BUSINESS ETHICS   

'When it comes to finances, there are no withholding taxes on the wages of sin.'

Let’s talk about business ethics. We want people to treat us fairly, to be honest with us, to honor their contracts with us, to honor the law, to charge us a fair price, to honor our confidentiality, to not carry on insider deals to our disadvantage, and to keep their promises, and yet many of us make excuses why it’s okay for us to avoid doing these things. We find ourselves justifying our own unethical conduct and behavior, we find ourselves being able to rationalize why it is okay to engage in unethical behavior or venture off into the gray area. We somehow are blind to how bad our own lack of integrity is and how easy it is to wonder astray into the gray area of unethical behavior! Others see it whether we pretend to ourselves that we look great. Integrity is like a beautiful business suit. Our credibility is wrapped up in how we work, who we are, how we treat people, and most of all what we say and do through our actions and comments. A man's character is his fate.

Is there any reason to have ethics in business? After all isn’t it the bottom line that matters? There are many good reasons to have business ethics, including the bottom line. Companies and individuals that have consistent business ethics have better reputations, outdo their competition in the long run, and over the long term make better earnings and rewards, and last but not least they avoid discrepancies. Business succeeds because of trust. Trust is the foundation of all human communication. Investors invest because of trust. Customers buy because of trust. A business, plans, profits and makes decisions based on trust. Ultimately, a company succeeds or fails based on relationships encircled by honesty, trust and ethical behavior. Ethics comes into play, or grooming of one's ethical demeanor, in spite of the well-publicized lapses in ethics such as Enron, many people and businesses do have codes

2000 Robert L. McDorman

of conduct that they maturely abide by and practice daily to uphold. It only takes 'one bad apple' in a company to give it a derogatory name or image. Let McDorman and Associates assist with maintaining or establishing strong ethical behaviors.

If there are so many benefits to business ethics why is it so tempting to so many people to be unethical? People feel desperate and that feeling of desperation pressures them to taking unwise risks. For instance, a businessman’s constituents (shareholders and others) may place conflicting expectations and goals upon him. Management may place unrealistic expectations upon subordinates, even threatening their jobs. The spirit, that is the climate (or culture) of a company sets the tone. Feeling desperate may not be the only factor behind unethical behavior, but if we consider 'that most men lead lives of quiet desperation', we may begin to wonder if unethical behavior is something everyone engages in and therefore is just a part of life. We all need money, but there are degrees of desperation. In our rich consumer civilization, we spin cocoons around ourselves and become possessed by our possessions. A man's reputation is his fate, as well as a company's reputation based upon his actions. This is where strong ethical policies come into play.

Okay, we like doing unto others as we want done to ourselves. We are all for business ethics. Now what? This is where McDorman & Associates can help you. You need to be pro-active in having ethics. It is not something you sit around and it happens to you. You need to ask yourself and potential employees certain questions to prevent opening yourself up for trouble. To make an analogy, if you leave a dollar bill in an easy-to-steal spot, you bear part of the blame for its theft, should it go missing.

If you hire the kind of person who is desperate and feels compelled to give in to unethical temptations, you bear part of the responsibility for what happens. If your company is being audited, it needs to be a genuine audit, not a white wash. Do you make voluntary decisions not to do something unethical? Can you pro-actively balance the goal of profits with the values of high character and society? Have you taken the effort to find out what the laws require? All of these things are some of the small examples of being pro-active in attaining business ethics and taking a open minded pro-active approach to ethics. This is why it is worthwhile to hire someone to consult with you or your personnel about ethics. Who better to ask about an unbiased opinion of your operation and staff, than someone who knows first hand how much it hurts to make an unethical mistake? As an example: If one faces a delicate family issue that could result in one's loss of marriage, and family. Which would be better, placing their destiny along with their family's destiny into the hands of a family counselor who had never struggled through any personal family crisis? On the other hand, choose a counselor who had personal family struggles and successfully overcame them. Let Robert reveal and share the personal scars and the strong message he has to offer your group on how important ethics are and how easy it is to stray from them and to justify your actions as right ones. People are fascinated to hear the once bad, now reformed speak about how they overcame their problems, rose to the top to be able to admit how their decisions hurt and impacted others. The use of this painful excrutiating experience as a powerful tool to prevent or curtail employees or executives alike from wondering off the path of ethical decisions and become fallen prey to the gray areas. This will ultimately lead to shattered careers, broken relationships, destroy family and social ties no matter how faithful and strong. It is no secret years and years of good sound, honest practices and behavior can be destroyed by one unethical act. Taking advantage of these phenomena, Robert McDorman is excited to speak to you about business ethics, and the many lessons he has learned that he wants to pass on. Most of all he wants to plant good seeds within his listeners, positive seeds to replace the barren spots of desperation. The answers are there. Your heart may already know them. Become an active creator of good things in your life and others' as well as in your company. Have Robert McDorman fascinate your group with his seminar(s) on business ethics, or one of his other popular topics that are sure to leave your group's eyes opened and made aware of how easy a thought to be simple solution to a problem could turn into a devastating career, business and social disaster. Start today with a pro-active approach to head off unethical potential disastrous pitfalls. Email or write Robert today and let him arrange to share his experience and testimonial real life lessons with your group, convention or trade show.