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Is business success an outcome of practicing good ethics?
Results so far:
| No | 24% | 147 votes | Total: 603 votes | |
| Yes | 76% | 456 votes |
No
by David Nuttle
Created on: August 03, 2008
Most of us would like to think that success in business depends on the good ethics of many business owners. In actual practice, narcoterrorist groups and other criminal organizations have often been very successful in the operation of profitable businesses that have no ethics whatsoever unless you call evil a form of ethics. It was not too long ago that the large and profitable tobacco companies elected to hide research evidence confirming the many health hazards of using their tobacco products. In so doing, the tobacco companies demonstrated a lack of business ethics. When their deception was discovered, they suffered only minor economic losses.
When I was working in Vietnam, I discovered several illegal businesses run by an Asian version of the Mafia, the Ba Xinh. This powerful, and corrupt organization had several highly profitable businesses based on illegal drugs, gambling, prostition, and slave trading as well as piracy on the high seas. The Ba Xinh had a code of conduct to assure absolute control of personnel and operations, an the only thing some might consider a code of ethics was the policy to "profit at the great expense others." During my time in Vietnam, I met two U.S. weapons dealers who had come to Vietnam to test a new type of rifle ammunition they were trying to sell to the U.S. Dept. of Defense (DOD). The two dealers needed a test showing results of their new ammunition being used on human subjects. Thus, the dealers were offering a $10,000 bribe to arrange for a false prison escape so they could shoot prisoners thinking that they were escaping. The weapons company they represented was, and always has been, very profitable despite a near total lack of business ethics.
We are fortunate because there are companies that are very successful because they do have a high standard of business ethics. However, it is a proven fact that other companies succeed, or appear to succeed, because they have no business ethics. In some cases, a company may seem to have the right business ethics, and then they soon fail when it is discovered that appearances of good work are really a deception; e.g. Enron. Some companies plan acts of fraud, or racketeering well in advance of actual illegal acts. During the planning stage, it seems that the level of business ethics is high. Then the fraud starts, and any business ethics are soon forgotten. Such a transition occurred with the home mortgage lenders who created, placed, and sold subprime home loans to unqualified buyers knowing that foreclosures were a high probability when interest rates increased on ARMs (adjustable rate mortgages). These lenders paid over $1 million, in "political payola" (campaign contributions), to get Senator Phil Gramm to sponsor and promote legislation to end reporting and regulatory requirements that would have prevented their racketeering scheme. (Some of our Congressmen undertake acts of corruption because they have no ethics.)
If voters demanded that our Congressmen improve their standards of ethics, business ethics in the U.S. would improve. The public also needs to demand that legislation be created and passed to improve business ethics. Such change is not happening. Instead Congress is working to assure that, in the case of the subprime fiasco, that taxpayers pay for the damages in a effort to rescue lenders who were engaged in racketeering. Our total bill for this rescue of criminals may be more than $3 trillion. If Congress and businesses always did what was ethical, we would not be in this mess. Change will only occur, when voters are angry enough to force positive political corrections. When such improvements occurr, businesses will get the message and good business ethics will soon exist at all levels. As things stand now, we have a formula for disaster and more businesses will fail using the patterns of corruption that now prevail.
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Yes
by David Brown
Created on: February 11, 2010
Business success is measured in everything that the company does properly and at times what it can do to improve itself in the “standings.” Practicing good ethics is very important when measuring the success of a business and please allow me to make a list of what is meant by practicing good ethics. Before I do, however, let us remember that always being good does not mean that success will follow.
Here is a list of good ethics allowing for the success of a business:
Respect. It is extremely important for a business owner and his/her managers to earn the respect of its employees. I was a manager for many years and one thing that I practiced was the fact that if there was something that I was not going to do myself, then I would have a problem asking my crew to do it. If you are not willing to do the same things that you ask your crew or team to do, then forget receiving respect from them.
Payroll and Benefits. It appears that today, for those who work for a company which does not pay on time on a regular basis or does not offer some kind of benefit package will have a hard time retaining employees. We hear time and time again how the upper echelons of businesses are reaping the benefits of higher salaries through bonuses and other incentives. If this is the case, then it might benefit the business owner and managers to review periodically the “standings” of their employees and offer them an increase in pay or increased benefits such as more vacation time, increased health insurance among other things.
Social ability. This is probably not a correct way of putting it, but some companies offer its employees events such as company picnics, involvement in sporting leagues, memberships to exercise clubs, parties and the like. These events are added benefits that make a company stand out among others that do not offer such events.
Product and/or Service. Companies are either product oriented or service oriented. In either case, it is important for the company to believe in its product and/or service and to offer a one hundred percent guarantee on either. If the company does not offer such guarantees, it is hard for the company to succeed, yet alone, survive. In order to compliment the product and/or service, it is important for the company to hire knowledgeable staff members such as sales representatives and technicians, if needed, to represent the product and/or service in a positive light.
Do Not Stray from the Positive. A company with a positive “attitude” towards its product and/or service and one that is positive toward its employees is one that will succeed without question. A continued negative attitude and one that puts the company in the news media as such will find itself defunct in a very short time.
Customer Relations. This is the most important aspect of a successful business. In other words, without repeat customers and happy customers, there is no doubt that a company will be out of business in a very short time. This is true in the restaurant business. It is said that if a restaurant can not make it past its first year, then it is going to be very hard to pick up the pieces afterward. This is why in most restaurant start ups; you will most likely see the owner present during the first through three years of operation.
This is not an all-inclusive list of good ethics to make a business successful. However, these, I feel, are the most important. Without these “ingredients,” it is most likely that the business will find itself in a real mess.
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