Case Study: Banana Telecommunications Limited (BTL)

Banana Telecommunications Limited (BTL) was a US-based Global Systems for Mobile communication (GSM) network providers. Due to the deregulation of the mobile phone market in Nigeria in 2010, BTL ventured to launch its mobile phone service in the country.

Nigeria is a middle income, mixed economy and emerging market, with expanding financial, service, communications, and entertainment sectors. It is ranked 30th in the world in terms of GDP (PPP) as of 2011, and its emergent, though currently underperforming manufacturing sector is the third-largest on Africa, producing a large proportion of goods and services for the West African region.

BTL deployed senior management staff from the US but employed Nigerian local people to take up front-line jobs including marketing and sales, customer service and maintenance. These staff members all received a few years of secondary education but not high school or university. It was good news for them to be employed by BTL because they meant a stable income source for their families. The pay offered by BTL was also about 10% higher than local companies for the similar level of jobs.

After the staff members were recruited, they attended an orientation programme on relevant job knowledge and skills. In particular, BTL emphasized honesty, integrity and respect when dealing with their customers. The speaker from the US headquarters, Mr. Jack Turner, said, "We hold honesty and integrity as our guiding principles," "Our customers entrust us with their vital data. We must do everything to keep it safe." He told cases in the US that data were stolen either by employees or by subcontractors that had access to it and then sold to spammers. "The consequences to the customers - the employees who sold the data - can be disastrous."

Paul Martins, a Nigerian aged 23, successfully joined the sales department of BTL in January 2011. Being a devout Christian, he was receptive to the core values of the company. However, after working for several weeks, he found something quite unimaginable - some salesmen of the department sold the personal data of the customers, including their names, addresses, email addresses, and telephone numbers to an advertising company. This worked blatantly against the values and principles of the company, but regrettably there was no data protection law in Nigeria at that moment.

Paul tactfully asked one of the salesmen, Samuel Adebayo, why they did so. Samuel, a bit surprised by the questions, asked Paul in return, "What is the problem with this? The law doesn't prohibit selling customers' personal data. Everyone here does this. You are too green and nave." Indeed, this was Paul's first job in a large company, and he could not gauge whether this practice was normal or acceptable in the workplace.

On another occasion, he asked another salesman, Emmanuel Adeyemi, the same question. Again, Emmanuel could not understand why Paul asked. "Don't think this is US. Forget what you heard in the orientation. They were for the white guys only," Emmanuel answered. From what Paul heard and observed, selling personal data of the customers was not a rare incident in BTL Nigeria. However, his religious background still kept reminding him that this was something improper.

One day Paul joined a chat in the pantry with the other salesmen for a break. Samuel delightedly announced that he sold 500 "cases" for USD250 recently. Others wondered how he could gain so much. He explained that the cases were about prominent people in the city, which he obtained through some secret routes. Because of the status of these people, each case was pricier. Others talked about the number of cases they sold and were all glad to have such extra income.

Some days later, Emmanuel approached Paul and said, "Hey guy, you know the wage here is low. You've been working hard and got more than 100 customers in these weeks. Do you earn more because of that? No, not a dime. You see people are selling cases here and they earn much more than their wage. Don't be innocent and pretend to be upright. You'll never regret."

Business went on as usual for two months. The other salesmen often shared how many cases they sold and how much they earned from time to time, but Paul remained a listener and did not participate.

In April 2011, there was news reporting incidents that some citizens' personal data including credit card account were used by some criminals in online shopping. The amounts were small, but information technology experts interviewed on TV pointed out the loopholes in Internet banking in Nigeria and the weak protection of personal data by companies in the country.

A few days later, further news reports revealed that some famous people lost a large sum of money in some online gambling, but actually it was because their personal data were used illegally by criminals in online betting. In some casino sites in Africa, a person could register as an online customer so long as the name, personal ID, address, phone number and bank account number were provided.

Commentators pointed out that evidence had shown that organizations, which obtained and sold personal information, had fallen prey to sophisticated criminals. These include:

• Customers of financial institutions had been tricked into handing their personal data through phishing scams.
• Personal information brokers had had their systems breached by identity theft criminals.
• Internal staff members had colluded with criminals to illegally sell personal information, which was then used to purchase goods without the knowledge of the individual.

That shocked the Nigerian government and also many companies which collected customers' personal data. BTL was one of these companies.

At the end of April 2011, two senior management people, Tom Carter and Tony Olsen, from the US headquarters of BTL came to the country to investigate the matter. After meeting the local senior management, Tom and Tony met the salespeople and checked how far they complied with the ethical standards and regulatory practice of the company. Those salespeople involved in selling cases were scared. They were not sure if they would be prosecuted because of the ambiguities in relevant law in Nigeria; they might lose their jobs if found breaching company regulations. During the time when unemployment rate in the country reached 20% high, they might not be able to find another job easily and this might threaten the economic well-being of their families.

In early May 2011, Paul was invited by Tom and Tony for an investigative interview. Tom started the conversation, "When you first jointed BTL, you attended the orientation and understood the ethical standards of our company. The fact that you continued to work here means that you subscribe to these standards. Tell me, did you disclose the personal data of your customers to any outsiders?" Paul definitely denied. Tony chimed in, "Did you see anyone did this?" Paul was puzzled whether he should tell the truth.

Discussion questions [Around 1.0.0 wor.d.s for each question]:

1. Explain what promoted the culture of selling customers' personal data among salesmen in BTL Nigeria and how the culture might affect individual salesmen.

1. From the perspectives of Business Ethics, analyze whether Paul should tell the truth to Tom and Tony. Considering these as a whole, if you were Paul, would you tell the truth to Tom and Tony? Explain your answer.