Who Did I Interview?
For my second product, I interviewed two professionals who are immersed in the business world. The first was my uncle, James Volpe. Mr. Volpe works as a salesman for a computer technology company in California. He's worked for the same company for a long time and owns a good deal of company stock, so he also has an extra stake in his company and serves as liaison between prospective clients and the company. The second person was Brian Fierston. Mr. Fierston is one of the owners of Fierston Financial, a small, family-owned investment advising firm based in West Hartford. The firm itself has around 300 clients, around 160 of which are managed personally by Mr. Fierston.
For my second product, I interviewed two professionals who are immersed in the business world. The first was my uncle, James Volpe. Mr. Volpe works as a salesman for a computer technology company in California. He's worked for the same company for a long time and owns a good deal of company stock, so he also has an extra stake in his company and serves as liaison between prospective clients and the company. The second person was Brian Fierston. Mr. Fierston is one of the owners of Fierston Financial, a small, family-owned investment advising firm based in West Hartford. The firm itself has around 300 clients, around 160 of which are managed personally by Mr. Fierston.
What Did I Ask?
Takeaways
It was immediately clear during both of my interviews that ethics played a major role in the work of Mr. Volpe and Mr. Fierston. Although they have different jobs in the business world, they both rely on customers trusting their word. For Mr. Volpe, this comes in the form of prospective customers believing that he is giving them an honest depiction of his product; for Mr. Fierston, it comes as clients entrusting their money to his decision making. This leads to the main ethical dilemmas: once trust is established, it can be easy to abuse, whether this means lying to a customer about a product or steering them towards investments with higher commissions but less returns. The unethical choices don't always have to be so direct, either. Simply withholding information, like not telling a customer who lacks technical knowledge that some of their needs might not be met by the software being sold, or not telling a client that there's a fund of equal value but with less commission to get into, is also manipulating the customer's trust. For Mr. Fierston, resisting unethical choices isn't an issue. His company has a fiduciary agreement, meaning that they are legally obligated to literally always do whatever is in the best interest of client, holding nothing back. On top of that, he invests his own money along with his clients, providing an additional level of confidence. For Mr. Volpe, maintaining ethical standards is a much more personal matter, because as a salesman most of his work is done independently. However, in his experience, the most profitable sales are the ones that lead to long-term relationships, where the customer returns to him for further information and assistance. Obviously, if a customer feels he's been cheated or tricked in a sale, he's unlikely to return to that salesman. To create lasting relationships with his customers, Mr. Volpe practices complete honesty and transparency, as well as breaking down the negative stereotypes and inherent mistrust that comes up when people hear the word "salesman". Finally, Mr. Volpe and Mr. Fierston were both in agreement when it came to the main motivators behind unethical business. They both stated greed as one of the biggest, but also named a different motivation that I hadn't thought of: fear. Whether it's the fear of losing your job, not being able to provide for yourself or your family, or simply fear of the shame of underperforming in cutthroat corporate environments, fear can be just as big of a motivator for unethical business as greed.
It was immediately clear during both of my interviews that ethics played a major role in the work of Mr. Volpe and Mr. Fierston. Although they have different jobs in the business world, they both rely on customers trusting their word. For Mr. Volpe, this comes in the form of prospective customers believing that he is giving them an honest depiction of his product; for Mr. Fierston, it comes as clients entrusting their money to his decision making. This leads to the main ethical dilemmas: once trust is established, it can be easy to abuse, whether this means lying to a customer about a product or steering them towards investments with higher commissions but less returns. The unethical choices don't always have to be so direct, either. Simply withholding information, like not telling a customer who lacks technical knowledge that some of their needs might not be met by the software being sold, or not telling a client that there's a fund of equal value but with less commission to get into, is also manipulating the customer's trust. For Mr. Fierston, resisting unethical choices isn't an issue. His company has a fiduciary agreement, meaning that they are legally obligated to literally always do whatever is in the best interest of client, holding nothing back. On top of that, he invests his own money along with his clients, providing an additional level of confidence. For Mr. Volpe, maintaining ethical standards is a much more personal matter, because as a salesman most of his work is done independently. However, in his experience, the most profitable sales are the ones that lead to long-term relationships, where the customer returns to him for further information and assistance. Obviously, if a customer feels he's been cheated or tricked in a sale, he's unlikely to return to that salesman. To create lasting relationships with his customers, Mr. Volpe practices complete honesty and transparency, as well as breaking down the negative stereotypes and inherent mistrust that comes up when people hear the word "salesman". Finally, Mr. Volpe and Mr. Fierston were both in agreement when it came to the main motivators behind unethical business. They both stated greed as one of the biggest, but also named a different motivation that I hadn't thought of: fear. Whether it's the fear of losing your job, not being able to provide for yourself or your family, or simply fear of the shame of underperforming in cutthroat corporate environments, fear can be just as big of a motivator for unethical business as greed.