Ethical Marketing Strategies in the Pharmaceutical Industry

Ethical Marketing Strategies in the Pharmaceutical Industry Ethical marketing refers to the application of marketing ethics into the marketing process. Ethical marketing generally results in a more socially responsible and culturally sensitive business community. The establishment of marketing ethics has the potential to benefit society as a whole, both in the short- and long-term. Ethical marketing should be part of business ethics in the sense that marketing forms a significant part of any business model. Marketing strategy can be arranged into five categories, (1) Physicians-targeted promotions, (2) direct-to-consumer advertising, (3) unethical recruitment of physicians, (4) researchers conflicts of interest, and (5) data manipulation in clinical trials. Drug companies promotions subconsciously influence physicians prescription patterns. Heavy advertising to consumers results in more prescriptions being written, whether or not the new drug is in the best interests of patients, and therefore strongly correlates with sales increases for the promoted new drug. It has been estimated that pharmaceutical companies spend Rs.7 Billions every year prompting their product to Physician in Pakistan. Although pharmaceutical marketing strategies are primarily directed toward practicing physicians and residents, medical student are targeted as well. The goal of this study is to asses the importance of ethical marketing strategies of pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan. A questionnaire is design to assess the attitudes of Doctors and pharmaceutical professionals about pharmaceutical promotion, including the acceptability of receiving various gifts, foreign and local sponsorships, and incentives. In this study, Pharmaceutical market will be direct variable, marketing strategies will be indirect variable where as doctors and Pharmaceutical representatives will be population. The scale will use from strongly agree to strongly disagree. Total 180 Questionnaire will be distributed by the researcher. Rresearcher will elaborate here the different choices of m ethodology that have been adopted in this research paper. Research-findings based on data analysis will be discussed in general and exclusively. Finally conclusions and recommendations will be made accordingly. Problem and Its Background Introduction Mark Twain once remarked: Always try to do the right thing. It will surprise a lot of people. And it will astonish the rest. There has long been a close relationship between physicians and the pharmaceutical industry. It has been estimated that 85-90% of doctors in Pakistan see to pharmaceutical representative. These representatives often visit physician offices to discuss their products, provides free samples, and offer gifts. According to industry estimates, pharmaceutical promotional expenditure in Pakistan amounted to Rs.7 Billions in 2009. Approximately 25% of this amount was spend on detailing to doctors, 4% on hospital detailing, 2% on journal ads, 56% on samples, and 12.5% on direct-to-consumer advertisement. The precision and the worth of drug advertisements has been the subject of debate for more than a century now. According to World Health Organizations (WHO) criteria for medicinal drug promotion, promotion refers to all the informational and convincing activities of manufacturers and distributors, the effect of which is to encourage the prescription, supply, purchase and / or use of medicinal drugs. Drug promotion and marketing make up a very large part of the activities of pharmaceutical companies in Pakistan. For the drug promotion, in addition to other activities, companies usually use the written material supposedly showing all the good and bad aspects about the concerned drug. These advertisements can be highly informative as long as they are critically appraised. However, when these are accepted without any question, can contribute to illogical prescribing. Ideally, drug promotional literature should provide health care professionals with considerable information. However, the information contained in promotional material may be inadequate or altogether inaccurate Undoubtedly, the pharmaceutical promotional activities have powerful influences on prescribing behaviour of the doctors although this influence may be more hidden rather than explicit. Being a member state of the United Nations Organization, efforts to regulate drug promotions in Pakistan were also initiated with the proliferation of the Drug Licensing, Registering and Advertising Rules by the Ministry of Health, Government of Pakistan. However, there is no mechanism to monitor the drug promotional campaign by pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan despite the fact that there is enough evidence that logical drug utilization problems are increasingly encountered even in developed countries due to unethical practices of pharmaceutical promotion. Since promotional activities influence the prescribing behaviour of the health care providers, it is of utmost importance to critically analyze the claims made in the promotional material of the drugs. Internationally, aspects of contents in pharmaceutical advertising pertinent to evidence based decision-making have been studied. The extent to which pharmaceutical companies promote the merits of their products and whether such c laims are supported by evidence, has not been studied in Pakistan. The results of the present analytical study show that unethical and biased claims regarding the medicinal products are uncontrolled in Pakistan. These drug promotions influence the prescribing behaviour of the General Practitioners, Consultants thus accounting for one of the potentially major causes of illogical prescription. Pakistan Medical Association has developed Ethical Code of conduct for Doctors and pharmaceutical organizations but are not followed by National companies. All Multinational organizations in Pakistan are following the Pakistan Medical Association (PMA) code of conduct and International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA) code of conduct. The International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations is the global nonprofit NGO representing the research-based pharmaceutical, biotech and vaccine sectors. All the Multinational pharmaceuticals companies running in Pakistan are members of this NGO and bound to follow the code of ethics. Definition of Construct Ethical Marketing Strategies in pharmaceutical industry are the tools and techniques to sell medicines ethically. The strategy must be such that it doesnt not influence the decision making criteria of doctors. Background Information The researcher is working as Field Manger in Roche Pakistan Ltd since last three and half years. Roche Pakistan Ltd is a member of Halfman La Roche Basel, a Switzerland research based multinational organization that is running its businesses in more than 70 countries of 6 continents of the world. Halfman La Roche started it business in 1886 from Basel Switzerland from multivitamins medicines to new innovative biotechnology products. In 1946 they discovered metabolic and antibiotics product. In 1980, they discovered anxiolitic and psychiatric medicines. In 1990s, they discovered cancer and hepatitis medicines. Now Halfman La Roche Basel has discovered 100 more molecules that are in different phases of clinical trails for different diseases. Roche Pakistan Ltd started its operation in Pakistan in 1982. Initially they imported their products and sell in the Pakistan Market but they started their manufacturing in Pakistan in 2001. Now Roche Pakistan Ltd selling its product in 8 segments in Pakistani pharmaceutical market that are; Hepatitis Cancer Transplant Anaemia Antibiotics Antihypertensive Metabolic Diseases Diagnostic Halfman La Roche is at 4th ranking world wide in pharmaceutical industry and is Market leader in Hepatitis, Cancer, Transplant and Anaemia, Metabolic diseases and Diagnostic. The annual sale is CHF. 49051 Millions grew by 10% and operating profit in 2009 was 15012 Millions that grew by 6%. Roche is invested CHF. 9874 Millions on RD in 2009. The free cash flow in 2009 was 8893 that was 79% more than 2008. The total employee of Roche are 81507. Out of them 80115 are permanent. The Sales contribution is more from US that is 38% than West Europe that is 28%. Since pharmaceutical marketing activities influence the prescribing behaviour of doctors, it is of utmost importance to critically analyze the claims made in the promotional material of the drugs. The extent to which pharmaceutical companies promote the merits of their products and relevant clinical trails provide to doctors are not studied in Pakistan. The results of the present analytical study show that unethical and biased claims regarding the pharmaceutical products are uncontrolled in Pakistan. These drug promotions influence the prescribing behaviour of the General Practitioners, Consultants thus accounting for one of the potentially major causes of illogical prescription. Roche Pakistan Ltd is a Member of IFPMA and PMA and follow their ethical business guidelines to sell its products. Roche Paksitan Ltd is at 6th ranking in Pakistan Pharmaceutical Market and its annual sale is Rs. 5.2 Billions in 2009 in Pakistan. Problem Statement Unethical Marketing strategies effect the prescribing habit of doctors that can lead to serious life threatening results for patients. Research Questions Research Q 1: What Ethical Marketing Strategies formulated for business in pharmaceutical industry? Research Q 2: What type of studies should be formulated? Research Q 3: what are the Marketing strategies that effect the decision making criteria of doctors.? 1.6 Research Objectives To find out the problem associated with unethical marketing strategies in pharmaceutical industry. To enlist the ethical strategies that will not effect the decision making criteria of doctors. Hypothesis Ho: There is no relationship between ethical marketing strategies and unethical marketing strategies. H1: There is relationship between ethical marketing strategies and unethical marketing strategies. Scope and Limitations of Study Scope of the research: As this research will be carried out with in single organization that is Roche Pakistan Ltd, based on the population from the different pharmaceuticals representative and doctors so the targeted low population narrows down the scope of the study. Limitations: Following limitation may also be observed during the research procedure and methodology adopted in collection of data from the resources within the organization: Data will be collected only from those respondent who directly and indirectly involved in the decision making process at different levels. Researcher may lave limited access to all authorities in respondent. Respondent may not responded answer due to tight schedule Respondent may not have proper information about variable and their relationship. respondent personal liking and disliking may create some biasness. Respondent may feel hesitation while attempting to questions Respondent may have personal reservations in responding to some questions relevant to their field or job. As the population under study is lessened to 132 respondent only, hence the scale of the study is restricted. Due to inadequate time, Research may cover and pass influential information only Data will be collected by the researcher himself. It is not possible to cover all variables. Significance of the research The study will explore that how the marketing strategies effect the decision making process of healthcare professionals. This research will also helpful to understand the importance of ethical marketing strategies. It will elaborate the impact of ethical marketing strategies on patients life. Moreover another aspect of this study is to elaborate the significance of ethical pharmaceutical strategies for doctor, pharmaceuticals industry and patients. It will assist to confirm that following the ethical marketing codes in pharmaceutical industry not only save the cost of patients but also life. It will also increase the moral and dignity of doctors also. CHAPTER 2 Literature Review Ethical marketing is the application of marketing ethics into the marketing process (Patrick, 2005). Ethical marketing generally results in a more socially responsible and culturally responsive business community (Eugene, 1978). Pharmaceutical strategy can be arranged into five categories (Brownlee, April 2004). Heavy pharmaceuticfal promotional activities to doctors results in more prescriptions being written (Elliott, Oct 2004). It has been estimated that 85-90% of doctors in Pakistan see to pharmaceutical representative (Gutknecht, 2001). pharmaceutical promotional expenditure in Pakistan amounted to Rs.7 Billions in 2009 (Gutknecht, 2001). (WHO) criteria for medicinal drug promotion, Marketing Strategies by Pharmaceutical companies is to encourage the prescription, supply, purchase and / or use of medical drugs, (WHO 33rd World Health Assembly, May 1986). The pharmaceutical promotional activities have powerful influences on prescribing behaviour of the doctors although this influence may be more hidden rather than explicit. (Lexchin, 1999). There is no mechanism to monitor the drug promotional campaign by pharmaceutical industry in Pakistan (Lober, 1993). Pakistan Medical Association has developed Ethical Code of conduct for Doctors and pharmaceutical organizations (www.jpma.gov.pk). International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers Associations (IFPMA) has developed code of conduct for pharmaceutical organizations. (www.ifpma.org). The strategy must be such that it doesnt not influence the decision making criteria of doctors. (Lober, 1993). Roche Pakistan Ltd is a member of Halfman La Roche Basel (www.roche.com). The annual sale of Roche is CHF. 49051 Millions and operating profit in 2009 was 15012 Millions. Roche is invested CHF. 9874 Millions on RD in 2009. (www.roche.com). In 2002, the pharmaceutical industry spent $15.63 billion on promotions, which include free office supplies, all-expenses-paid events, sales representatives, and awards to physicians (Parker, 2003). A 10-year study of internists at seven university hospitals, published in 1990, found that frequent contact with sales representatives also changed prescription practice (Israel, 2003). New drugs are not time tested; their long-term effects are unknown; many patients who can be just as effectively treated with less expensive, older drugs are risking their health when using newer drugs (Elliott, 2004). Dr. Drummond Rennie, Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Medical Association, stated, I suppose I had about 20 at one time (Spears, 2003,). Brett and Colleagues found that physicians make distinction about the ethical acceptability of drug company gifts ( Brett, 2003). Drug information provided by pharmaceutical representative and drug advertisements are inaccurate ( Wilkes, 1992). Medical practitioners are dependent on the pharmaceutical industry for much of their drug information in Pakistan (Ahmad,1990). Unethical practices regarding the medicinal drug promotion are uncontrolled in Pakistan and it is suggested that physicians should be careful and decisive in assessment of advertised claims of greater efficacy, safety or convenience made by the pharmaceutical companies (Ahmad, 1990). Gifts DinnerNetwork Diagram Samples Pharmaceutical Market Doctors à ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ãƒ ¢Ã¢â‚¬  Ã¢â‚¬â„¢ International Trip Clinical Trails Cash Chapter 3 Research Methodology In order to answer the research questions mentioned in chapter 1, researcher will elaborate here the different choices of methodology that have been adopted in this research paper. For historical viewpoint, I will conduct a Qualitative (content based) study of the previous researches on the role ethical marketing strategies in pharmaceutical industry. For present view, I will conduct a Quantitative (based on survey) analysis. 3.1 Population In the given research study, the population will be all employees of Roche Pakistan Ltd, Doctors of Medical Unit Sir Gangaram Hospital Lahore. 3.2 Sample The sample will consist of both males and females, Seniors and Juniors Doctors, pharmaceutical representative. According to the designations of the respondents their qualifications, professional experience, age will vary. 3.3 Sampling Technique/Strategy: In order to select the sample from the target population i.e. Roche Pakistan Ltd, Sir Gangaram Hospital Lahore, Non-Probability Convenience (purposive) sampling technique will be used. 3.4 Sample Size For the present study sample size will consist of 132 respondents (Pharmaceutical Representative, Doctors and Chemist). 3.5 Survey Instrument A questionnaire (English language) will be designed to collect the required Information. All the questions will be close-ended. A Cover letter to highlight the purpose of the study and instructions to fill the questionnaire, and a Demographic Data Sheet will be prepared and attached with the Questionnaire as well. 3.6 Data Collection The data for the proposed study will be collected through sell-structured questionnaire. The questionnaire will be circulated, explained and collected by the researcher himself. The questionnaire will be based on Likert Scale and will have five levels of responses against every question from the respondent. Since the company contains different hierarchies of employees and management so the respondents will be categories and manipulated accordingly. The five levels of responses will be: 1. Strongly Agree 2. Agree 3. Undecided/ Neutral 4. Disagree 5. Strongly Disagree 3.7 Pre-Testing Before the full scale administration of the questionnaire it will also be pre-tested on a  very small segment of the population (10-15 respondents) so that any ambiguity in  any question/s can be dealt with. CHAPTER 4 Data Analysis and Interpretation Available research soft ware for social sciences i.e. SPSS. Will be uses for analysis on Data collected for the proposed research study. Statistical and Arithmetical formulae Correlation or Regression will be applied as per demand and need of the study. Statistical tables and graphs / figures will also be obtained / drawn if needed. CHAPTER 5 Findings, Conclusions and Recommendations In order to achieve the basic purposes and objectives of the proposed research study, research-findings based on data analysis will be discussed in general and exclusively. Finally conclusions and recommendations will be made accordingly.

The State of US-EU Relations Essay -- International Relations Europe A

The State of US-EU Relations Good Morning Ladies and Gentlemen, It is my pleasure to speak to you today on the unfortunately precarious state of affairs between the United States and Europe. As you all know, hegemonic power has shifted between European nations for centuries, while the United States did not emerge as such an influential entity until after World War II. Since these post-war reconstructive years, the United States has continued to grow in social, economic, political, and diplomatic strength, thus cementing its role as a major international power. Although Europe came out of the war battered and bruised, it rose up out of the ashes, and surpassed its former glory to start yet another chapter in its historical saga. After Europe got back on its feet, the European Union was created, which is undoubtedly a major modern success story. The US and the EU have achieved high levels of development and stability that have led them to take on both regional and global leadership roles. Representatives from both bodies work side by side in the creation and implementation of policy in organizations such as the UN and the OECD (Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development). Unfortunately, this rosy picture of harmonious relations is more than a little bit idealistic. To say that there have not been times of tension and strife between the US and the EU would obviously be incorrect. Even to say, that the days of friction and discord are over would be a fallacy, because certain issues continue to put a strain on US-EU relations. In order to detail the â€Å"why† for the current state of US-EU relations, I will first talk about how past and present conflicts and failures of policy have been caused by fundamenta... ...lliance has been a critical component of the international system for the past five decade†¦ [but] the transatlantic relationship is now under serious strain†¦Cooperation across the Atlantic will remain critical for addressing the regional and increasingly global challenges likely to be central in the twenty-first century†¦Despite the forces pushing apart the two sides of the Atlantic, the United States and Europe still have compatible interests and complementary capabilities†¦[and] virtually every objective that Americans and Europeans seek will be easier to attain if they work together†¦Ã¢â‚¬ 15 Thank you very much for allowing me to speak today on the Atlantic Rift and the State of US-EU Relations. I hope to see you all again, as the United States and the European Union work through their differences, and continue to come together at the global bargaining table.

The Earnings Game: Everyone Plays, Nobody Wins

SHC 4153 Accounting Theory and Practice Case Study The Earnings Game: Everyone Plays, Nobody Wins. Group member: Chong Li Yun| AH090043| Ho Shuang Tien| AH090095| Chua Huey Shieng| AH090053| Lau Foong Seong| AH090126| Aminah binti Nasaruddin| BH100002| Lecturer: Dr. Aniza binti Othman INTRODUCTION It is all about the shares price. The shares market is so active and everybody wants to win in this game. In reality, nobody would want to become a loser. They try to think the best way to gain the advantage and win in this game. Unfortunately, the players in the game used questionable tactics in order to win the game.All players are connected with each other and the winner will only goes to the player who able to control the game. Finally, who will be the loser? It could be the players itself or the outsiders e. g. the citizen who does not play the game. The dynamic share market could make the economy become gloomy and undesirable consequences will be occurs. Most of the companies involved in the earnings game where the companies have desire or have took actions to meet the analysts’ earnings per share predictions. The common players of this game include the companies themselves, analysts, investors, and accounting firms.There are many issues had been arise in the earnings game. ISSUES AND ANALYSIS 1. 0 MANAGEMENT In order to meet the analysts’ expectation on the earnings per share, companies will use some tactics to distort their current earnings even those tactics may against the law or regulations. The tactics included: a) Channel Stuffing Channel Stuffing is a tactic where the companies borrow from future sales to increase current results by selling goods to customers who aren’t ready to buy yet. In order to attract buyers, the companies are willing to take the cost of storing the goods.Sunbeam, consumer appliance maker is a company who use channel stuffing to boost its earnings in winter by selling millions of dollars’ worth of backya rd grills to customers. The customers not really need the goods at that season and they are allowed to defer payment until the spring. b) Premature Revenue Recognition Premature revenue recognition means the companies recording a highly contingent transaction as a firm sale. For example, MicroStrategy, a web software developer recorded the expected revenue from software upgrades other than actual sales.This is different from accrual revenue that allowed in accounting standard which the sales have been confirmed but the revenue has not been received yet. The software upgrades by customers are just an expectation of MicroStrategy. c) Unusual Structure For example, Boston Chicken has an unusual structure by which their hundreds of stores were owned by large regional franchisees called â€Å"financed area developers† or FAD. Boston Chicken lent money to FAD to start the business or open stores. After that, FAD recovered the funds in the form of fees, royalties and interest. There fore, Boston Chicken earns more profits as the stores opened more.However, the funds that they got back from FAD were not their real revenue. 1. 1 Advantages The advantages of doing these tactics are due to several factors. Firstly, they wanted to show a good result to the public especially those investors who are potential to invest in their companies. Therefore, they will either collaborate with accounting firms to show a good audit report, increase their sales by using future sales to replace current sales, communicate with analyst and so on. Regardless of ethical or unethical, what they want is to increase their earning per share (EPS) in order to attract investors.As a result, it can be concluded that channel stuffing, premature revenue recognition and unusual structure have the similar effects to achieve their ultimate goal. 1. 2 Disadvantages For the disadvantages, each approach has different side effects if the method does not work. For channel stuffing, the future sales mig ht be threatened if they cannot find replacement for it. They need to cover for the loan as soon as possible for everything they used this channel stuffing method. If they are failing to cover the loan, probably the person in charged might need to responsible for this matter thoroughly.In the case, CEO of Sunbeam, â€Å"Chainsaw Dunlap†, lost his job and reputation due to channel stuffing. While, for premature revenue recognition, the action actually does not follow the accounting standard because the revenue is recognized before the transaction have been made or before it happens. For example, in the case, MicroStrategy has recorded their future revenue that they expected to collect from software upgrades. This action can cause the company to overstate their sales and it will affect the trueness and fairness of financial statement of the company.Lastly, in order to enhance current earnings at the expenses of future earnings, the unusual structure system has been applied. For example, in the case, Boston Chicken actually acts like a financial institution that give loans for both its franchisees and area developers in order to open new stores. Boston Chicken only creates the impression that their operation is successful and profitable by opened many stores but in reality, the stores was never made any profit. The profits that they gain were not coming from selling chicken but coming from selling franchises.Boston Chicken only wants to boost their Boston Market â€Å"concept† just to increase their earnings per share (EPS). At the end, the system collapsed and the company filed for bankruptcy protection because the company would not able to complete its restructuring plan due to company debt. 2. 0 STAKEHOLDERS There are two main stakeholders that involved in this case which are investors and analysts. All the creative activities that had been done by the management are to meet the expectation of the analysts and at the same time the investors. 2. 1 InvestorsThere is an issue that the investors only depend on earning per share (EPS) as an indicator in making their investment decisions. All of them, no matter those who have the knowledge that EPS show almost nothing about the business’s health or those who know nothing, still follow the trend of relying on only EPS in making their investment decisions even though some of them may know it is unreasonable to do so. They will abandon those shares that could not achieve the quarterly expectation without referring other information. For them, EPS is the easy indicator to know whether the company is performing well or not.However, EPS are not accurate and adequate indicator to show the performance of company because EPS can easily to be manipulated in the market to attract investors to look at the outstanding share of a company’s stock. The higher EPS, the more investors can be attracted. Although investors know that the investment is a very risky, they do not have inte ntions to look other than EPS. This situation can cause some of the investors gain more profit or vice versa. 2. 2 Analysts Analysts as the intermediaries only focus on the earnings estimates.Furnishing correct earnings estimates is what analysts are paid to do. The accuracy of their forecasts would help analysts maximize compensation; gain reputation and ranking on various analysts and at the same time manage their workload. Therefore, they are more willing to focus on earning rather than analyze the other information of the company. 3. 0 ETHICAL ISSUES Most of the organization has been collapsed because of ethical issue practiced in the organization. Same goes to the company, if this ethical issue never had been settled, they will face the same situation like other company faced it before. . 1 Collaboration of company management and analyst Even though there is a regulation for fair disclosure, company management still finds a loophole to collaborate with analysts in influencing a nd manipulating their expectation or forecast value on share. Although it is not against the law, it is unethical for them to control and influence the stock market by collaborating under the table. It is unfair to the investors who seem to be the puppets controlled and influenced by others. 3. 2 Auditors Auditors stretch the regulation to keep the good relationships with the client.Although the auditors know every creative actions and creative accounting of the companies, they still pretend do not know anything in order to retain their clients which contribute to their revenue. It is unethical for them to do so, although it may be legal for companies to do so, however, as auditors, they have the responsible to disclose any actions which may shaken the daily operation and going concern of the companies. RECOMMENDATION 4. 0 ROLE OF ANALYSTS Analysts should be independence and make the risk analysis without influences by the companies’ management team.By providing accurate and sufficient information, investors are able to make their judgments based on their knowledge. An independence body should be established to govern the analysts in order to monitor the analysts and ready to take discipline action once misconduct happened. 5. 0 ROLE OF COMPANIES 5. 1 To include annual plan in quarter earnings report Since quarter earnings report is used as a reference to identify whether the company is doing well or not, companies should enclosed annual plan in the quarter earnings report.This can provide a clearer view to the investors about the company’s plan in one year time. Investors also can understand deeply on how the company is doing besides put all their attentions on the earning per share (EPS) only. 5. 2 To implement the shareholders forum Company should give a platform the shareholders to voice out their opinion. Shareholders would able to monitor the management and give opinion to the management actions. 6. 0 ROLE OF AUDITORS An auditor should foll ow the code of conduct. As an independence body, an auditor should give true and fair view of the financial statements. . 0 ROLE OF INVESTORS The investor should adequate them self with investment knowledge, where do not too depends on the EPS as an indicators. As an intelligent investor, they should prepare them self before they enter the game. For example, attend some investment course or self-learning through internet. The investor has to know how to analyze the financial statement which also indicates the prospective to the company. For example, the training, introducing a new product or investment in R&D will increase the company future value.Means while, there will be a high probability of company default if there are high bad debts or contingency assets. CONCLUSION In a nutshell, as we know and also mentioned in the case, the only solution to stop this game is for all the companies willing to abandon it. Therefore, the recommendations we suggested involving all parties in thi s game to change their mindset and have a brand new start in the corporate world. Everyone plays their own parts ethically to make this world have a brighter future. With the cooperation of all parties, the â€Å"Earnings Game† will be game over as soon as possible.

The Knight Of Light By The Greenest Grass - 3272 Words

Chapter 1: The Knight of Light The Knight of Light Once upon a time, in a land far, far away, there was a small kingdom that had a sky of the bluest blue, and was surrounded by the greenest grass which was decorated by every flower you could imagine. Within this kingdom there was a village that was filled with happiness, and everyone who lived there was always smiling, for they loved their little village. They loved the blue skies, they loved the green grass that was decorated by every flower you could imagine, and they loved their kingdom. But what the villagers loved most was their beautiful queen. She was a wonderful and benevolent woman who lived in an enormous pure white castle just outside of the village. From there she would†¦show more content†¦Alas, this was not the end of the Darkness s scheme. Once it was done with the village it swept into the queens pure white castle and into the bedchamber of the queen herself. The Darkness then snatched her up in its giant claw and dragged her out of the bedchamber. It dragged her out of the pure white castle, out of the village, and took her into the very depths of Hell themselves. After the queen was taken, the blue skies turned cloudy and grey, the pure white castle became ugly, and discoloured, and an eternal gloom settled upon the kingdom. From that moment on, none of the villagers could smile, for with their glowing queen stolen from them, what reason was there to smile? Days turned into weeks, weeks turned into months, months turned into years and years turned into centuries, and the kingdom remained the gloomy, grey ghost of the joy it had once celebrated. In that time the queen did not return, and any fool who was brave enough to try and look for her never came back. But then one day, after exactly one hundred years had passed since the Darkness came, a stranger came to the gloomy kingdom, and he was not like the sad, smile-less villagers who lived there. No, this man was a knight! For he rode a white stallion and he wore a shining suit of armor, made out of the purest silver which shone like a finely cut jewel, with a