
Zynga CEO Mark Pyncus, scolds new HBS dean on ethics (2006) - andrewljohnson
http://markpincus.typepad.com/markpincus/2006/04/open_letter_to_.html
======
abyssknight
I tried to read this, really I did, but the lack of capitalization makes me
want to die a swift death. You're writing to the Harvard Business School. Man
up and use the shift key already.

~~~
_delirium
The lack of a blank line (or any vertical space) between paragraphs is what
makes it particularly unreadable for me. It looks like the source does
separate the paragraphs, so seems like a bad choice of CSS.

~~~
xiongchiamiov
Thank God for Readability: <http://lab.arc90.com/experiments/readability/>

Doesn't fix everything, but it sure helps.

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twir
An ethics lecture from a man whose company sells spyware (Zwinky toolbar) and
highly profitable add-ons to games under the pretext of charity (Farmville
"donations" to Haiti)?

EDIT: oh, and whose company essentially ripped off the idea of Farmville from
someone else. Forgot about that one.

~~~
teej
>> An ethics lecture from a man whose company

This was written a year before Zynga was formed. I still think he's
hypocritical, but let's be clear about the context.

>> sells spyware (Zwinky toolbar)

I have no idea where you got this idea from. Zynga does not make Zwinky,
Mindspark Interactive Network does.

>> highly profitable add-ons to games under the pretext of charity (Farmville
"donations" to Haiti)?

A 50% charity split isn't shabby. Sure, Zynga should have given 100%, but
there are higher profile initiatives with MUCH lower splits. Product (red) is
a great example where buying a $150 iPod nets a whopping $10 for The Global
Fund.

\--------------------------

Disclosure: Current Zynga employee.

~~~
bl4k
> Zynga does not make Zwinky, Mindspark Interactive Network does.

But they need distribution, and they got that through Pincus - See: "I did
every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues" :
[http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-
pinkus...](http://techcrunch.com/2009/11/06/zynga-scamville-mark-pinkus-
faceboo/)

> Product (red) is a great example where buying a $150 iPod nets a whopping
> $10 for The Global Fund.

You really can not compare the two. The BOM and cost of production on an iPod
is probably $120. The incremental cost of a Farmville credit is thousands of a
cent.

~~~
teej
> But they need distribution, and they got that through Pincus

Point conceded, I didn't know about that.

> You really can not compare the two.

A fair comparison isn't far out of reach - Shazam (red) only donates 20% of
its iPhone app sales. My point isn't about these specific deals, it's that
charity-share deals aren't uncommon and a 50% share is above industry
standard.

And for what it's worth, Zynga did spike their contributions to 100% after the
earthquake hit. Through the sales of items in Farmville, they raised over
$1.5M for earthquake relief, more than most NGOs, private companies, and
countries.

------
randomguy123
Btw its old 2006, the Dean of HBS is now someone else.

------
randomguy123
I never understood the pursuit of ethics by all business schools. I mean
business schools select and reward people with questionable ethical practices.
They should at least stop putting up all this hypocrisy at least. I mean
Harvard considered Jeff Skilling as the best student ever until he came out as
a complete sham.

At least everyone in oil industry and academia has guts to speak out against
climate change and to deny it. in similar fashion i expect HBS and others to
show how unethical behavior is good for human kind. A la The Selfish Gene or
something.

------
lanstein
Pincus in title is spelled wrong, FWIW.

------
aspir
This type of mentality is the reason that I stopped halfway between my HBS 2+2
application when I was able to apply. MBA culture is that of stagnant, tepid
growth with a fortune 500 company. I was attracted to business from a social
sciences background because I could see that some companies positively impact
the world- but not the kind a high-level MBA sets you up to fit in with.

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rokhayakebe
It may be a little one, or a big one but "Behind every empire there is a
crime".

I would like to know examples of companies that are significantly successful
today where the founders did not do anything unethical at some point to fuel
growth.

~~~
lsc
how about examples of failed companies where the founders did not do anything
unethical at some point to get ahead? Or hell, examples of individuals who did
not do something unethical at some point to get ahead?

I'm not saying this makes it okay or anything... but all of us are guilty, at
one point or another, of doing something unethical. we are all human. Really,
I think this is one of those things the Christians got right. we will all
screw it up. (I'm not sure I agree with the way the Christians go about
seeking atonement, but I agree that atonement is a very human need, and that
this idea that we should be able to forgive ourselves for past misdeeds while
still working hard to do the right thing next time is a good one.)

So, really, I don't think your question is particularly fair... yeah, we've
all done things that we shouldn't have... but I think it's a mistake to always
credit our successes to our misdeeds; in fact, I've found the opposite to
usually be the case. Maybe it's just my skillset, but nearly every time I've
attempted to act in a deceitful or unethical way, it came back to bite me but
good. - really, this is the origin of my own "keep as few secrets as possible"
policy. Openness just seems to work better, at least when you have my
skillset.

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VladRussian
just a typical MBA - ramping up to comfortable number of millions by "I did
every horrible thing in the book just to get revenues" and changing business
model to preaching after that.

I especially like that "donations" business. Some years ago, a recent
immigrant, i was surprised by how actively everybody would be harvesting
donations ... until i learned that it is only (100-x)% that makes it to the
charities, where "x" can be whatever donation harvester deems "expenses"

------
raheemm
Does this letter really capture the attitude towards ethics at HBS? Any
alumni/student care to elaborate?

------
sabat
Most (or all) cynics start out as dewy-eyed optimists.

------
sili
Followed by a template reply from the dean, which completely ignores any
points maid in the original letter.

~~~
brown9-2
You're reading it backwards. This blog post reads like an email reply to an
email blast from the new dean to all alumni. The >'s are the quoted message.

~~~
ewrgqewrgqerg
Nice, who said top-posting was more intuitive ?

