(Part 3 of an ongoing series)
As I write today’s post, I well remember an old family friend, an immigrant, who struggled through incredible hardship to get to our nation, become a citizen and mightily contribute to society. As a business ethics writer, business ethics consultant and book author, I remember her as she carefully watched the butcher to make sure he didn’t put his thumb on the scale, how she saved and re-used jars, paper bags and old clothes (turned into rags). She saved enough money to own a little (successful) tailor shop.
She wasn’t a cheapskate, though; she always over-tipped for service, she treated everyone with great respect and most endearingly, she frequently baked breads and cookies for her neighbors. It is no wonder she was granted 98-yearsof life.
How can Business Ethics be explained easily?
When we look back on our lives and wonder who our role models were, and how they influenced us to go into our professions, my relative comes to mind. As a business ethics writer, business ethics consultant and book author, her spirit often infuses me to talk directly – and from the heart – when I talk to groups from five to 500. She epitomized ethics, she stood for something and stood up for something.
Something I need to add, is that late in life she would stand at the counter of her tailor shop, and one-by-one, every passer-by (even those who were never her customers) would wave, or tip their hats or pop their head into the shop to say hello. I used the word “every” with strong intention. I mean every.
Let me examine the story in greater detail by reviewing four points:
- “She carefully watched the butcher to make sure” Oversite (or a lack of oversite) is a major component of fraud. Let’s divert our gaze from the butcher’s thumb for a second, and instead think of a major pharmaceutical company caught in a bribery scandal; an accounting firm helping a shady client misstate revenues or the R&D department of an automotive company lying about engine emissions to the EPA. None of those activities could have occurred where strong oversite had been in place. Those three situations did occur in recent years.
- “Saved and re-used jars, paper bags and old clothes” Sustainability, green practices and environmental considerations are now major components of any company’s ethical social wealth. They are part of the ESG equation: equity, sustainability and governance.
- “She treated everyone with great” Her roots and her religious beliefs, her struggles and her triumphs, forged her beliefs in terms of equity. She believed in people and in her own employees because she identified with her own successes. She would have made an incredible executive leader in 2022, because she clearly saw the abilities of people and their need to be successful. To this day, executive leaders across corporate America are still being hauled into court to defend their hiring practices.
- “One-by-one, every passer-by.” The statement is one of reputation, standing in the community, the industry and the world. To ask: “How can Business Ethics be explained easily?” is to answer the most basic of questions, the answer is reputation and reputation management.
Of course, the example is simplistic and I realize that. Yet, as an ethics keynote speaker, ethics consultant and author of books on ethics, I can’t help but wonder why organizations allow themselves to get into trouble when they inherently know better.
What needs of executive leaders supplant ethical behavior and how do they ultimately rationalize organizational behavior when they are forced to pay billions of dollars in fines? Perhaps an old woman in a tailor shop might be able to teach them lessons that they have easily forgotten.
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