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Memo to Martha Stewart, CEO of Martha Stewart Omnimedia

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Memo to Martha Stewart, CEO of Martha Stewart Omnimedia

Dear Ms. Stewart,

I am writing to address some concerns I have about the future of your company, Martha Stewart Omnimedia (MSO). Perhaps the one issue that you are grappling with at present is about the Imclone scandal. You have been accused of selling $227,000 worth of Imclone stock based on inside information. Because of these charges of insider trading, your critics have summarily associated you with other disgraced company directors: Kenneth Lay of Enron and Bernard Ebbers of WorldCom. But the strange thing about your case is that while other CEOs have been charged for making use of their own companies to gain profit for themselves, you, on the other hand, have not purposefully misled investors or doctored MSO’s accounts.

William Evan and Edward Freeman, in their essay “A Stakeholder Theory of the Modern Corporation,” argue that the objective of a company and its managers is not only to maximize profit for its owners and stockholders, but also to balance the benefits received or losses incurred by other stakeholders—employees, suppliers, customers, and the local community, all of whom may be influenced by company decisions. As the owner of MSO, your aim is ostensibly to maximize profits for yourself, but unlike most other indicted CEOs, you have not tried to obtain personal gains at the expense of the stakeholders of your enterprise. Rather, the charges that have been brought against you are for your dealings with another company; in this day and age where investors bemoan the lack of ethics of CEOs who use the power of their position in the boardroom to achieve selfish gains at the expense of their own company and its stakeholders, the charges of insider t...

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...ks Cited

Carnegie, Andrew. “Wealth.” Advanced College Essay: Business and Its Publics. Ed. Pat C. Hoy II and Denice Martone. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. 279-84.

Didion, Joan. “Everywoman.com.” Advanced College Essay: Business and Its Publics. Ed. Pat C. Hoy II and Denice Martone. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. 143-52.

Evan, William M. and Edward R. Freeman. “A Stakeholder Theory of The Modern Corporation: Kantian Capitalism.” Advanced College Essay: Business and Its Publics. Ed. Pat C. Hoy II and Denice Martone. New York: McGraw-Hill, 2002. 329-38.

Hays, Constance L. “Martha Stewart Living Says Revenue Fell 14% in the Quarter.” The New York Times. 1 May. 2003. <http://www.nytimes.com/2003/05/01/

business/01MART.html?ex=1052842206&ei=1&en=9a279f75103ff87e>

Martha Stewart Omnimedia. Martha Stewart Omnimedia. 16 Oct. 2001. http://www.marthastewart.com
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