Cobwebs

Would you set up a factory and employ children to work in it?

I imagine that most of you would answer this question with a resounding no, but consider this:

Would you set up a factory and employ children if the factory was located in a poor developing nation with very few schools and the children would be starving or turning to crime if they didn't work in your factory?

What if the government of that country passed a law stating that 20% of the workforce of all new factories must be children? What would you do?

Now, suppose that your parent company had a Corporate Social Policy that stated that the company aimed to promote the "education, happiness and well being of children". Would that change your answer?

Let say that the business that you are in is producing educational toys for children and that is the main product of your new factory.

How do you think that a mother who has just bought one of your toys for her child feels when she discovers that the very people who are making those same toys are children, just like her son? What will she think about your company?

Google is in a precarious space at the moment with their decision to go into China. In an industry with incredibly low switching costs, a psychological contract based on trust is the only thing that binds their customers to the brand. It is all Google has. Eroding that trust for the sake of market share could be the thing that looses them the entire market.

It reminds me of a fable that I heard when I was younger about a guy who used to be called the "Human Fly" because he would climb up the outside of buildings with no support. One day he climbed up to the nineth floor of a very tall building... then fell. Urban legend has it that when they found his body, he was clutching a cobweb in his hand - what he had thought had been a solid support, turned out to be his downfall.

I hope that this latest move doesn't have Google clutching at cobwebs.