12 ethics principles for a role model business

“Business ethics – It is a fight worth fighting for” – Alan Lowne

Growing up back in my home town I lived in an ethics oriented environment build on strong and healthy principles. It was all very natural due to the fact my father worked in the Romanian Army and my mother in the legal system. I learned from a very young age the importance of honesty, integrity, honor and always keeping a promise you made. I remember my mother always told me to tell the truth always because then I will never have to remember my lies. If you tell the truth you will always say the same story when asked. My father taught me the importance of honor, loyalty and keeping your promise. His military background was an important factor in the way I was raised. I learned that you have to respect your promises even if it may not be in your advantage because this is how a real man lives his life. After almost 20 years of this type of lessons I started my career and realized that sometimes my ethic way to see life, work, business and relationships was not always an advantage but it paid off in the long run.

            Lately I started watching an older TV series, 24 it is called, and one of the characters in the show remembered me how good ethics and healthy principles should be everyone’s prerogative. This guy was a presidential candidate in the middle of his preliminary campaign and decided to tell the truth about his son being involved in a crime, ignoring the risk of losing the campaign. The result – one year later he was the president of USA. The response of the people was incredible showing that we all appreciate someone standing by his believes and principles it’s just that we don’t always apply them to our business or work place. What would you have done in its place?

Ethics is such a grand word with such a big impact on your life or business. Definition of ethics varies from “the science of the ideal human character” to “the science of moral duty” but we are actually talking about “a set of concepts and principles that guide us in determining what behavior helps or harms sentient creatures”. And on a daily basis, in our personal lives, we stand by those concepts and principles but not so often in business. They are the same principles in both areas of our lives and I always wanted to define them in a business environment. There could be more principles that are part of ethics but I identified twelve. You can become a better person and/or business partner just trying to live your life and run your business by these principles.

Yes, skills, techniques and innovation are important for your business but they tell a story about your product or services. It is more and more important in the business “jungle” the human to human relationship and you are defined as a human by your character and reputation. Your character is defined by your actions, it is what you are, while your reputation is defined by a series of perceptions, it is what people think of you. This is why the following principles are important in defining you as a valuable partner for the future. For your partners (suppliers, business partners and customers) it is harder to identify quickly your character, so at the beginning of a partnership the main element in choosing you is your reputation.

Ethical principles are universal standards of right and wrong prescribing the kind of behavior an ethical company or person should and should not engage in.

Honesty is the best policy. I learned from my mother to be honest. Her favorite example so that I can understand the importance of honesty was the case of prosecutors calling people for interrogation several times. This is how they verify your story, if you lie is hard to tell the same story every time. When you plan a long term business that you want to grow and develop honesty is the cement in your foundation. You can only mislead a partner once, if you say that your product has some imaginary qualities he will see that as soon as he gets the product and he will never buy anything from you again. You have the choice of creating a “hit and run” business or a business with a future and impact.

Integrity is doing the right thing when no one is watching. Integrity means having a strong link between your words, thoughts and actions at all time. Integrity requires a lot from you, you have to stay your course even through a storm knowing that on the other side the sun will shine again. Often I had to make some hard choices; i walked away from great projects and sometimes even money just because it would have been in contradiction with my principles. I made enemies and lost friends fighting for my beliefs. But when all is said and done we are the ones looking at our reflection in the mirror. I rather lose some projects or money than lose the trust and friendship of the person looking back at me from that mirror.

Promises are just words until they are fulfilled. You need to always respect your promises; promises should be immune to changing circumstances. Being true to your promise shows to your partners that they can be at ease while being involved in a project with you because they know you will deliver. Don’t try and interpret contracts in your favor after you signed them and make every reasonable effort to fulfill the letter and spirit of your commitments.

Loyalty is valuable inside the framework of the other principle of ethics. Loyalty means devotion, a sense of duty to a person, group or cause but this shouldn’t be a reason to break all other principles of ethics. Yes you show loyalty to your partners and don’t betray their trust but it doesn’t justify everything. And in order for loyalty to work it should be a two way street. Don’t make a priority of someone seeing you as an option.

A strong and ethical business is just as reputable as the people that run it. Don’t compromise for a short term victory, take the longer and harder way and build your business so that it becomes a symbol of business morality and success. At the same time you must remember in time, while getting bigger and powerful, to don’t stray from the ethics principles. Huge companies met their end because of questionable and unethical actions, just look at Enron, AIG or Health South. You can work for 20 years and build a spotless business reputation among your peers but it will only take one unethical move in your management to destroy all that hard work.

We spoke of twelve principals, join us next week for the second part of this article where we will continue our journey through ethical principles such as respect, law abiding, leadership or accountability.