you will
not exist. Weed out the morally bankrupt people, no matter how much money they make
for the firm. And get the culture right again, so people want to work here for the right
reasons. People who care only about making money will not sustain this firm — or the
trust of its clients — for very much longer.” [299 words]
[Original: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/03/14/opinion/why-i-am-leaving-goldman-sachs.html]
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Business Ethics ESL Lesson Plan: Follow-Up Questions
1) What prompted Greg Smith to resign?
2) True or False: Smith accused Goldman Sachs of illegal business practices.
3) Who are ‘muppets’?
4) What does the phrase morally bankrupt mean?
5) What effect does Smith hope his letter will have?
6) Your Opinion: Do you commend Greg Smith for how he resigned?
7) Your Opinion: What surprised you about the article?
Match the words with their meaning as used in the article.
1. burn your bridges
2. trajectory
3. in good conscience
4. money-grubbing
5. integrity
6. erode (verb)
7. push the envelope
8. lucrative
9. callous
10. rip sb off (phr. verb)
11. focal point
12. weed out sth (phr. verb)
a.
b.
c.
d.
e.
f.
g.
h.
i.
j.
k.
l.
go beyond the limit of what is usually done or accepted
the curved path sth thrown in the air will travel
trying to get a lot of money (disapproving)
profitable
cheat sb by making them pay too much
destroy a relationship so you cannot return somewhere
honestly
remove or get rid of unwanted things from a group
wear away; crumble; deteriorate
without caring about other people’s feelings
the center of interest or activity
the quality of being honest and having strong principles
Master the language: Connect the below ideas to make a sentence. (good for homework)
government / crush / uprising
burn his bridges / consequence
trajectory / missile
good conscience / rip off
callous / money-grubbing
weed out / integrity
erode / values
push the envelope
pitch / lucrative
focal point / business
e.g. The government plans to crush the uprising.
Business Ethics ESL Lesson Plan: Dissatisfied Employees
What can companies do to prevent dissatisfied or disgruntled employees from making their
feelings public?
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Business Ethics ESL Lesson Plan: Role-play
Student A:
It’s March 13th. Your friend, Greg Smith, tells you he plans to resign tomorrow. You
don’t believe he should. Try to think of reasons why he shouldn’t. (Possible reasons: 1)
money 2) businesses are all the same 3) if he wants to make a difference, then stay
and fix the problem, etc.)
Student B:
It’s March 13th. Tomorrow, you plan to quit your job. Tell your friend (Student A), about
your plan to resign and also post your resignation letter publicly.
Business Ethics ESL Lesson Plan: Thrasymachus’ Challenge
In Plato’s The Republic, Thrasymachus challenges Socrates to tell him why it is better in life to
be just. Thrasymachus argues that it is not only more profitable to be unjust and immoral but
also more rational to be so. He argues that the unjust life is more pleasant and offers more
rewards. The life of the moral man, however, is wretched and unhappy. How would you respond
to Thrasymachus’ challenge?
Business Ethics ESL Lesson Plan: Situations
Discuss the below situations with a partner. Share your ideas with the class when finished.
1. If you are overworked and underpaid, is it okay to conduct personal business on
company time?
2. If you and two other members of a five-person team did all the work on a project, would
you tell management about this? Is it okay to put the other co-workers in a negative light?
Business Ethics ESL Lesson Plan: Mission, Vision, and Values (Optional Pair Work)
Combine you and your partner’s last names to make the name of a financial institution. Next,
draw up a basic company mission statement that outlines its core values.
Business Ethics ESL Lesson Plan: Discussion Questions
1) Why should companies value anything other than their own profits?
2) What are the pros and cons of exit interviews?
3) What repercussions do you think await Greg Smith?
4) Whistle-blowing: Is Gregory Smith a whistle-blower?
5) Banking: Would banking services improve if banks were public?
6) How can the business culture described by Smith be changed?
-Business Ethics Lesson plan copyright Matthew Barton of Englishcurrent.com
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