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Contact this writerEthics and profits are not mutually exclusive. Although it is true that you can make a profit by acting unethically, such a profit is useless if your reputation is destroyed in the process. If your reputation is destroyed you lose all chance that you have at producing reoccurring profits. As such, unless you have another line of work in mind, acting unethically could financially cost you your business. Additionally, many professional jobs have specific codes of ethical conduct. A violation of one of these codes of ethical conduct could cost you your professional license. In addition to the loss of your professional license, the profits you obtained from your unethical conduct could be disgorged. Therefore, not only could you lose your license, but you could also lose your profits obtained due to the unethical conduct.
In business, your reputation counts for a lot. When you are attracting new clients and/or new customers, most of the time it is your reputation that is the attracting factor. Much new business is obtained through referrals and as such, your referrer must be able to honestly vouch for your ethical behavior. If you act unethically, your reputation as well as the reputation of your referrer is destroyed. Therefore, you can expect to have less business and fewer profits.
Practically speaking, if you do a good job for your clients and are ethical and honest throughout the entire process, your client will have no reason to complain about your work or your conduct. As such, you can expect positive reviews and more business. It is that simple. Unfortunately, many people believe that you have to operate in a "shady" manner in order to get business done. Others believe that you have to screw an opponent in order to get the deal that you want. However, if you are the better business person and you are the more educated and harder working business person, your reputation should lead clients to your door.
I want to clarify that competing for a client can be done with acting unethically. You can emphasize your strengths over your competitor and downplay the abilities of your competitor in a non-insulting manner. This is most likely not unethical. However, when you resort to name calling, sabotage, and "mud-slinging" in order to draw customers into your door, you are not only hurting the business of your competitor, but you are also hurting your own business.
Put simply, unethical behavior will cost you your profits and your business. Therefore, even though you need profits to survive in the world of business, without ethical behavior, it will be difficult to sustain any kind of a living.
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Are business ethics or profits more important?
A business exists to make a profit. If the business doesn't make a profit it will cease to exist. That's the bottom line, the most basic fundamental about business.
That being said, ethics can have a major effect on the profitability of a business. Customers can, and do, purchase with ethical considerations. Laws are written to ensure that businesses act above a certain ethical line. Ignoring those things negatively impacts the bottom line, and could even force a company to close.
An excellent example of a business using ethics to its best advantage would be the recent advertisements of pharmaceutical companies. A few years ago there was a lot of backlash against pharmaceutical companies. There customers were purchasing their product in foreign countries and online because of a large pricing disparity. Insurance companies were successfully arguing that the large price increases in pharmaceutical costs were forcing them to pass increases on to their customers. Municipalities were encouraging their employees to purchase their prescriptions from Canada. Congress was considering laws to shorten patents and interfere with pricing policies. People weren't able to afford the prescription drugs they needed to keep them alive. In response the pharmaceutical companies added programs to help low income people obtain needed medications. Those programs are a central part of their advertising, along with making sure the public knows about how they supply aids drugs in Africa and help get antibiotics to suffering children worldwide. The ads also inform us of the life saving research done by the companies.
The problems existed long before they made headlines. These companies didn't react until these problems made headlines and caused a reaction that affected their bottom line. If people were going to Canada to buy prescriptions where they were cheaper, the company made less profit on each prescription. If laws were passed limiting the amount the companies could charge for new drugs, the companies would be forced to change their pricing policies, making less profit. The companies responded to the pressure on their bottom line, not the ethical needs of the community. Watch the recent ads for the oil companies and see how they're using the same techniques.
A good business knows how to respond to the ethical needs of its customers, and how they affect its ability to keep a solid bottom line.
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