Martha McCaskey Harvard Business School - Essay Example

Martha McCaskey Harvard Business School Many times we are confronted by situations that come as a test to our moral values. At times when we encounter difficult ethical decision to make, a choice between living with one's values and compromising them for benefits must be done. Martha McCaskey experienced such a situation. McCaskey is at a crucial point in her career. She is twenty-nine years and had worked with Seleries, a consulting firm for the past 18 months. Martha McCaskey had joined the consulting firm after completing her MBA at Harvard Business School in 1995 (Martha McCaskey 3).

Before joining Seleries, McCaskey had worked at a key consumer electronics after graduating from Caltech as an electrical engineer. Although McCaskey demonstrated excellence while working at a biomedical firm in Massachusetts, she declined an offer to work there after completing her MBA since she wanted to work in a consultant firm. That is how McCaskey landed at Seleries Consulting Firm. At Seleries, McCaskey was posted to work at the industry analysis division ('Martha McCaskey 4). The first assignment at the division was to conduct a competitive analysis study for the company.

The excellence with which McCaskey completed this first project earned her complementation by her seniors at the company. Her report was termed as being the best received since the beginning of the enterprise. She had done an excellent job. McCaskey's second assignment that came two weeks later was to conduct a competitive analysis for another company that made printed circuit boards (Martha McCaskey 4). Due to the sensitivity of the project, McCaskey was assigned two other members of the old guard to work with.

The task was quite arduous given the lack of information and cooperation from his assigned members of the project. The report took too long to complete. Over nine months. Despite the many tasks, McCaskey developed her attitude of maintaining integrity in completing the assigned projects. Her efforts were recognized and appreciated. In 1996, McCaskey was given a substantial salary increase and a bonus of $25,000 (Martha McCaskey 5). The Silicon 6 Project came in January 1997. The project involved an old client for Seleries and concerned a new type of computer chip that was being produced by a primary competitor to the customer.

There was required a detailed information concerning the costs and manufacturing processes for the new computer chip (Martha McCaskey 6). The project was assigned to McCaskey. The project was a great challenge for McCaskey given the detailed and secretive information required. The company expected that no unethical means should be used in the course of duty even though many people violated the requirement. The search for information took the form of interviewing ex-employees of the target company.

Silicon 6 project was not an easy task (Martha McCaskey 8). However, the successful completion of the project would earn her a promotion and an additional significant pay increase. Completing the project while maintaining the values McCaskey embraced was an uphill task (Martha McCaskey 10). Somehow, she had a choice to make regarding compromising her values. McCaskey was required to make a decision between maintaining her high degree of integrity that had defined her work at Seleries or just compromise it and play the game.

Completing the project required paying Devon for the information. Works Cited 'Martha McCaskey.' Harvard Business School (2004): 14. Print.