A design firm hired Reell Precision Manufacturing to make a hinge for a display box. A Reell engineer named Joe Arnold had 
some ideas for the hinge, but he discovered that the display box would be used to advertise cigarettes in convenience stores. Joe and some of his coworkers did not want to design a product that could be used to help sell tobacco to children. They discussed it among themselves, then approached their bosses about what to do.
Although the company needed the contract to compensate for "slumping sales," many people at the company – engineers, sales, management – had different opinions, and the question went to higher and higher levels of management. After hearing all sides of the argument, the company decided that it would not do the project.
Reell employees say "the episode wasn't really about a hinge, a contract, or even the ethics of promoting the sale of cigarettes. Rather the key issue was trust."
What would you do if you were Joe? What if you were management? Read the entire story in Small Giants – Companies That Choose To Be Great Instead Of Big by Bo Burlingham. It starts on page 118.
