The FTC’s Revised Endorsement Guides: What People are Asking
Suppose you meet someone who tells you about a great new product. It performs exactly as advertised and offers fantastic new features. Would that endorsement factor into your decision to buy the product? Probably.
Now suppose you learn that the person works for the company that sells the product – or has been paid by the company to tout the product. Would you want to know that when you’re evaluating the endorser’s glowing recommendation? You bet.
Read more: Truth in Endorsement and Advertising Disclosure : FTC's Revised Rules
On Thursday, I spoke with Human Resource leaders attending the Richmond SHRM Strategic Leadership Conference about The Future of Ethics and Business Leadership.
The lens I used to frame the discussion was leadership development – how we can prepare leaders to lead ethically in a highly complex, connected future.
A while back, a familiar story caught my attention on a recruiting forum - an individual was asking for advice and a mentor – he was struggling to find a job, and was asking for suggestions and help – a mentor from the group. There were several individuals who responded to this gentleman, some with good advice but one response stuck out – "I also hope others have the courage to speak up about the lonely nature of the job search process." That really tugged at my heartstrings.
Every year the CEO visited the various locations and met with the employees. It was always very pleasant with a lot of shaking hands and smiles plus snacks and drinks. The CEO was a jolly person in public, seemed genuinely interested in employees, and remembered quite a few of their names.
I wrote the speech.
Read more: HR Wrote the CEO's Speech - How Sincere Should It Be?
In the September 2011 issue of the Harvard Business Review, in an article entitled “How to Cultivate Engaged Employees”, author Charalambos A. Vlachoutsicos wrote about his experiences in working for a family-owned multi-national organization. From his experiences he learned how to “engage contributions from and thereby promote engagement by, local employees” in a multi-national organization.”
