Snow shovels and snowstorms
When you ask business people if it is acceptable to raise the price of snow shovels after a major snowstorm, the majority of them will say it is okay. They will talk about the law of supply and demand; they will claim the competition context would force them to act like that; or they say customers should have anticipated the storm. This is because they identify with the business owner. Their primary aim is to achieve higher profits.
However, a majority of people consider it unacceptable to raise prices in such a situation. If you do raise prices, you may anger your customers, who would have the feeling you only want to exploit their difficulties for your own profit.
Think about how you think
Business leaders are often conditioned to think in a certain way: in general, they believe they should exploit all available opportunities to maximise profits. Sometimes this may lead to decisions which are contrary to the ethics of customers or the will of the government, according to an article on the website of the INSEAD business school.
Try always to be aware of your way of thinking. Choosing how we want to think about something can be rather difficult. Often we believe there is only one way to think about a given issue. In the example of shovels, the better business decision might be to lower prices after a snowstorm. The effects of securing people's trust and generating goodwill may in the end lead to even higher profits.
-jk-