Can companies be ethical and successful?
Most people will tell you that “business ethics” is a contradiction in terms. “Impossible!” they say. “You have to do everything you can to give customers what they want and increase shareholder value. No one can put ethics before the bottom line and be successful in today’s business climate.
What can we do when it seems like the bad guys always win? How can we compete in a world where customers ask for incentives that walk a fine line between good service and kickbacks, where unscrupulous salespeople close the deal because they lie, where boardrooms and shareholders clamor for profit every day? As customers demand the possible price, where every bad corporate citizen subject to a fine knows there are thirty other companies doing the exact same thing?
There it is a high road to success, one in which people live and work according to a set of values, ethics and principles that can make them feel good about themselves and the work they do. More and more companies are learning the power of the road: they are creating standards for themselves and their employees; do business ethically; and they act as good corporate citizens in their communities. As a result, people are proud to work for these companies, customers are proud to buy from them, and shareholders are proud to invest in them.
The main road can create greater than wealth and long-term success. Material wealth can come in the form of customer and employee loyalty, community support, and steady and sustained growth. But the less tangible wealth of goodwill and inner certainty are far more important in the long run. Each of us has to live with ourselves, and our ethics will determine how good that life is, within our own heads and hearts, as well as within our companies.
Taking the right path in today’s climate of engagement is not easy. After all, while the low road is paved with easy decisions and immediate rewards, the high road is full of potholes of difficult decisions and delayed gratification. The right path requires commitment – the willingness to decide what you stand for and how you want your business to look. It requires each of us to make daily choices between the easy way and the right way, between getting the sale unethically and not getting the sale at all, between “going with the flow” and standing as a rock against the prevailing tide of ethical commitment. .
Ultimately, the benefits of taking the right path are enormous. The main path may not lead to quick and easy success, but it will allow you to look in the mirror every night and like who you see there. It will allow you to look your clients, your boss and your colleagues in the face knowing that you have done everything possible for them, for yourself and for the greater good. And it will allow you to present yourself to your children as an example rather than a warning.