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Originally Posted by Pauli I imagine this happens.
Personally, I find it a very unethical business practice.
But we're on a free market, aren't we? |
I'm no business ethics expert, but I do my very best to behave in the most ethical manner possible. That being said, I am not seeing much of an "ethics" question in the scenario described.
The owner and the coaches of the club have decided on a business model - that is, they have decided on a particular level of service they will provide to their customers - the club members. Different coaches have different approaches to teaching and different ideas of what is important to teach. The whole concept of a free market economy rests on the premise that if you have a different way of providing some service or product, and you think yours is better than what is currently available, and you are willing to do the work to make it happen, you have the right to do so.
The only thing that stands out in the scenario as questionable is the perception that the "nice guy" didn't discuss it with the coaches/owners first. I guess, if you mean that he didn't approach them and let them know that their methods weren't meeting his needs, then yes, he was impolite for not sharing his perception of a weakness in their business offering with them. On the other hand, if you mean that he didn't ask their permission to run off and start a club of his own, well, I don't think anyone in their right mind would give such permission if asked, so there is little to be gained by doing so.
If he came to town fully planning on starting a club of his own and only joined that club to "scope out the competition", well that might be described as a bit underhanded, but it is a fact of life that anyone starting a business should know the market and the competition before starting their own endevour.
I guess the proof will come in the guy's success or failure. If he succeeds, then the original club probably wasn't offering what it's members (customers) wanted/needed. If he fails, then he is the one that has misread the needs of the customer base.
The one downside of doing what he did is that if the customer base is too small to support two clubs, his actions will dilute both business to the point that neither might survive. One thing he might have done is to consult with the owners/coaches of the existing club to see if he could bring his particular flavor of coaching to their club. Not necessary, but certainly a worthwhile approach to the situation.
Without knowing more of the background, a lot of this is very speculative. Several of the scenarios I described above could be completely unrelated to the actual situation.
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