Every morning I turn on the radio and listen to the news while brushing my teeth. Today one story caught my ear in particular. Telus mobility lost an appeal seeking reimbursement for the cost of providing customer data for police investigations.
If I was an entrepreneur, I could possibly understand the point. But that would depend on a number of factors: Would my cooperation help anybody? How much is it costing me? Am I losing my shirt?
In this case the Supreme Court of Canada referred to Telus expenses in 2004 as an example. The company spent $662,000, or 0.023 per cent of its operating revenue, assisting police. The Ontario Crown pointed out, that is “the equivalent of a person earning $100,000 a year having to spend up to $58 to comply with jury duty.” And not only was Telus turned down because helping with police investigations was a minimal expense, but also because it was deemed the company’s civic and moral duty.
Now as a PR student and a Telus customer, I turn off the faucet and think to myself, “Who the heck is handling communications over there?” Seriously. Wouldn’t you want to promote your company as an upstanding, ethical contributor to justice? Wouldn’t you want to send out a message to customers and non-customers saying, “We’re happy to help,” rather than, “We’re too cheap to help, even if it means catching a murderer, rapist, or child sex offender.”
I know not every decision is made by the public relations department in a major corporation. But regardless of who decided to take this issue to the courts, you would think Telus, a brand which is so strongly built on pretty flowers and cute furry monkeys, would think a little harder about maintaining a positive corporate image.
That’s what happens when the accounting department makes moral decisions for the company.
It was obviously gamble somebody decided to take – the cost of legal fees was outweighed by the opportunity to get some of that operating cost back, and the decision was based on that.
They probably didn’t consider the implications it would have on their corporate image, sadly.