Brixton Surgical Devices, a public company with sales of over $900,000,000, is one of the worlds largest productions of surgical clamps, saws, screws, and stents. Its business involves production of both stock items and customs pieces for doctors at research hospitals.

At the end of the third quarter of 2011, it became clear to Ed Walters, chief operating officer, and Robin Smith , chief financial officer, that the company would not make the aggressive annual earnings target specified by the board of directors. In consequence, Ed and Robin would not receive bonuses, which historically had averaged about 35 percent of their base compensation. The two devised the following strategy.

Heres what well do, suggested Ed. Weve never offered our customers a discount. Lets change that right now. Well offer a 25 percent discount on all orders placed in October and November for delivery in December of 2011.

That will certainly boost fourth-quarter sales, said Robin. But you know, it wont really increase total sales. Itll just transfer some sales from the first quarter of 2012 to the fourth quarter of 2011. Of course, 2011 is where we need earnings to hit our bonus target. Hey, Ive got another idea. We can also jack up productions of our stock items in the fourth quarter. With our high-priced production equipment weve got a ton of overhead. But the more we produce the more overhead we can bury in inventory. With lower unit costs and higher sales, profit will go way up. Lets get going on execution. Ive got to get the marketing people working the promotion, and youve got to update the production schedule. This could end up being our best year ever in terms of bonuses!

Required: Are the proposed actions of Ed and Robin ethical? What is the likely effect of their actions on shareholder value?