In today’s highly competitive modern world we hear more and more about unethical behaviour, either in business, politics or even in broader social activities.

- Morals are about good and bad. People are judged more on their morals than values. A person can be described as immoral, yet there is no word for them not following values.

- Ethics are about the rules or standards governing the conduct of a person or the members of a profession.

Morals, values and ethics are more than just sayings, rules or laws. They imply a duty or actions that you should take. But they also imply that taking these actions is “right” or “good”. Not performing in that way is “wrong” or “bad”.

One of the problems of upholding morals and values in business is that the morals and values of one person may differ from that of another. It is therefore an obligation of business leaders to define basic business morals and values that they want their teams to adhere to. This can be done in team mission statements or when defining team goals or business policies.

One’s morals extend beyond merely knowing a policy or even knowing the law. Very often people who are sentenced admit that they knew what they did was wrong, but they did it anyway! Some people do not answer the question: “Is it right?” before they act. They simply see the act as a way of getting what they want and they simply carry out the act. Businesses need to encourage honesty and high moral standards as the actions of an individual in the team can bring down the moral ethos of the entire team or business.

Unfortunately the old adage “You can fool most of the people all of the time” often applies and it is very easy to mislead the masses with immoral business practices and mis-information campaigns. However, it only takes one or two people to realise what is going on, to expose the poor morals and bring disrepute to the business. The bigger the mis-information campaign, the bigger the final impact of the moral degradation.

Most people say their conscience bothers them when they do something wrong. This conscience is both intellectual and emotional. It involves both knowing right from wrong and having a good or guilty feeling or notion about what you are doing.

Pinochio had Jimmy Cricket to tell him what he was about to do was wrong. In business you have the business policies, plus you inner voice or conscience. This conscience may be stronger in some people then in others.

Employees with low self-esteem are more likely to act immorally as they do not care enough about themselves to consider their actions to be important. Their belief in their lack of importance, makes doing either right or wrong seem unimportant, and diminishes their conscience or guilt.

It is therefore important for business leaders to value the input of each employee and, treating them with respect to encourage high self -esteem actions.

How you feel about others also determines your moral sense. If you value others highly you will be considerate and act with compassion and moral sense. You will consider the effect your actions will have on others and will want to do what is right and good. On the other hand, if you feel that others have hurt you and are against you, you may lack empathy for their feelings. You will not recognise their value and worth and may not feel compassion for their welfare. Some personality types, especially the defunct, may be empathy challenged, and they may have no or limited capacity for empathy.

When you see others as “the enemy” you will not have compassion for them. Your conscience will not fully respond when you are acting against an enemy. In business people may incorrectly see their competitors as the enemy and engage in immoral business practices to “beat” the enemy or financially disadvantage the enemy. Stealing is stealing, and if you acquire money immorally at someone else’s expense it will eventually backfire and reflect negatively on you or the business you represent. Fortunately, human nature is basically good and most people will not try to “gain” or “win” at the expense of harming or disabling another.

It is important to remember that we are all connected and any action that you take in life or business should not hamper the success, health or welfare of another. This is because it is our obligation as people to contribute to the growth and success of us all.

I know only that what is moral is what you feel good after and what is immoral is what you feel bad after – Ernest Hemingway, Death in the Afternoon. Visit this site

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Tags: ethics, question, social, thing, result

If you have a personal code of ethics that is centered on the Bible you’ll try to do what is right in all situations. As an employee, this could be illustrated this way. A customer may give you money to pay their bill. They may say here’s $30.00 keep the change. As you look down you realize that instead of a twenty and a ten they gave you two twenties. You could keep it and they might not notice.

Your personal code of ethics will not let you keep the money. Sure it was their mistake, and you may need the money, but it simply wouldn’t be right.

Business owners must grapple with ethics in the workplace as well. They could change your time card and cheat you out of your just wages, but they know it’s wrong, as well.

Have you worked for a boss who cheats the customer? It may require you to change jobs just to keep a clear conscience. A builder could have the steel for a concrete slab on site and then only install half the required amount. He may get by for years, until something breaks.

A restaurant could advertise a product as being one way, and simply cut back on ingredients, to make it cheaper. They may think, they’re getting one over on the customer, but their thievery will be evident as product quality suffers.

Customers aren’t stupid. The Japanese proved this by making their cars a little better every year. During the same period American cars were not improving as much. The Cani Principal of the Japanese let to their cars taking a huge chunk of the worldwide automotive market.

Ethics in the workplace starts at the top with management. if they are committed to excellence and can communicate this the organization will be ethical. If management chooses to mistreat and cheat employees, they can expect that to be reflected back to them and to their customers.

The personal code of ethics of one company founder can influence thousands of businesses, managers and employees. A good example of this is Truett Cathy, founder of ChicfilA. His company refuses to open on Sunday even though they could do more business.

I am sure their employees appreciate the day off to go to church and enjoy their families. Truett allows people to become a store partner with a simple $5,000.00 deposit. ChicfilA spends all the money to open the restaurant. The operator pays a franchise fee and profits are split with corporate. Probably the best opportunity I know of in a traditional business.

All business owners could take a ethics lesson from Truett Cathy.

The company’s corporate purpose statement says that the business exists “to glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us and to have a positive influence on all who come in contact with ChickfilA.”

Jay Vandenhoff has been a small business owner and entrepreneur most of his life. His network marketing career started 12 years ago. As the internet has evolved he has been evolving too. You can visit Jay’s blog here Check out his web site Work From Home

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Tags: ethics, place, time, position, result

Have you ever had to utter these words? …To state your case and defend your character? What can be more important than to be trustworthy with our character intact?

No matter what temporary gratification or favor we may enjoy as a result of dishonesty, we have to consider lasting consequences that may be honestly unfavorable.

The need for instant gratification in our modern society has made it all too easy to slip out the white lie, to please others, or to ease the pressure on ourselves. In doing so, we implicitly accept deception as part of our culture. Honesty, integrity and trustworthiness are supposedly highly-valued character traits, but what do these terms actually mean?

1. Honesty

To be honest is to ‘tell the truth’. It is simply conforming ‘words to reality’. Honesty is regarded as the best policy. It sets the record straight and allows the truth to be known and declared.

Honesty, however, is not the same as Integrity. A thief can be honest… all he or she needs to do is ‘tell the truth’. We can agree that one is likely to be dishonest for fear of negative consequences. If the consequence is favorable, honesty may be likely. Consider criminals who will tell the truth for a lighter sentence.

On this point, we need to also appreciate that ‘admission’ is not the same as ‘confession’. When one ‘confesses’ something, they come forward and tell the truth. However, when one ‘admits’ something, it’s usually because they have been caught out.

2. Integrity

To have integrity is to be true to our highest values. Unlike honesty, integrity means to conform ‘reality to words’. Integrity is linked in the word ‘integrate’… and to live with integrity means integrating our thoughts, actions, speech and feelings into oneness. What you see is what you get; no duplicity.

To have integrity is to be true in the moment of challenge, test and temptation. Our highest values mean little in declaration if it cannot be lived in combination with action.

On this point, we must consider ‘acts of commission’ and ‘acts of omission’. An ‘act of commission’ is when you do something that violates what you know you should do. An ‘act of omission’ is one in which you don’t do something that you know you should. Equally, this could be a violation to conscience, ethics and law.

3. Trustworthiness

It has been said that to be trusted is greater than to be loved. To be trusted implies that you are trustworthy or ‘worthy of trust’.

It requires character – “who you really are on the inside”. Too many consider their reputation first.

“Be more concerned with your character than you are with your reputation, because your character is who you really are, whilst your reputation is who others think you are” – Anonymous

Stephen Covey, author of 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, teaches that trustworthiness is a combination of “character” and “competence”. One without the other does not merit trust.

Effective relationships are built on honesty, integrity and trustworthiness. These, along with virtue, once lost become difficult to regain. Repair, restoration and a ‘second chance’ is however possible with self awareness, change, commitment and forgiveness: both by the perpetrator and the one who would grant the perpetrator that chance.

Do business people, officials, politicians and ordinary people make mistakes? Yes! Can we all benefit from how we may better treat others? Yes! These principles are as important and timeless in tough times as they are when things are much better.

Anil Salick is the founder and managing member of Synergistic Outcomes (established in 2003). He has been involved in training and development for the last 13 years, and is a facilitator, trainer and professional speaker. He is also involved in marketing, sales, consulting, development, management, leadership and administration.

Anil works with small, medium and large sized corporations, as well as governments in South Africa, Zambia, Malawi, Nigeria, Namibia and Swaziland.

Described as a great teacher and facilitator with patience, wisdom, humor, wit, understanding, sincerity; Anil has the ability to challenge participants to grow and expand. His step by step, sequential yet creative, intellectual yet emotional facilitation equips delegates to develop space, reason, consciousnesses and awareness.

Anil has a number of hobbies, which include: fitness and gym; reading, writing, science, humanism, personal growth, fishing, reflection and quiet time, helping others and making a difference. He is soon to launch his first book.

Anil is married to Nounouche (the prettiest girl from the island of Madagascar) and they have 3 children: Andrea, Jashley and Tahj.

If you would like to know more about Anil Salick or would like to book Anil to be a Motivational Speaker, visit Anil’s site

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Tags: ethics, way, position, person, result

Business ethics have never been more important than they are today – from a social standpoint. Business decisions made each day have profound effects on the environment, the economy, on our health, on our safety, and on our future as a whole. What are your social responsibilities from a business and ethical point of view?

First and foremost, you must consider your fellow humans. How do your business practices affect your customers, your employees, your community, your country, and the global community as a whole? If you fail to consider the human side of your business and the effects of your business, you are not only acting in a socially responsible way, you are also setting your business up for failure, because you will eventually do some harm that puts you out of business, and at the very least, you will not garner any public support, because of a poor public image, which does indeed have a profound effect on your bottom line.

Some people do not distinguish between the effect of business decisions on human life and the effects on the environment. Activists believe that one is as important as the next, but others agree that human life is more important than the environment. Logic, of course, says that human life is more important, but if a business has a negative effect on the environment, at some point in time, that damage to the environment has an effect on human life. Do your business decisions negatively affect either?

Do businesses have more of a social responsibility than individuals have? Some believe that they do, while others do not think so. Others believe that individuals and businesses are equally responsible for society. This, however, is not your debate as a business owner, because everyone does indeed agree that businesses do have some level of social responsibility, and that this social responsibility is more important than the bottom line. Even the Government believes this.

For example, recently there were congressional hearings with executives of the top five oil companies. Congress essentially wanted to know what these companies were doing to reduce fuel costs, and also wanted to know that with $40 billion dollar profits annually, why these companies were only investing about $100 million back into research for renewable energy resources.

Those, of course, were tough questions for these executives who do not have trouble paying for their gasoline and of great interest to those of us who do, in fact, have to be very careful when driving our cars or heating our homes, because we can’t afford today’s fuel prices. These oil companies have a social responsibility that they have been essentially ignoring for years, and now want to open up drilling in areas where it was banned to preserve the environment or wildlife. Obviously, these are not ethical business decisions or practices, and they do indeed have a profound effect on the economy, the environment, and eventually on human life as a whole.

So, when you make business decisions, remember that ethics must play a role in those decisions – because whether you realize it or not, those decisions do have a social effect at some point in time, in some way – great or small.

This and other topics that deal with corporate communications, business to customer relationships, and sales training through Collective Vision are just some of the topics discuss.

We help you create your future through Collective Visioning

And now I would like to offer you one of my book chapters absolutely free. You can get instant access at this site

From Jed A. Reay – The Communicator/Connector and Visionary Master Sales Trainer.

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Tags: business, ethics, result, thing, global

Just as the word ‘ethics’ has a different definition from the word ‘etiquette,’ there is a vast difference between business ethics and business etiquette. There are even instances where you must forgo etiquette in order to remain ethical in business practices.

Business ethics is a code or a set of standards that a business adheres to. This code essentially states what is considered ethical, and what is considered unethical in terms of how the business is conducted in relation to what is best for human beings, the community, the environment, and so on. Business etiquette, on the other hand, is essentially conducting business affairs in a polite manner. It can be compared, in some ways, to dinner table etiquette.

For example, if an employee is rude to a customer, this is not unethical, but it is considered poor etiquette. It may even be against the company’s policy that relates to how employees interact with customers. One can have perfect etiquette and extremely poor ethics.

Another example of this is an attorney who has beautiful manners. In fact, his overall social and business etiquette is so perfect that he fits in well at any function, and performs well in any situation. However, if he is billing his clients for hours that he did not actually work, he is not using ethical business practices.

So, what must you do when you face a choice between etiquette and ethics? Above all else, choose to honor the code of ethics first, but have enough etiquette to try to smooth the situation over at the same time. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always work out, and one must choose ethics and let the etiquette cards fall where they may.

Have you ever seen the movie, ‘Jerry McGuire?’ This is a movie about a sports agent. He realizes, after a few nights of not getting any sleep because his conscience was plaguing him that the sports agent industry, as a whole, was rarely considering what was best for the athletes that they represented beyond the amount of money and benefits that they could negotiate for them, which in turn raised their own profits. He wrote a report about how this should be changed, and put it in the boxes of all of the sports agents at a convention.

In this fictional characters situation, ethics met etiquette in a head on collision. What he did was ethical, but not without etiquette. However, it did cost him his job, and there wasn’t much etiquette – or ethics – involved in that, mostly on the part of the company that he represented.

Again, there will come a time in your business transactions where you must choose between ethics and etiquette. Remember, however that in most cases, an unethical business decision will have a profound effect for a long time to come, while acting in a manner that is not dictated by good etiquette will usually only result in a few people talking about your poor manners for a short time. When you make an etiquette faux pas, it is usually soon forgotten, and future good etiquette can generally make up for it, but when you make an unethical decision, it can haunt you for the rest of your career.

This and other topics that deal with corporate communications, business to customer relationships, and sales training through Collective Vision are just some of the topics discuss.

We help you create your future through Collective Visioning And now I would like to offer you one of my book chapters absolutely free. You can get instant access at this site

From Jed A. Reay – The Communicator/Connector and Visionary Master Sales Trainer. Article Source

Tags: ethics, etiquette, person, result, difference

The chances are good that you have your own ethical code, even if you don’t realize it. You have a sense of what is right and wrong. You have a sense of what you are and are not willing to do. There are even things that society would consider ‘right,’ which you consider ‘wrong,’ and which you will not do. This is your unwritten ethical code.

If you own a business – whether it is large or small – you should have a written ethical code for that business. Today, while people have their own personal ethical code, businesses, organizations, and governmental agencies also have ethical codes that they conduct their business by, just as you live your personal life by your own ethical code.

In this case, however, the ethical code is written, and typically available for anyone to view. This code may not actually be called an ethical code, however. It may be referred to as a statement of responsibility or a code of professional responsibility, or by another name altogether. The question is, why does this code exist, and why is it written?

It is simply a statement that provides the company or organization with a blue print of what is and is not acceptable in terms of business practices. When moral questions or ethical questions arise in the course of business, the code of ethics generally provides an answer as to whether or not the business is being conducted in an ethical, moral way.

For some organizations, the government actually dictates the code of ethics. An example of this is the American Medical Association. Violating the code of ethics in this instance can have serious consequences, such as the loss of ones medical license. In corporations, however, violating the code of ethics can result in something as minor as a demotion, or as major as being fired by the company. There may also be ramifications from the major stockholders in the corporation if the code of ethics is violated.

Many organizations and corporations have entire boards that are dedicated to examining whether or not the code of ethics has been violated and in dealing with those violations as they arise. For small businesses, however, the code of ethics is really nothing more than a promise as to how the business owner will conduct his business – but if those ethics are violated, there are no ramifications.

Today, the ethical code of many businesses contain information not only concerning ethical business practices, but also entail information on how the company will help to protect the environment, and other social issues. If you own a small business, it is important to address these types of social issues, so that your customers know where you stand on those issues. In fact, you may be surprised to learn that you can actually grow your business easier when you do have an ethical code for that business in place, and when you actually adhere strongly to that code of ethics, simply because individuals do place a great deal of importance on the social issues of today and our responsibility as a whole to those issues.

This and other topics that deal with corporate communications, business to customer relationships, and sales training through Collective Vision are just some of the topics discuss.

We help you create your future through Collective Visioning

And now I would like to offer you one of my book chapters absolutely free. You can get instant access at this site

From Jed A. Reay – The Communicator/Connector and Visionary Master Sales Trainer.

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Tags: question, person, ethics, code, result

The world of marketing – whether it is marketing in the offline world or marketing online – is more complex than what you might think at first glance. Just as there are ways to effectively market products and services, there is also a right and wrong way to market services and products, from an ethical standpoint.

When most people think in terms of ethical marketing, they know that ethics plays into the sales copy that is used to sell the product or service. For example, it is unethical to make claims that are false concerning the product or service, or to make false claims about expected results from the use of a product or service.

To get around this issue, as well as many FTC laws, many companies use very fine print to counteract what their marketing message is promising. We’ve all seen it. Consider the weight loss commercials that show peoples before and after pictures. If you zoom in close, you will see that at the bottom of the page or screen, there is very small print that states that these are not average results, and that you may not lose as much weight, in as little time, as the person on the advertisement.

Does that small print make this type of marketing anymore ethical? If you ask truly ethical people, they will tell you right away that this small disclaimer does not make the marketing ethical at all. It only serves to make the advertisement legal. There is a difference between breaking the law and being unethical. Can sales be made this way? Absolutely – consider that the weight loss industry is bringing in billions of dollars each year, yet there are still an overwhelming number of people who have tried those products, but are still overweight.

The diet companies are raking it in, selling the product with their unethical marketing, and leaving overweight people disappointed, feeling like failures, and in many cases physically harmed in the process. They are making money at the true expense of others, in terms of money, emotions, mental health, and physical health.

So, the question is, do you want to make sales in this way? Hopefully, you have a strong moral code that won’t allow you to do this type of marketing. Hopefully, you are only willing to include information in your advertisements that is true and proven, without all of the hype, or using examples that are well above the average results. This is what ethical marketing is. It is the ability to market a product, and still make sales, without false promises or hype.

While using true and accurate sales copy is essential to ethical marketing, there are also other forms of unethical marketing, such as sending spam email, spam faxes, or spam text messages, which is becoming the newest thing in unethical marketing. It is also unethical to trick people into giving you their information, or to trick them into spending more money than they originally intended to spend during the ordering process. For the most part, when you are trying to ensure that you are using ethical marketing practices, simply avoid doing anything that you wouldn’t want another company to do to you as a customer. If you adhere to that one rule, and look at things from a customer’s point of view, you won’t have to worry whether or not your marketing is ethical.

This and other topics that deal with corporate communications, business to customer relationships, and sales training through Collective Vision are just some of the topics discuss.

We help you create your future through Collective Visioning

And now I would like to offer you one of my book chapters absolutely free. You can get instant access at this site

From Jed A. Reay – The Communicator/Connector and Visionary Master Sales Trainer.

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Tags: ethics, marketing, responbility, person, result

This subject has been debated and discussed time after time. It appears that many have walked away from the discussion with some sense of uncertainty on what to do. I will attempt to bring clarity to this subject. After Christ’s resurrection he gave his disciples specific instructions in Matthew 28:19-20 that they are to “Make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you”. From this passage it is clear that we are to go about the business of evangelism (share our faith with others).

Do you still believe in magic? Do you think you can pay $24.95 for a mail order program and make $5,000 within 30 days? Do you think you can open a business today and quit your job in 2 weeks? Do you think you can advertise a 1″ ad to 1,000 and expect 800 orders?

It’s sad that our push-button, do-everything-for-you-society has taken away our ability to climb to the top of the hill. Those of us who do have the stamina have to try twice as hard to “prove” we are not those other types of people.

Let’s all stop pretending we’re in business and start learning how to make it grow into a thriving, honest and reputable company. It is sometimes hard to be completely honest in everything we do. We could tell a “little white lie” and get that $120 bucks we so desperately need right now. Oh, what we have to give up to be honest.

I never lived in the 1800′s but I have studied their life-styles quiet extensively. Back then – people were not afraid of hard work. In fact, it never entered their minds to be lazy. If someone in the community was lazy, they were considered abnormal and were given a bad name. Even as late as the 1940′s, a man that didn’t work to support his family was considered to be piece of “trash.”

But in the 1990′s it seems that the man who doesn’t work, lives on welfare and sponges off his wife who works two jobs to make ends meet is considered “cool.” The State agencies spent millions of dollars trying to motive him to go out and find a job and work like he is supposed to.

Employers sometimes contribute to the madness also. Since hard working people are considered “strange” and “indifferent” in today’s society, an employer will take a hard worker and pile all the work on them that other people should be sharing in doing. It sometimes feels like hard working people are fighting a losing battle.

But getting something for nothing is NEVER rewarding. Sure – you can cheat the welfare system and get free benefits for awhile, but pretty soon they will track you down. Sure – you can sit on the couch and watch television while your spouse goes out and works 2 jobs, but you’ll never have any true financial rewards in life. Sure – you can work 8 hours and spend 6 hours on coffee breaks just to get a paycheck every Friday, but you’ll be the first to go when a lay-off is administered. Sure – you can forge credit cards, set up scams, write bad checks and steal innocent people’s money, but you won’t get anywhere. You only are taking care of your needs at the present time – never building security, pride and respect for yourself.

But hard work pays off. The rewards are not immediate like they would be if you robbed a bank tonight, but you WILL make lots more money and benefit yourself in the long-haul. Money is NOT everything. Money cannot buy respect and love. A poor person running a business, who is honest has peace of mind. A person who works hard and long hours to give their customers high-quality receives repeat orders.

And when word gets around that you’re honest and trustworthy – people start noticing you and telling others about you. Respect is much more important than money because of the repeat rewards it brings you. For instance – when you think of Howard Hughes you don’t think of him with respect. Even though he had billions of dollars, does anybody really care now? But think about Martin Luther King or Thomas Edison. Think about some heroes you know. Does it matter to you how much money they had? Don’t you remember them for the hard work and great things they accomplished? Isn’t contributing to society and the betterment of mankind much more valuable than the money you have in your bank account?

Take pride in yourself. Hold your head up and do an honest day’s work. Yes – being honest has great rewards.

Honest Work Pays Off
by J. Anne Shoemaker

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Tags: person, ethics, Success, business, result

Late at night…no one around for miles – and yet you stop at the red light and wait. Why? You stop because it’s the ethical thing to do. We trust each other to stop, whether or not anyone is watching. You could say that trust is the outcome of ethical behavior.

It’s difficult to define, exactly, what ethical behavior is; and it’s impossible to measure. But we can sense when ethics are present in an individual or a company culture – and especially we sense it when they’re not. Ethical behavior is a two-way street. Companies and customers cannot effectively engage unless there is trust between them. And, to my point in this article, neither can companies and candidates.

In recruiting, where much of the interaction is often between just two people, a recruiter and a candidate, it’s incumbent on both parties to act with the highest ethical standards. If misrepresentations are made on either side and a wrong hire results, the impact in dollars and emotions is high – and entirely avoidable.

Put simply: don’t lie

If ethics were black and white it would be simpler for all of us. Instead, they are nebulous and subject to personal interpretation – and that’s why we sometimes get into trouble. As author and HR strategist Kevin Wheeler says, “Ethics define our moral rights and duties, and involve a commitment to doing the right thing.” However, a “commitment” can be a long way from the actually “doing” what we know is right.

In our no-time-to-waste competitive business environment it’s tempting to do what seems simplest, fastest and easiest, instead of taking a moment to consider what is right. In the rush to succeed, some even believe that taking time to do the right thing may put them at a competitive disadvantage. In the long term the opposite is true: high ethical standards enhance reputations and build successful brands that draw people and business to you.

Both recruiters and candidates could benefit from a set of guidelines for ethical behavior. This would prevent slippage into rationalizations and justifications that often lead to unethical actions. Ethics for employers and candidates begin with a simple principle: don’t lie. Everyone wins when both company and candidate are open and honest about their histories, goals and expectations. Honesty should be a stated cultural value and modeled throughout every organization, including the recruiting process.

Ethical guidelines for recruiters

Even though a company may post written recruiting guidelines that help ensure a thorough and fair hiring process, the personal and business ethics of individual recruiters inevitably come into play in the decision making process. What should you say about a company’s poor financial performance? Should you mention the company’s high turnover rate? Should you enlarge the responsibilities or authority of a particular position to get the candidate you want? The questions asked of candidates and the information revealed about the company have much to do with the ethical behaviors that are valued and promoted within a company’s culture. Following are suggestions that will help recruiters set guidelines to help ensure ethical behavior throughout the process:

• Define the position requirements realistically and in detail and include performance expectations. Unnecessarily strict requirements can exclude otherwise qualified candidates; and placing candidates in a role they are not qualified for may jeopardize both the organization and the candidate’s career.
• Accurately represent the key elements of the position in ads or other means of sourcing.
• Don’t pose as someone else in order to gather the information you need about a candidate. You can find what you need without such subterfuge, which clouds ethics in the recruiting profession.
• Allow enough time to thoroughly interview candidates and give them adequate opportunity to present their qualifications – and to make a thoughtful decision. Communicate both the candidate’s strengths and weaknesses to the hiring manager, overcoming the desire to “push” the candidate you like personally.
• Share a realistic view of the company, position, promotion opportunities and compensation. Glossing over the shortcomings of a manager or division or other relevant information can lead to inappropriate and costly mismatches. Full knowledge of the realities, on both sides, is the best way to ensure a successful, long-term outcome.
• Offer salaries and benefits that are within accepted, appropriate ranges for specific positions. Compensation significantly lower than market rates shows a lack of respect for the candidate.
• Check references that are representative of a candidate’s many relationships, and not simply those references the candidate provides, which are almost guaranteed to be positive. Informing the candidate that you intend to contact people outside their list of references is the ethical thing to do.
• When in doubt about the right decision, weigh your alternative choices based on the fairness of probable outcomes and your organization’s values.
• If you need additional input, ask a trusted colleague for help in making ethical recruiting decisions.

Ethical guidelines for candidates

Candidates should keep in mind that ethical behavior will not only help get you the best position for yourself, but it protects your reputation as well. As much as people move around, if you misrepresent yourself in the market or act in other unethical ways, the word will get around and limit your opportunities. Following are things candidates can do to ensure their own ethical behavior and a positive impression to recruiters:

• Interview with organizations you are sincerely interested in. Don’t accept a position as a step in your job search and then continue interviewing with other organizations, or renege on a job offer you’ve accepted.
• Be truthful in everything you say and in all the information you provide to recruiters. Make certain that you are allowed time to fully demonstrate your qualifications for the position.
• Reverse the interview process to get answers to all the questions that are important to you about things like culture, management, and barriers and opportunities for promotion. The more informed your decision, the better for you and the organization, whether you accept or reject an offer.
• Be honest and open about your future plans and aspirations. If they don’t match with what the hiring organization can offer or accommodate, you may want to go elsewhere. Conversely, you may open up new opportunities for yourself within the organization.
• Negotiate honestly. Don’t play one company against another; you may lose both opportunities.
• Be upfront about your desired salary and the date by which you need to make a decision.
• Provide a variety of references that enable the recruiter to see you from many sides.

Keeping the end goal in mind

The goal of recruiting is to find highly qualified talent that fits your culture and accelerates or enhances your business growth. The goal of the candidate is similar: it’s to land the right position with an organization that matches your talents, fits with your character and personality, and provides opportunities to grow. Achieving these goals is possible only if both parties operate ethically, even when no one is watching. You have to live the results.

Kathleen Quinn Votaw is founder and CEO of TalenTrust, a recruitment solutions firm with offices in Lakewood and Conifer, that works with companies to acquire key talent for accelerated growth. Kathleen is president-elect of the Association for Corporate Growth (ACG), Denver.

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Tags: result, thing, ethics, business, work

The Law of Compensation states that each person is compensated in like manner for that which he or she has contributed. This means that you will always be compensated for your efforts and for your contributions, whatever it is, no matter how much or how little.

The Law of Compensation also states that you can never be compensated in the long term for more than you put in. The amount of money that you make today is your compensation for what you have done in the past. If you ever want to increase your pay/compensation, you must increase the value of your contribution.

Most people want to be compensated first and then they say they will put in the extra work. But the Law of Compensation never works that way.

To increase your pay no matter what you do, first you must put in the extra work and increase the value of your contribution. Once you have increased the value of your contribution and continue to do so on a consistent basis…then and only then will your pay increase.

To become successful and make a lot of money you must do the same amount of work as other successful people do. Your work must have the same amount of value as those other successful people. Once you realize this and do the same as other highly successful people; it will only be a matter of time before you are paid at the same level as they are.

That is the Law of Compensation.

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Tags: law, people, precious, result, ethics

Ethics, according to Bottorff (2004) is defined as: “a body of principles or standards of human conduct that govern the behavior of individuals and groups. Ethics arise not simply from man’s creation but from human nature itself making it a natural body of laws from which man’s laws follow”(p. 3).

Ethics plays important roles in the organization. Bottorff (2004) gives both good and bad examples of what happens when organizations have positive or negative ethics. Poor quality ethics are described here as “damaging organizational performance” productivity is lowered, group dynamics suffer, communication becomes more elusive and complex and a declining organizational environment is the result.

Good ethics; however, can have positive effects on organizations and their results. Productivity increases, group dynamics and communication increase and risk in the organization, decreases.

Ethics need to be high on the list for organizations because it will lessen total negativity within the organization and uplift and encourage reasoning and performance from both the managers and employees.

Ethics can be understood as relative to the individual because the individual’s reputation is on the line, and from this ongoing positive reputation, success and personal satisfaction will be the net results. In the business world of yesterday and today, it is vital to acquire and maintain and a good reputation; for if one’s words or handshake is worth nothing, then the final result will be failure, low productivity and negativity.

I believe there can be and already is hope of promoting business ethics in a business culture. Trevino, Nelson (2005) site several reasons that this is true.

First, businesses, economically speaking, need to use “power responsibly or risk losing it.” Secondly, businesses have a responsibility, both legally and ethically to stakeholders; this includes justice and stakeholder rights. Lastly, when ethical responsibility and economic responsibility have conflicting agendas, then the corporation has a huge social responsibility challenge that must be met.

Copyright Ann Star 2009

Ann is a freelance writer/author of more than twenty-five years, with six self-published books and scores of articles to her credit. She loves to write and is currently working on her seventh book, a book dealing with sociopath behavior and its affect on those close to this individual.

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Tags: question, result, ethics, global, position

During a recent visit to the once thriving southwestern town of Tucumcari, New Mexico, located in Quay County on “Historic Route 66,” I wondered how businesses were surviving there during this floundering economy, especially since the town had been sputtering towards failure for more than a decade. The universe answered my mindful inquiry by presenting this example of how one businesswoman was making it, while an elder businessman was not.

Once named “Six Shooter Siding,” Tucumcari was founded in 1901 as a railroad construction camp. The 2000 census was 11 people short of reporting a population of 6000, but the count has since declined. The town occupies 7.5 square miles. Businesses in Tucumcari that exude a level of success are rare; they are few whose windows aren’t barred or boarded up. The prominent ones are banks like Wells Fargo and Everyone’s Federal Credit Union. (Yes, that is the credit union’s actual name). Set apart, with its clean, almost modern architecture, Mesalands Community College seems as though extraterrestrials had plopped it down one late evening unbeknownst to the local inhabitants. [But I could only logically equate such an event with Roswell, New Mexico, far to the south.]

On Main Street of Tucumcari’s “downtown,” the only business front that said, “successful” was Pajarito Interiors, owned and operated by Ruth Nelson, an interior decorator who (according to local news articles) earned her degree from the University of Hawaii and moved to New Mexico from Oregon several years ago. Pajarito Interiors’ Santa Fe adobe-style facade was clean, its paint fresh and stucco walls free of cracks. It had obviously been recently redesigned and updated compared to the buildings, up, down and across the street that sat in sad shape, windows boarded from vandal attacks, and having been long abandoned. An emaciated, feathery carcass of some now unidentifiable medium-sized bird-of-prey lay, splayed out in a display window where the raptor had accidentally flown in and failed in its escape. There it remained, in memoriam to its long suffering; for how long was anyone’s guess. The building adjacent to Pajarito Interiors, connected by a shared wall was Sands-Dosey Drugstore. It had burned a year ago. Its partially scorched-black walls remained half standing, reminiscent of a bombed-out structure from a recent war no one had heard about. Its long history destroyed in what must have been a matter of hours.

Ruth Nelson’s store is stocked with high-end home furnishing and decorator items. The interior walls hold a neutral hue that complements every other color found on unique, seemingly one-of-a-kind tables, sofas, chairs, and objects de arte . The ceiling lights softly light partitions that showcase special furnishings like a fashionably high table with a pair of plush-upholstered, matching chairs. In Tucumcari, with an estimated 80% of its population living on public assistance, it was an immediate mystery as to who among the locals could afford such exquisite items.

In an interview, Ruth Nelson said she moved to Tucumcari when she found a man with whom she thought she could spend the rest of her life; that being Donald Schutte, an attorney and now former state district judge. (Having been originally appointed by the governor, Schutte had lost last November’s election with his opponent winning nearly 2 votes to 1.) In local news articles, Nelson and Schutte have expressed plans to greatly improve downtown Tucumcari as they have filled key roles in the “Main Street” initiative with its mission to “bring back Tucumcari.” Nelson said her business was doing okay, but there was a time when she was realizing $7,000 to $10,000 in sales per week. That number sounded suspiciously exaggerated so I investigated further to find out the secret of how a businesswoman could be so successful in what appears to be a dying town. The answer came as a surprise.

In July, 2006, Ruth bought a home furnishings business from businessman Stanley Jennings. Stanley was 81 years old and thought it a good time to consider retiring. A veteran, and retired serviceman, Stanley was born in 1925 in his family’s ranch house home in Quay, New Mexico, about 17 miles south of Tucumcari. He grew up there. Stan (as his friends call him) remembers as a child having just one shirt which his mother would quickly wash every night when he got home from school. She would iron it in the morning right before he left to attend a one room school house that was located on an adjacent ranch a couple of miles away. He would walk or ride a horse to get there. As a teenager, Stan was a “soda jerk” at Sands-Dorsey Drugstore whose abandoned business location was the bombed out building, previously noted. He served in the Army Air Corp as a P-51 fighter pilot in Alaska, and was once state President of New Mexico Young Democrats, a time he was being groomed to run for a higher, future office. He attended pharmacy school in Albuquerque but quit when he got a C in one class believing that it disqualified him to graduate. He didn’t understand that is was a Grade Point Average (GPA) of a C or less that would have disqualified him. Unexpectedly, Stan’s father died far too young, and left Stan’s mother to cope with running a cattle ranch that was on the small side, as cattle ranches go. The ranch was encumbered with a large tax debt, as well. Stan accepted the responsibility, supporting his mother, wife and child.

Stan gave up pursuing ambitions outside of Tucumcari: the new, flourishing airline industry needed pilots, pharmacies were short-handed, and state level politics continued to beckon, but he kept busy on the home front. He was elected to the office of Quay County Assessor for several terms, continued on as a 4th generation rancher and founded a business in Tucumcari that he maintained for over 30 years. Tucumcari became home. He had married there; his only child had been born there. Janie, his wife, a school teacher who had taught for 26 years in Tucumcari, died there just short of their 50th wedding anniversary. Although now remarried, Stan has a burial place reserved beside Janie’s “place of rest.” He was an active member and held offices in the Kiwanis Club and currently holds the position of Chaplain in the local Masonic Lodge. Bottomline: Stan is a long-standing member of Tucumcari’s history. A dedicated community leader, he did everything expected of, above and beyond, many of his friends and peers who have passed away over the years. Since selling his business at the age of 81, what has happened to Stan in his golden years, within this small community he’s loved and served all his life ?

Now a jolly-round man with a quirky little smile, and friendly disposition, Stan owns and operates Fort Bascom Trading Post, where he is a seller of used odds and ends. At a glance, one would describe it as a southwest curio and junk store with a few interesting “pieces” scattered here and there. A private 45 rpm record “juke box” rumored to have belonged to movie star Grear Garson, a Bally’s nickel slot machine, and a coin-operated orchestrian that plays a tune for a quarter. There are the numerous Model As in various states of disrepair (rebuild); a couple look pretty complete. The business is housed in an old building whose interior is lighted by parallel rows of garish florescent lights that burn (a couple flicker) all day since the building’s large picture windows were permanently boarded up after being broken out by vandals.

Who’s buying this stuff? Nobody. “Economy’s bad,” Stan explains, “And I could sure use some sales, right now.” Since he used to offer financing (credit) to his customers, a lot of people still owe him money from the former business, and most of them aren’t paying. Stan has to file a claim (to garnish wages) against them, but can only do that if he has the extra $40 it costs to do so. Why don’t they pay? “People are hurtin’ here. They’ve been hurtin’ for as long as I can remember, and can’t afford to pay much for anything.” Most of Stan’s customers can’t qualify for a credit card, don’t have checking accounts, and “most live from paycheck to paycheck, if they’re lucky enough to get a paycheck,” he adds.

In 2006, Stan was approached by Ruth Nelson who wanted to buy his home furnishings business and transform it into her own decorator studio and interior design business. The deal was struck and Nelson’s live-in male companion (then district judge Donald Schutte) bought the building from Stan with no hitches. Schutte apparently gave the building to Nelson as she is singularly listed as the owner of record at the Quay County Tax Assessor’s Office. Nelson produced and presented a contract to Stan stating the terms under which she would purchase his business and inventory (valued at approximately $118,000 which Stan was discounting to her for approximately $63,000). Nelson was buying only the new merchandise from Stan and she understood that Stan would retain the used items to sell as used merchandise. Nelson was to pay for the inventory over time… or at least that’s what Stan believes one of the contracts stated. You see, Nelson presented a number of versions of the contract to Stan over several days. Trusting, and in good faith, Stan signed each version of the contract that Nelson presented to him, but Stan was never given a copy of the final contract. Stan repeatedly asked Nelson for a copy, but those requests were ignored.

In 2007, Stan spent 30 full days in hospital battling and overcoming a case of pneumonia from which most people his age would have died. While Stan was still recovering at home, Nelson wrote a letter charging Stan with breach of contract, citing that she had seen a (free, courtesy) phone listing (not an advertisement) for his business in a telephone directory, and that Nelson had been told by a customer (hearsay) that Stan’s staff had offered to order new items for them. For Nelson, these two events justified charging Stan with breach of a non-compete clause that was allegedly part of their terms of sale. This alleged breach therefore justified why she had the right to (abruptly) discontinue making payments to Stan for the inventory. Stan wasn’t offered an opportunity to discuss the matter.

Meanwhile, Stan was slowly recovering from his illness and gradually returning to work. Stan continued to struggle to make payments on the original business loan he had obtained to buy the inventory that Nelson had bought, but now refused to pay for. Nelson was selling that inventory for pure profit and was realizing huge success in a faltering economy. This may explain how there were times when Nelson was able to sell $7,000 to $10,000 worth of merchandise each week… for a while.

Now comes the rub. Stan’s family attorney (and CPA) refused to involve himself with a lawsuit against Nelson, not unlike five other attorneys across the state of New Mexico who, likewise, cited “conflicts of interest.” Apparently, Nelson’s live-in male companion (Schutte), the former New Mexico district judge and attorney also holds a seat on the New Mexico Bar Association Review Board, a position that could be politically dangerous for an opposing attorney to twiddle with.

Stan met with the sixth attorney in Albuquerque, a specialist in elder abuse law, who requested a $2000 retainer which he had borrowed from family members. To begin, the attorney requested a copy of the contract three times from Nelson who ignored the requests. The attorney wrote a letter of demand for payment to Ruth Nelson and Don Schutte. Schutte responded that he had nothing to do with the contract between Stanley Jennings and Ruth Nelson, and that Nelson would probably respond through her own legal counsel. (Keep in mind Nelson was living with Schutte, an attorney and former district judge capable of advising her in matters regarding business ethics, best practices, and taking appropriate legal actions.) Nelson did not respond to the letter.

The attorney told Stan that she would initiate a lawsuit against Nelson (and Nelson’s attorney-judge-pro-bono-legal-counsel boyfriend for his role) if Stan provides a $10,000 retainer… which will only pay for “discovery” and filing initial paperwork. A subsequent trial or further legal action would be at an additional expense to Stan. With what Stan owes already on the business loan for the inventory, and borrowing the initial attorney fees, the old man would be looking at $100,000 of debt at age 83. This level of debt he’d never experienced in his life. The attorney voiced concern that Stan might not be able to physically weather the depositions, inquiries, interrogation, investigation, trial, or trials to come. [In the event that Stan died, he wouldn't be alive to pay for services rendered by the attorney, which probably explained the reason for such a large, up-front retainer.]

So now this elderly cornerstone of the community is caught in a no-win situation. Why? The attorney outlined Stan’s options and possible options of outcome:

1). If Stan initiates a lawsuit against Nelson (along with her attorney-judge-pro-bono-legal-counsel boyfriend), and wins, it may be ruled that Nelson must pay Stan’s legal fees, court costs, intangible and tangible damages that could total in excess of $100,000. Could (or would) Nelson pay this? Not if she demonstrates the inability to pay, and that might be pretty easy for her to do. Game over. Stan loses… and he would still owe court and legal costs… and would have to continue to pay on the business loan for the inventory.

2). If Stan initiates a lawsuit, odds are, Nelson (and her attorney-judge-pro-bono-legal-counsel boyfriend) would counter-sue Stan with the pointed strategy of elongating the legal process, thereby financially breaking and/or out-living the old man Stan. Game over. Stan loses with his debts being transferred to his estate, or to his elderly widow who also loses… along with his children and grandchildren (who may have had some sort of inheritance prior to such a lawsuit).

3). If Nelson counter-sues Stan and wins, Stan would probably be required to pay Nelson’s court costs, tangible and intangible damages, as well as legal costs to her now exorbitantly expensive attorney-judge-NOT pro-bono-legal-counsel boyfriend who will have suddenly transformed into the most expensive legal counsel on earth. Stan loses absolutely everything because the attorney-judge-legal-counsel boyfriend would probably file a lien against every asset Stan has.

New Mexico Attorney General, Gary King advocates a strong stance on the protection of elders against abuse, both physical and financial. Yet a representative from the New Mexico Adult Protective Services Division stated that Stan’s situation isn’t really a case of financial elder abuse and that his case should be handled by law, through the legal system. If you review the options that the legal system offers (stated above), it is fairly easy to see that it offers little, if any, hope or opportunity for Stan to prevail in this situation.

Stan’s retirement “plan” was simple. He wanted to spend his last days restoring Model A Fords, the kind he admired as a young man, but could never afford. Stan owns more than one shirt now, but his eyes tear up when he reflects about the moment when he had saved up enough money to buy two new shirts to have at one time. He gets up every morning, showers and shaves, checks his blood sugar, takes his insulin and other prescribed medications. He eats a little breakfast and feeds a group of cats before “going to work” at Fort Bascom Trading Post as a seller of used odds and ends, in an effort to make ends meet. For him, the weight of the world seems far heavier than it had 30, 40, 50 or 60 years ago. And he realizes he lacks strength. It seemed that Stan was headed on the same doomed path as the burn-gutted drugstore where he had once worked as a young man, only his suffering is lasting quite a bit longer. Stan is fast becoming the sun-dried hawk that fought for its life in the store display window until it could fight no longer, when no one either noticed or cared or tried to help it survive.

This is one of those little stories about the unknown underdog featured on television’s 60 Minutes, 20/20, 48 Hours or Nightline. How can an elderly, almost gone, and nearly forgotten man get noticed by those globally viewed and respected programs? Who can help him, and who cares for guys like this anyway? If you’re reading this article and have the answer, please let me know, before Stan claims his place beside his wife Janie who died almost 20 years ago.

J Jones has been a freelance researcher/writer since 1991.

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Tags: ethics, business, result, blank, built

Many of the problems facing today’s world aren’t news to us. The environment is in dire need of help, hunger is widespread throughout the world, and workers in third world countries are continuously being exploited. Yet many people still feel they can’t possibly make a difference to such widespread problems.

However, the truth is that they can. If individuals across the globe band together for a cause, their collective efforts could make all the difference in the world – whether it’s with regard to the environment, world hunger or even the exploitation of workers.

For instance, one person recycling a can or a bottle doesn’t seem like much. But if every household in a given city were to recycle and conserve energy, that city could make a huge positive impact on environmental damage. Similarly, there are countless ways to help fight world hunger – whether it’s to donate money to a dedicated worldwide charity, donate canned goods to your local charity, or even make lifestyle changes like going vegetarian. World hunger is a massive problem – but it doesn’t mean individuals themselves can’t make a difference.

Worker exploitation is another huge problem. All across the world – particularly in third world countries – workers are forced to labor long hours, with close to no pay. Yet these workers continue to show up to such a way of life, because they have no other options. They could work hard for little money, or they might not have a job to come to at all.

Similarly, third world operations as a whole often get taken advantage of by richer countries. For instance, some buyers give an unfair price for a third-world farmer’s goods, simply because the goods cost little in the country of origin. Moreover, if the farmer doesn’t agree to a low price, it’s very likely that the buyer will go to another farmer in a third world country who will agree to that price. Thus, farmers in third world countries must submit to selling their goods for unfair prices, because to them, that’s better than selling nothing.

So, how can people like us help combat such a big problem? Many don’t know very much about worker exploitation to begin with; and even if they did, it’s such a widespread problem – could they possibly make a difference? The good news is, everyone can make a difference – and it doesn’t take much. Simply raising awareness of the products you buy in stores – from apparel to food – is a massive start.

For example, if you see two similar products side by side in a food shop, but one of them is labeled “fair trade”, you’ll know immediately that the workers who labored to produce that product were given a fair price for their goods. And true, fair trade products might cost a little bit more – but in the end, the difference is not very much and it goes towards ethical trade.

When it comes to apparel and retail buying, however, it might not be as easy to make the ethical choice – simply because companies don’t often advertise whether the factories that made the items are ‘ethical’. Instead, you might be required to do a bit of research on the stores you tend to shop in, finding out where their goods come from and whether the operations are ethical.

Choosing to give your cash to ethical businesses around the world is a significant start to helping combat worker exploitation – and it’s just one way that you, as an individual, can make a difference to such a widespread problem.

Victoria Cochrane writes for a digital marketing agency. This article has been commissioned by a client of said agency. This article is not designed to promote, but should be considered professional content.

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Tags: ethics, question, social, thing, result

Standing back and applying a ‘Reputation Lens’ to our business is a useful way of ascertaining whether someone, or something internally, may be enhancing our reputation, or damaging it. Whether we’re building trust or breaking it.

Everything we do has an impact on how we are perceived and judged. Unfortunately, however hard we might work to control our reputation, the reality is we can’t control it – we can only influence it. We can’t control it because we can’t control what others think of us, and what they think of us is our reputation – in their opinion.

However, it makes sense to periodically review what we can control, and these largely fall into three groups that can have a huge affect on the level of trust and reputation you have. I call them the 3 P’s:

People
If you’re a solo-operator this is you. If you employ others, it’s every one of them and you. Are the people that answer your phone, send out your newsletters, visit clients and do your book-keeping helping build trust or damaging it? Do they understand and support your values and have the training and confidence to make sound judgment calls when dealing with a difficult customer or situation? Is the way they come across and behave representing you in ways that enhance your reputation and build trust? If not, it’s up to you to help them understand the impact of their choices and actions and provide the training and support to enable them to step and represent you confidently and with ease.

Processes
Do you periodically carry out ‘mystery’ or ‘secret shopper’ checks to see how the processes you have in place may affect your reputation? Do you encourage ongoing, wide-ranging feedback from clients and customers and give any suggestions for improvement serious consideration? Do you give people options so they can interact with you in ways that suit them, rather than one way that suits you? Encouraging both formal and informal feedback from staff, customers, suppliers and others will enable you to monitor and adjust the impact your processes may be having and ensure you remain relevant, rather than redundant.

‘Partnerships’
Who and what are you associated with, formally and informally, that may affect your reputation and the level of trust someone has in you? ‘Partnerships’ relates not only to legal partnerships, but also includes your associations – formal or otherwise, with professional bodies, individuals, companies, brands, joint-venture initiatives, co-operative groups and so on. Is being associated with them helping or hindering you? Are there others you should consider being associated with? Have you considered possible effects if their reputation is damaged in some way and you’re formally or loosely associated with them? What might you do in those circumstances?

Our People, Processes and Partnerships hold our reputation in their hands. They have the power to make or break trust on a daily basis, yet rarely do we consider just how much impact they can have on how we are perceived.

If you haven’t applied a ‘reputation lens’ to the three Ps in your business lately it would certainly be worth doing so. We’re only as strong as our weakest links. Better to identify and minimize chinks in our armour before they become triggers that can severely damage our reputation and breach the trust people have in us.

Want to know more? Download Hannah’s free report: ‘Reputation Branding Essentials’ and opt-in to receive her electronic newsletter, ‘Reputationz’, at Here

Hannah is a specialist reputation advisor, professional speaker, author and founder of online performance-based service directory, TRUSTcite. She regularly comments on issues around reputation, trust and integrity in mainstream media and on her blog

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Tags: ethics, issue, trust, person, result

Where do I begin? It seems like more and more you hear people say today that “in order to really succeed in business, you have to lie. That couldn’t be any further from the truth. People lie for all kinds of reasons. Let’s look at some of them.

• People lie because they are insecure.
• People lie because they are hiding something.
• People lie because they are greedy and selfish.
• People lie out of fear.
• People lie because it’s “easy to lie.”
• People lie because that’s what they have always been taught to do.

Lying and dishonesty in business destroys all of that. Honesty, integrity, reputation and character. If people cant’s truth you, they will not do business with you.

Being honest in business is not only a good thing but it is the right thing. Whether you have a business online or offline, dishonesty will always come back and bite you later. (…and not in a good way either.) Let’s face it. Whether you like it or not, when you are in business, one of the greatest aspects of your business is your customers. Without them, you don’t have a business, you have a hobby.

Customers are the “life blood” of any business. With that comes the responsibility of taking care of them. Taking care of them you say? Oh yes, taking care of your customers is critical to whether your business grows and prospers, or fails and disappears into oblivion. One the easiest ways of securing that, is being honest with them

So how do you be honest? Quite simply, tell the truth, ALL THE TIME. When you do that, you begin to start develop trust. Trust (especially on the internet) is very important. Trust is the foundation and one of the building blocks of building a “relationship” with your customer base. You see, when you start building relationships, you will have what we all strive for in business, and that is the “customer for life.”

Establishing a good and solid relationship with your customers will almost guarantee that they will go out and tell all their friends that they need to shop and spend their money with you and not one of your competitors. Go so far as to tell the truth even when you mess up (no matter how bad.) Your customers will appreciate the fact that you were honest enough to admit your mistake. That speaks volumes to them. If you make a mistake whether it is on pricing or maybe delivery, always make concessions for it. Go the extra mile and give them something tangible besides the normal “sorry about that.”

That leads into something else. It’s called Integrity. Having integrity in your business is “kin” to being honest. When you say you are going to deliver something by a certain date or time, then do that. Make that a priority and do it for the right reasons. Some people use this “integrity” angle as a way of promoting a false front to their customers for the sole reason of deceiving them into thinking they are genuinely a “nice person”….(so they will spend more money.) Make having integrity part of your life and have it for real so that when people see you, they will believe it.

Another aspect of this is consistency. If you are not consistent, and only “wishy washy” at best, your reputation as a merchant will go right out the window. That is another very important thing you want to maintain in your business and that is your reputation. Your word should be your bond. Your word hangs right up there with your name…which if you are branding yourself…you will find very necessary to your success as well. It shows people you are a person of great character.

Some people say, “I only ticked off one customer…what do I care.” They say things like ” that won’t even put a dent in MY business.” Oh really? Let’s look at this a little deeper shall we. When you upset ONE customer, not only have you damaged and probably lost that customer for life, but you have lost every potential customer (or prospect) in the future that person may talk to or know. What if they are a very influential person in the community?

I think everyone in business knows that “word of mouth advertising is the best advertising in the world.” Who that person talks to could have very damaging effect on not only your business and its reputation but could also spill over into your personal life. What if (when you are not working) and someone sees you at the grocery store? They may think “hey, that’s the guy (or lady) that ripped off Joe (or Sue) you want to stay far away from them.

There are so many other aspects of this that could be dealt with but I hope you get the drift. If you start out by being honest and maintain that level of character, your business will only grow and spread like a wildfire in a strong wind. You will eventually have so much business you won’t know what to do. If you’ve started out dishonest, then start changing right now. It may take time to rebuild your reputation, but over time, people will warm up to you.

On the other hand, if you are dishonest, greedy, deceitful, unlikable, impatient, and just a “jerk”, and you maintain THAT level of character, the principle will work in the opposite way (just as well.) You will be sitting around all day begging to see one sale or one customer walk in your door and eventually that won’t even last and you’ll finding yourself “out of business” and looking for a job working for someone else. Probably, someone that will treat you, as “nice” as you treated others. You know the old saying, “what goes around, comes around.”

Ken McDougal Jr. is a Professional Nature Photographer, Full time eBay Seller and Entrepreneur. To make more money and get more money making tips, please visit Here

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Tags: ethics, result, integrity, thing, global

I attended a business networking meeting earlier today, at which a local CPA gave a ten minute presentation about her accounting and tax practice. It turned out to be a lesson in integrity. She described many unethical practices that she has witnessed over the 20 years of being in business, in addition to her prior 10 years as an IRS representative. In spite of client’s desires to get a BIG tax refund, she is committed to operating within generally accepted accounting principles.

What was really unusual in a business setting of this nature is that she acknowledged her faith as the foundation of her moral convictions. She built her business on ethical standards and is reaping the benefits from that early decision. She gave me a sense of trust as a person I could do business with, should the opportunity arise. I don’t recall meeting her at the prior couple of meetings I’ve attended, but today she made a lasting impression. Consequently, this month I decided to focus on this matter of integrity.

Why is integrity important? Integrity is a virtue that demonstrates the quality of one’s character. While morality is often associated with integrity, you can make a mistake, or hold “immoral” views, yet still act with integrity. Acting with integrity on some particularly important occasion will, philosophically speaking, always be explained in terms of broader features of a person’s character and life.But, it is primarily a relationship that one has with oneself.

Integrity is important as business owners because it connects us in our actions with our clients, colleagues, suppliers and other relationships. What I believe is one of the most important by-products of integrity is the law of attraction. We attract into our lives the very things that we give away. If your truth is fairness and goodwill, then fairness and goodwill is what you will attract in return. On the other hand if your truth is manipulation and short cuts for improper gain, then you can expect to reap the fruit thereof.

As case in point: last summer when gas prices skyrocketed, my housekeeper decided that she needed to raise her rates. But the problem was that, not only did she intend to increase my rate by 100%, she slipped up and admitted that I was “one of the people” she had chosen as a “sacrificial lamb.” After ten years of service, I fired her on the spot.

In these economically challenging times, remain true to who you are. Continue to operate your business with integrity and never take anyone for granted. Your words certainly are a reflection of your character, but your actions are a greater tell-tale sign of your fundamental moral compass. Whether you’re doing business with a Fortune 500 company or and Mom and Pop store; a group of 1000 or 25, let the quality of your product or service be the same. Be mindful to keep your word and deliver on your promises.

Point to Ponder: The investments you make today will pay dividends in the future.

Rebecca McClain is a life & business coach. She is the founder and CEO of Life Treasures, LLC. As an entrepreneur, author, speaker and coach she is recognized as an expert in personal and professional success and fulfillment. Visit her Website to receive a free audio CD.

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Tags: integrity, person, result, ethics, thing

Business Success doesn’t just happen. It begins with a person who has a thought or an idea… I need to stop right there……..There is a lot more, however the person has to be special if the business is to succeed and make their life and the world a better place.

A special internal mindset of certain internal core beliefs, values and principles is important before anything else… Or a person must be willing to learn and develop this mindset quickly. Without this business success mindset, much or all of the effort and actions will be in vain… or perhaps yield a limited result with undue stress, anxiety, worry, and results.

Personal integrity is the core value. The business owner or owners must have personal integrity that they cultivate into their business, customers and clients and others.

What is integrity? personal and business?

Personal integrity is the foundation required for business success in the long term. It’s impossible to have business integrity without personal integrity. It’s possible to have a perceived and limited short term success without personal integrity…But beware, as all the bricks will tumble hard and quickly when people lose trust and faith, are mistreated, scammed…

Personal integrity is your personal code of conduct for yourself and your business that you follow no matter what. It is your policies of right and wrong for yourself as well as for operating your business. This code of conduct applies to you, employees and all segments of the business.

Integrity is the key to success because the methods for everyone to follow is open and honest, respectful of employees, vendors, customers and everyone you come in contact with. It is a design for winning, for succeeding… that’s the result you can expect when applied consistently on a daily basis.

Benefits of Living with Personal Integrity and Business Integrity

There are too many benefits to discuss here, so I will share some of those that impacted me the most…. and those I feel most strongly about because I believe they have a massive impact for good of individuals, businesses and everything in the world.

1. I sleep at night like a lamb because I feel satisfied, fulfilled, with no worry about keeping my stories straight because they are factual. I have no regrets because I’ve done the best I could sticking to what is right or wrong and following through on those principles.

The feeling of peace and freedom is truly a blessing. I share a general story with great humbleness, and with great pride. Why? Because when involved in these circumstances, I was rejected, ridiculed, told I was incompetent, and much more….

My business as a CPA and business consultant involved a lot of detail, facts, circumstances, laws and regulations, and much competition from other similar businesses. There is no way I could keep the truth and stories in perspective using imagined or unreal circumstances. Actually, I don’t think anyone can… that’s why once started, the untruths, the made-up stories grow…impossible to remember details that did not happen.

It is possible to take the high road of providing real value and services with honesty and integrity, make a profit, and feel good in your heart and soul, feel worthy, confident and happy. You can do this too.

2. Operating with integrity and from a place of truth opens up other people to respond with more openness, honesty and truth, some right now and others in the long term. Thus we develop a path and example of integrity, benefits and good for individuals, society, business, and the world.
Mistrust leads to more mistrust, to dishonest actions by everyone, and finally to disaster and bad things. Let’s not go there.

3. When all is open and in truth, it’s easier to accept responsibility for the mistakes we make and move forward always trying to improve.

4. No matter what criticism or rejection is imposed upon you, your inner peace remains because you know what you do is fair, honest, with integrity.

5. I believe more and more people are looking today to re-instate honesty and integrity into their entire lives, into their business, into government and all that impacts them.

That gives every one of us the opportunity to take advantage of that societal stage that will benefit the world, society and us as individuals.

Personal integrity and business integrity starts with the individual person, you and I. I encourage you to embrace those principles so we increase in numbers to be the majority in our community, state, nation and world.

Barbara Filla Business and Life Coach and Successful Entrepreneur, helps many become the next success story. Whether you’re looking to create and build a successful business, be an ex-corporate CEO of your own home-based business, the next millionaire Mom or Dad, Barbara can assist you to create a primary or second stream of income and greater peace of mind. Click Here.

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Tags: ethics, person, business, result, mind

Corporate responsibility (CR) is becoming an increasingly critical matter of concern for large companies across the globe, as the unscrupulous are lambasted in the Press media and sued into oblivion. Business ethics, environment, society and employment are considered now integral parts of the quadruple-bottom-line in operating successfully i.e. sustainably in the modern business world.

A key precept of establishing sound CR practices is how an organisation defines and provides for its Key Material Sustainability Issues (KMSI).

Firstly, let’s define “materiality.” At its most basic, it is “the state or quality of being material.”[1] Another more specific source says, “An issue or concern is material if it could influence the decisions, actions and behaviour of stakeholders or the organization.”[2] Materiality hence relates to tangibility. When issues have high materiality they’re meaningful to the sustainability of the organisation.

Furthermore, issues are ‘material’ to an organisation if they’re both appreciably relevant (what matters) and significant (how much it matters) as normally defined by account of all stakeholders and the business itself. Materiality is measured by the stakeholder’s: 1) impact on sustainability, and 2) influence on the industry.

Fundamentally, a business must know what its stakeholders care about i.e. know what is material for them, and put this together with the strategic impact of individual stakeholders on that business or business area i.e. their impact and influence.

This information (the KMSIs) provides a business with direction or rules with which to guide and govern judgments, decision making and action. Underpinning and further directing this detailed corporate knowledge are Sustainability or Business Principles. These are broad business values, for example, “We create and sustain a working environment where people are challenged to do their best.” This would be a fitting Business Principle supporting the ‘employment’ branch of the quadruple-bottom-line.

In sum, sustainability is achieved through stakeholder involvement and the embracing of the Principle of Inclusivity. Supporting this principle of inclusivity (i.e. breadth) are three others: Materiality (i.e. realness), Completeness (i.e. accuracy) and Responsiveness (performance based on reality).[3]

At the end of the day, business needs to endeavour to do whatever it can to protect its future interests; the only way a company can do its best to guarantee its future, or provide for its sustainability, is to heed all stakeholders’ input and weigh it with opportunities, and against the perceived threats, to its business. This is sustainability.

Copyright © 2009, S. J. Wickham. All Rights Reserved Worldwide.

Post Script: I don’t normally tackle such issues as this, preferring to handle ‘softer’ issues such as those on relationships. In part two of this series I will focus on Issues of Sustainability – in Relationships.

ENDNOTES:
[1] The Free Dictionary, “Materiality,” Retrieved 20 May 2009. Source
[2] Det Norske Veritas, Defining Materiality and Material Sustainability Issues (presentation) at Report Comunicacao, Sao Paulo, 22 July, 2008. Source: AccountAbility. Available
[3] Where ‘inclusivity’ and ‘materiality’ provide an understanding of reality, almost like the breadth and length of prevailing knowledge. Referring to the AA1000 Assurance Standard.

Steve Wickham is a safety and health professional (BSc, MSIA, RSP) and a qualified, unordained Christian minister (GradDipBib&Min). He also has training and leadership Diplomas. His passion in vocation is facilitation and coaching; encouraging people to soar to a higher value of their potential. Steve’s key passion is work / life balance and re-creating value for living, and an exploration of the person within us.

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Tags: corporate, result, person, ethics, Issue

Workplace ethics training is essential to the success of any business. Having employees that know the rules and boundaries can make all the difference when it comes to productive and efficient work being done. The funny thing is that people understand that ethics and workplace ethics exist separately, when in reality they are one and the same. There is no specific set just for the working environment, but merely the application of those ethics that is done differently in relation to employment as opposed to the application to everyday life.

Ethics training is about teaching employees how to make the choices that are morally right, regardless of how good they feel or how much a person has to gain. Productive members of society live by this code of ethics, which includes things like honesty, trust, respect, and similar principles. Knowing how to integrate these principles into the workplace can prove to be a challenge, to say the least. Some think that if good people are hired, ethics training is irrelevant. However, it can never hurt to offer this training to employees so that they understand the practical application of it in the workplace.

The problem with many businesses and their lack of ethics is that it’s not seen as something desirable. Ethics in the business place are not as popular, because business is about doing what’s best for the business, not about what will make people feel good. Ethics training is often a sore subject for many people, simply because they work in an industry focused on profits and success, rather than that warm, fuzzy feeling that comes from living an ethical life. Fortunately, more and more businesses are realizing the importance of ethics to keep them working well and functioning like they should, which is bring ethics training back to the workplace in a positive light.

The right ethics training is taught early, and reinforced often. Some standard of competence should be set within a workplace to ensure that everyone has met the requirements for training and understands how to transfer these principles to the actual job, which can prove to be a challenge in and of itself. With the proper training and reinforcement in the workplace, ethics can become an appreciated part of any business or corporation instead of a topic that makes people cringe. For once, doing the right thing and building the bottom line can go hand-in-hand.

360training offers workplace ethics training that is essential to the success of your business. Let our online courses teach you and your business the rules and boundaries of workplace ethics training and become more productive and efficient as a team.

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Tags: ethics, train, result, new, business

Parmalat, BCCI and Maxwell are examples of major corporate failures that shocked the world prior to the inception of corporate governance in the 1980s. However, since the corporate scandal of Enron, corporate governance has brought about increased attention amongst regulators and all stakeholders world over particularly shareholders, banks and governments. This concern has resulted in a focus on the relationship between a company’s shareholders and its Board of directors, as well as the executive and non-executive directors.

Regarded as leadership in the corporate sense, corporate governance is meant to assist companies to manage and control risk processes within an organisation.

Inferred from its definition, corporate governance need to be more pragmatic in its operations ensuring that the company conforms to the laws and regulations.

The corporate governance structure specifies the distribution of rights and responsibilities among different participants in the corporation, such as, the board, managers, shareholders and other stakeholders, and spells out the rules and procedures for making decisions on corporate affairs. This is usually not the norm. Enron’s demise as a result of its excessive risks, conflict of interest and poor accountability on the part of its directors, does not seem to have scared other organisations. Recent events in organisations are not anything to write home about. Corporate governance is meant to govern not to be used as a witch-hunting exercise. However, the way things happen in the board room, corporate governance needs to be tightened if it can bring about the change so much needed at this time.

By the directors confirming that the company accounts comply with requirements in the Company Act, they become accountable to the entire stakeholders and responsible for safeguarding their assets and other of the Group and hence for taking reasonable steps for the prevention of fraud and other irregularities. Enron’s conduct indicated that its directors were not really complying. To date, there is increasing acceptance that in spite of legal duties remaining solely to shareholders, there is the view for companies to be more accountable to other stakeholders including workers. Even though this view is being challenged both in America and the U.K, shareholders still want to wield more powers to maintain their investment. This is evident in the recent demonstrations by shareholders describing directors as ‘fat cows’.

Considering the relevant principles missed by Enron in its operations in comparison with Next, it is gainsaying the fact that some of the mistakes Enron made are still going on in some organisations around the globe-unnecessary risk-taking; performance-related pay schemes including share options to Executives with the non-executive directors sitting aloof doing nothing. Enron’s Board’s compensation committee refused to ask any question about the award of salaries, perks, annuities, life insurance and rewards to the executive members at a critical point in the life of Enron. Sir Goodwin’s recent pension saga is a recent case in point. It leaves a sour taste in the mouth of all stakeholders to see that ‘simple’ things to be done to salvage ‘huge’ losses or scandals are clearly overlooked may be due to familiarity which breeds contempt, anyway.

The temptation to be ‘bought’ with money is so strong that the idea of independent executive directors serving on a board is not having the impact it was expected to have as they all easily get caught up in the scandal in the long run. All the so-called independent committees, directors, and auditors were there to bring checks and balances yet they failed shareholders.

People were just doing anything they want. Suffice to say that the onus of the matter is that the culture of the organisation should be linked with individual values and channelled to what the organisation is expected to do in its corporate rules and regulations. This could in no doubt go a long way to stamp out the bad nuts from the corporate board rooms.

Enron created partnerships with shell companies or subsidiaries known as special purpose entities (SPEs), enabling them to keep hundreds of millions of dollars in debt off its books, overstate and understate debt due to some very loose accounting rules. The Directors of Next plc on the other hand complied with Company law requiring them to prepare accounts for each financial year which give a true and fair view of the state of affairs of the company and the Group and of the profit or loss of the Group for that period. Who controls the monitor? A lot might have been said and written about this but it is worth commenting that auditors who are meant to control the system (and for that matter the controllers) are human beings. They have conscience and thus someone or somebody could be said to also monitor them and the cycle goes on and on. What is actually needed in my opinion is little honesty, morals and fear of God.

The four-member Next’s audit committee reviews the risk management process and significant risk issues are referred to the Board for consideration; and considers financial reporting and reviews the Group’s accounting policies relating thereto.

It must be said here that in particular, major accounting issues of a subjective nature are discussed by the committee thus zeroing in to the issues relevant to Next not just the IASB’s requirement. This procedure might have helped the position of Next in the long run and could definitely help other companies if they follow those principles.

Furthermore, the first basic rule of investing which was diversification was also breached at Enron. Workers investing pension money in company shares had their savings tied up in Enron’s stock; and there was no plan for workers to diversify those savings and government regulators did virtually nothing. This is irresponsibility on the part of the directors. Workers’ anger was evident when in France, for example some company bosses were held hostage. The G20 demonstrations in London were also other cases in point.

In Next people are considered a key asset to the business. The Board has, therefore, adopted policies aimed at minimising risks in the Group’s activities to ensure that they do not harm employees, customers or the general public, all of whose interests are regarded as critical to business success. Shareholders have an opportunity to ask questions or represent their views at the Annual General Meeting. This is always the norm at Annual General Meetings. But half a loaf is better than none, it is said. Not all the mistakes and loopholes could be plugged overnight but communications should as usual be a two-way affair, continuous and all concerns by stakeholders should be followed and investigated by independent bodies.

Enron and its executives have contributed large sums of money to some politicians. Enron created a culture in which financial instruments was designed to turn profits into losses and taxes into tax shelters. Excessive risk was the word. It was different with Next. It conducts a weekly “Next Brand trading meeting” which considers the performance and development of the Next Brand through its different distribution channels. All business aspects of risk management in respect of the Next Brand including sales, property, product, systems, warehousing and personnel also considered here. Key performance indicators are monitored daily and weekly to help to keep in check all aspects of risk. To Next, risk management was part of their organisational culture.Next’s Board is responsible for the Group’s risk management process. It has delegated responsibility for implementation of the risk management process to the Chief Executive and senior management best qualified in each area of the business. The Board sets guidance on the general level of risk.

Next’s conduct or operations in the board room should be emulated. Corporate governance should be a continuous process and all stakeholders-focused. It should not discriminate and should be regularly reviewed by an external body appointed by shareholders in consultation with the board so that they do not take over the responsibilities of the board.

The Next’s Board takes care not to disseminate information of a share price sensitive nature which is not available to the market as a whole. On the other hand share performance-related pay contributed to Enron’s demise by pushing the executives to announce non-existent profits through the special purpose entities to deceive the market in order to keep its stock price high to enable them receive their fat pay. They paid themselves huge salaries as a result.

This practice is still continuing all over the globe; and was mainly part of the current recession. There is no doubt that Boards of companies should be made to live up to their responsibilities. With Next’s corporate governance, one could see that the main responsibilities lie with the Board. For example, the system of internal control and major policy decisions as well as the Group’s risk management are the responsibilities of the board; who in turn delegates these responsibilities to the CEO and senior management best qualified in each area of the business.

The Board at Next acknowledged that its primary role is to represent and promote the interests of shareholders; is accountable to shareholders for the performance and activities of the Group and communicates with its shareholders in respect of the Group’s business activities through its annual Report and accounts, yearly and half yearly announcements and regular trading updates to the stock exchange. Enron’s board of directors were ‘busy’ trying to mislead tax authorities in order to collect $87m from creating tax shelters. A little over the top maybe, but little drops of water make a mighty ocean. Enron could have avoided all those mess if it had listened, complied and enforced the rules to the letter instead of bending them to suit their whims And caprices. The Business Roundtable emphasised that in planning communications with shareholders and investors, companies should consider never misleading or misinforming shareholders about the corporation’s operations or financial condition. This was lack of business ethics.

Enron appears to be ‘an accident waiting to happen’. Enron’s internal controls had been very weak as a matter of fact. When an employee wrote a memo about the CEO, Ken Lay; he himself handled the matter internally by appointing a law firm which has a long association with Enron to investigate the matter. Auditors, lawyers and independent directors should be seen to be totally independent as outlined in the relevant regulations and laws. They should not be allowed to dabble in the company’s affairs where they have any interest. This must be seen to be enforced.

The main lesson to learn from Enron’s experience is there was no compliance whatsoever with Enron’s operations. Enforcement does not necessarily mean there would be compliance. Enforcement precedes compliance and could be linked together to the success of corporate governance. Enforcement means to compel people to comply with or do something by law or regulation. Unfortunately this had not been the case in most of the corporate scandal cases. No one seemed to enforce the laws and regulations; not the independent directors or the regulators themselves. The significance of this is that compliance to laws and regulations does not come easily without independent directors disciplining themselves to follow the regular review of risk management issues for the company concerned.

Nevertheless, corporate governance could be the hub to the reputation of company and its directors regardless of other equally important issues like corporate social responsibility (CSR) for the reason that it has widely been embraced for its apparent economic health of companies and society in general. Like Total Quality Management, corporate governance should be made company-wide, stakeholder-focused and rated given awards like the ISOs.The ratings should be published regularly. This could benefit all stake holders and bring back the trust shareholders in particular have lost in both executive and non-executive independent directors.

Reference:

1.’In search of Gates’; Fortune, October 4, 2004 pp76

2. Elkind, P; Bethany, M; ‘They’re getting close’, Fortune November 24, 2003 page21

3. Fortune Europe Edition No.24, December 22,2003pp 40

4. Gunther, M; ‘Boards Beware!’ Fortune November 10, 2003 page 80

5.’Inside The Head of BP’ by Nelson D.Schwartz, Fortune, July 2004, page 56

6.’LEADERS: The real Scandal’ the Economist January 19th, 2002 page9

7. Next Annual Report and accounts, January, 2002

8. Sellers, P. “INNOVATION SPECIAL; P&G: Teaching an old dog New Tricks”, Fortune; May 31, 2004 page36, 37, 60-63

9. Taylor III, A., THE AMERICANISATION OF TOYOTA, Fortune, December 8, 2003 pp56

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Tags: ethics, result, relation, country, governance

Somebody recently told me, “Whatever you do, just don’t do business with a Christian!” insinuating that many Christians (probably most, in his mind) cannot be trusted in business. The accusation is not new at all — I have heard it many times before — and make no mistake, it hurts every time! But is it valid?

Sadly, although exaggerated, the accusation is not entirely without substance! As a Christian this accusation was of great concern to me initially and it resulted in reluctance on my part to identify myself as a Christian in my business dealings. It robbed me of my confidence as a businessman to identify myself as a Christian in the market place, until one day … I realised that although there is likely to be an Ananias and Sapphirah in every Christian community, most Christians are people of high integrity!

You don’t have to apologise for being a Christian

The fact of the matter is that dishonesty, racketeering, unreliability, fraud and corruption are everyday phenomena in this world and occur to a greater or lesser extend in every society and every religion. I certainly do not want to make excuses for dishonest Christians, but at the same time I am not going to apologise because I call myself a Christian businessman! The fact that I am a Christian certainly makes a difference to my values and the way I conduct my business. I was fired from my job twenty years ago because I refused to sign a tender containing a dishonest practise, and I have no regrets.

Covering up your moral deficiency makes you a hypocrite

I live in South Africa and you all know our history of apartheid prior to 1994. I have a black Christian friend, an evangelist, with whom I have been acquainted for many years. During the apartheid years he was invited to preach to the labourers on a certain farm. On arrival the white farmer said to him: “If there will be “kaffirs” in heaven one day, I don’t want to go to heaven!” In reply my black friend said: “Sir, where you will be going then, there will be many more!”

Hypocrisy is the concealment of character. I have come to realise that when people make general accusations like the one in the first paragraph, they are in fact often simply trying to conceal their own moral deficiency. It’s the same as saying, “I don’t want to go to church because the pews are full of hypocrites.” What they forget is that where they are, are many more!

Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” (Isa 30:21 NKJV)

To Christians I want to say, if you claim to be a Christian, you have to walk your talk! You have to live up to your Christian identity and the standard of the Bible, or stop calling yourself a Christian! “… if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (2 Cor 5:17 NKJV) I am told that Alexander the Great once said to one of his troops by the name of ‘Alexander’ who absconded from the army, “Young man, change your behaviour, or change your name!”

To unfaithful Christians I want to say, when you are untrustworthy in business, you are not only betraying the Name of Jesus Christ who you claim to follow, but you are betraying the entire body of Christians. Judas betrayed Jesus for thirty pieces of silver and then committed suicide. Thirty pieces of dirty silver in the market place is just not worth the glitter!

To non-Christians I want to say, true Christianity is something to be desired. Don’t be side-tracked by unfaithful followers! Look at our Leader and Master; His Name is Jesus Christ — Lord of Lords and King of Kings! Whether He is that for you will certainly make a difference in the world — and the world of difference to you!

Elmer Grobler is the founder of Christain Money Web and author of various articles on practical Christianity in the Market Place. Watch out for more titles such as: Funding Christian Organisations — The Business Ministry Model, and Why Many Business and Money Making Ventures by Pastors, Missions and Christian Organisations Fail.

Visit http://christianmoneyweb.com for the Christian Money Web’s Financial Empowerment Plan for Christian Organisations and Missions. You will also find valuable information here about Internet Business Opportunities and Courses on Internet Marketing Skills.

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Tags: religion, business, work, result, ethics

Answers to some of the most frequently asked questions in the Global economy.

As we continue our discussion on The importance of Ethics in the marketplace, we will address today in this Q&A session, some rules that the broker should follow. Some of it you may find to be common sense, and some of it you may find to be new to you. However, it all boils down to putting into practice those things that will encourage habitual ethical behavior which will lead to a long term career built on integrity.

Here is a synopsis of what we covered on question 1 : How do ethics affect the stock broker on Wall Street?

We addressed several areas that the stock broker should examine and seek to improve where improvement is necessary. They are:

a. Misleading the client

b. Lack of full disclosure

c. Breach of Confidentiality

d. Neglecting to offer Alternatives

OK, now you’ve closed some great deals and you’ve been doing this for some time. You may say that you are just like the average guy that’s trying to provide for their family. You have a mortgage and school fees to pay for your kids that’s in an elite private school. Why would you need to give thought of rules. You are doing a good job. You’re winning awards at the office as one of the top performers and your boss likes the results you are getting for the company, who cares about rules. Rules are made to be broken.

Everyone does it anyway. After all, you need that bonus that you’ve been working so hard towards all year. You want to maintain or improve your lifestyle and afford or buy some of the finer things in life for you and your family. Like take that great vacation to the Bahamas or that nice European car you been planning to buy.

God’s word declares “A man without self-control is like a city broken into and left without walls.” (Prov. 25:28 – esv). Also, James 1:14-15 (esv) says, “But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire. Then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death.” We have seen the evidence of when these scriptures are violated in light of what recently took place with Bernard Madoff in March 2009.

John Piper has a saying, “God is most glorified in us, when we are most satisfied in Him”. That being said, let us look at some basic rules that you may want to follow from a biblical perspective, that will serve as a guide and that will aid you in becoming the greatest stock broker God intended you to be.

Q & A:

2. What are some rules a broker should follow?

God has put in place some precepts that if violated, would produce dire consequences for the one who neglects them. Some of them are as follows:

a. Respect the code of conduct

The NASB has put in place Conduct Rules for Registered Representatives and Investment Bankers to be guided by. Even though these rules are in place, for some reason, some people see it as a pleasure to take liberty in challenging these rules. Doing whatever they can seemingly get away with – for the moment. However, we as children of the Kingdom, are to show Christ’s character as we work “as unto the Lord” in the workplace. Let make sure that our conduct is in keeping with “children of the light” amidst this darkened world (Prov 20:11; Jam 3:13). Here is the standard we are called to in God’s word, “but as he who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct” (1Pet 1:15 esv).

b. Avoid greed

When you are servicing a customer that you have come to know, it is very easy to become presumptuous in our actions. Making assumptions especially when we are processing applications and fulfilling the clients wishes or instructions. In this case, the opportunity may present itself where you are required to charge fees for certain services as is necessary. This is where your discretion is depended upon to be fair and reasonable. However, in most cases, you are required to inform the client of your fees up front at the time of opening the investors account. Those being said don’t take advantage of people’s trust in you by manipulating fees charged. 1 Kings 8:61 declares, “Let your heart therefore be wholly true to the Lord our God, walking in his statutes and keeping his commandments…”

c. Flee unethical behavior & practice

The Apostle Peter penned these words in 1Pet. 2:12, “Keep your conduct among the Gentiles honorable, so that when they speak against you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day of visitation.” Let us make sure that our conduct exudes Christ that when our deeds are examined under the ever watchful eyes of those in authority over us, both corporate and governmental, our works may prove to be that of veracity.

d. Don’t engage in fraud

In the case of Bernard Madoff we can see how the mighty falls. His story conveys the message that when you gain the trust of another and betray that trust you capture God’s attention – that justice may be rewarded (cf. Psa 103:6; Jam 5:4). The things that you might have thought you had gotten away with, surely will come back to haunt you and you will be repaid. Proverbs 28:6(esv) says, “Better is a poor man who walks in his integrity than a rich man who is crooked in his ways”.

e. Avoid bribes & exorbitant gifts

A good example of how this can tarnish your name and ruin your legacy is the damage the act of engaging in or taking bribe has caused an otherwise productive citizen in the person of former Senator Ted Stevens from Alaska.

When we as children of God adhere to the things that please the Lord, we will preserve our good name and a good character will be the hallmark of our reward both among men and in the sight of the Lord (cf. Deu 16:19, Psa 15:2-5; 31:24; Prov. 22:1; ). The Lord calls those that receive bribes – “the wicked” (cf. Prov 17:23).

Thought for consideration

We must at all times posses a kingdom focused mindset, living a life ever Before the Face of God, displaying Christ in our deeds and actions. In this world today it’s not easy to live up to the standards of Christ in our workplace and business, especially given the fact that we are dealing with so many personalities and pressures of this competitive marketplace. Beside, nothing worth having is ever easy. We are called to be perfect (cf. Matt 5:48). Let us continually press toward the goal of sanctification in Christ.

In our NEXT ISSUE The importance of Ethics in the marketplace (part three), we will address the question:

Is there a relationship between theology, philosophy, and ethics?

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Tags: thing, result, affect, ethics, market, global

The Chrysler bankruptcy showed how the secured lenders got swindled out of their contractual rights under bankruptcy law by government intervention. The GM bankruptcy illustrates biased treatment of an unsecured creditor due to government edict. Both these events violate the basic rules of a free market and the rule of law, which are the basic precepts of our founding fathers and our democracy.

In a conventional Chapter 11 bankruptcy, unsecured creditors are all in the same position and are usually treated by the court in a similar way, depending on their risk level and their importance to the company’s survival. In the GM case, there are three unsecured creditors in question, the bondholders (pension funds, hedge funds, investors) who bought these bonds from brokers, the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) who are owed money by GM as a result of the retiree health benefit trust set up by the company, and the U.S. Treasury who recently shelled out money in an effort to keep GM out of bankruptcy.

The bondholders hold the greatest debt at $27.2B, the union is next with $20B, and the U.S. Treasury with $16.2B. The government imposed solution is for the bondholders to get 10% of the ownership from converting their note to equity. That’s less than five cents on the dollar. The U.S. Treasury gets 50% of the stock and $8.1B in debt, as much as 87 cents per dollar, and the union gets 40% of the stock which covers one-half of their note and $10B more in cash over time. That’s worth approximately 76 cents on the dollar. The government and the UAW will own 90% and manage GM. How’s that for fairness? It looks like the private sector comes up short again when the government calls the shots and the lender with the largest claim gets short- changed in a rather disproportionate way.

Tell me, do you think that GM will ever get private investment capital in the future? Would private money readily come to TARP banks that are now being run by Treasury? When politics start to control business decisions, profits become less important. Witness the stagnation of business growth in the Socialist countries of the world. When growth slows the only option a Socialist government has is higher taxes. I’m afraid the cat’s out of the bag unless private interests go to the courts to block these two unfair and unjust bankruptcy charades. We better start standing up about this, because it’s our money that’s at stake. You can’t keep making something from nothing.

George P. Ahearn blogs about Economic Conservatism and social and political issues at Here.

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Tags: question, result, ethics, global, position

Most people certainly do not enjoy receiving bills in the mail, especially when such invoices are accompanied by harsh and indifferent sounding legalese that sometimes does not even sound as if it was written by a human being. It is no secret that large banks and corporations earn much of their money via the morally questionable use of hidden terms and fees in the fine print that require reading glasses to see, and many such companies do not conduct themselves by a high code of moral ethics. After all, why be nice when you can be rich?

Typically many people who work for such companies that implement such questionable behavior are not actually bad people; it is not like they wake up in the mornings excited about how many people they will be able to hurt. It is a simple fact that such practices are profitable, and the fact that they are mean and nasty does not detract from this fact. However, giving a backwards justification for selfish behavior and exploiting unknowing and sometimes vulnerable people is no way to conduct business in the world today. There is no reason why morality and profitability cannot coexist together, and in fact some of the richest people are also some of the nicest.

Examples Of Unethical Business Behavior

Many people take advantage of the concept of the corporate veil where the corporation itself exists as a separate entity, and they will use this as a way to justify immoral behavior. Many of us have been the witnesses and victims of such behavior, and you are bound to encounter people practicing such usurious behavior that have no qualms or scruples against exploiting and taking advantage of other people for the sake of dollars.

One of the most widely practiced forms of unethical business is creating contracts that are binding and restricting, so that once a person gets roped into the contract they are unable to break it even if it is a great strain on them and they cannot afford to pay it. Such things are common when lending corporations of shady intent extend large amounts of credit to young people that may be in college and have only recently graduated high school. These companies will take advantage of the lack of financial education of such people, and usually slap them with restricting terms, hidden fees, and high interest rates on money borrowed.

Granted, while contracts and even binding contracts can and do play an essential role in conducting business, there is no need to take this idea to the max by creating a document that, once a person has placed their signature on it, they are trapped in a form of debt servitude where they literally become employees for another person’s money.

In a popular business model such as rental real estate, contracts between landlords and tenants are important for making this type of business arrangement work, both for keeping the rates low for a tenant and limiting potential risk that the owner might face from property destruction. Lease agreements are popularly used for this sort of business, and while this type of contract is binding for a period of time there is no need for it to be excessively binding or limiting for any party involved.

Another example of an unethical business model is called forced continuity marketing, and this is the practice of signing people up for a recurring bill once you have their financial information and they will need to contact you to cancel a service that they never signed up for in the first place. This can happen with internet businesses, where you pay $10 for a certain online product and then you see a $30 recurring charge on next month’s statement that will continue until you contact them to cancel, even though there was no information about any additional charges.

Fostering Ethical And Moral Business Practices

One of the best ways to integrate ethics into your business is not to use contracts that are binding. You should be very democratic and egalitarian in your business dealings, so that once a person wants to leave there is nothing that needs to stop them. Instead of relying on a cheap excuse to keep your business going, the burden is now on you to provide enough value for your customers that they will want to stay with you by choice and not because you can threaten them with legal action if they leave.

One of the basic principles of sound and ethical business is about creating value for people, and creating more value than the amount of money that you are asking in return. Instead of creating a membership-based website that provides little real value and costs $50 per month, create a website that provides $10,000 worth of value for your customers that costs the same. Creating value for other people is not just important for creating wealth, but also if you want to stand out in the vast crowd of competitors you will need to have material that is at the cutting edge in terms of the information that it provides to your target market.

Nathan Navachi is a professional writer, blogger, internet marketer and forex trader who lives in Ohio. He is the writer and webmaster for The Currency Markets which contains a wealth of information about making money with forex trading and how to live a rich life.

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Tags: question, result, corporate, ethics, person