While flipping channels, I ran across an episode of City Confidential, a show that takes viewers on a trip to an American city while recounting a murder there. This particular episode involved two business partners – one was convicted of killing the other. The murder victim was apparently exceptionally hard working and capable, and was abandoning the shared business due to the poor performance and lack of effort on the part of the other owner. The slacker parter, seeing that the business was already in trouble and would certainly fail without the other’s contributions, was found to have killed him – apparently to take advantage of a hefty “key man” insurance policy that would have paid the firm’s debts and left the remaining partner well-capitalized and in full control. While few business partnerships will lead to murder, lots of them do generate hard feelings when the partners seem to have different expectations for their effort and performance. Nowhere is that more true than with Web businesses.
Jan 012008