Ethics News – Transparency, How Going Global Means Growing Nobel

Recently, while in my Bangor, ME office I asked a fellow business person why they didn’t include a fairly common Internet solution offered by almost everyone in the current business environment. The answer was striking. He said, “Because that’s the way we do things in Maine.” As if to say, Maine business held a special exemption, due to its regional uniqueness, from providing customers with basic services that most other businesses offer as a matter of course.

As someone born and raised in the state of Maine, I was frankly shocked. The Internet, CNN, fiber optic cable and international cell phone coverage, to name just a few technologies, flattens not only our experience of the world, but the experience of our customers. When people talk about a “flattened” world what is meant is a world that is now much more transparent. Anyone or anything can be Googled. Any process or technology is available on line for all to see whether in Bangor or Bangalore. In short, everything is visible to everyone.

Since transparency is the rule of the day, business is impacted in new ways. Not only is process visible, but most processes become commoditized. In other words, few will find any particular edge in the platform or process itself. In my business of pensions and 401K plans, as just one example, there is almost no difference in platform from one 401K provider to the next. The only difference now is me. Globalization creates a transparency and commoditization that creates very little differentiation in basic products and services.

This means business needs to rethink its approach. The approach that matters in this new environment is refocusing on “how” we do business. In other words, if everyone now sees what everyone else is doing and can offer what everyone else offers, then the distinguishing feature of our business is the “how” of our particular approach. Character is going to count again. Honesty, integrity and placing the customers needs above our own is what will rule this new global day.

There is no longer the “Bangor way of doing things” or the “Bangalore way of doing things.” Now, there is one very transparent way of doing things that the whole world can see. What does Bangor have to do with Bangalore? A lot! The new standard of business is a global standard. No one is safe in their small, parochial world. Business cannot be accomplished well if uninformed, much less if delivered in a sloppy or unprofessional way, all in the name of “regional style.” Further, business people will no longer be their own arbiter and judge as to whether or not they are uninformed or unprofessional. The standard will be the definition adopted by their customers as those customers become shaped by the global standards that are delivered to each customer as they sit looking at their laptop. Bangor and Bangalore are very close indeed.

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Tags: business, ethics, global, institute, marketing