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February 2016

QuicksandIs it Firm Ground or Quicksand?

Business leaders and owners must navigate through a demanding and sometimes hostile environment. Ethics is of increasing importance to business organizations and entities because of this environment. The consequences of failure can lead to harsh financial penalties and threaten a company’s very existence.

Companies that have a strong ethics based culture are more successful that those that do not. This letter briefly explores why an ethical corporate culture is important for a business’s success over the long-term as well as assuring better compliance with numerous statutes and regulations.

In 2012 the Rand Corporation published a study that examined the issue of corporate ethics in the context of federal laws, and in this study titled, Corporate Culture and Ethical Leadership under the Federal Sentencing Guidelines, the Rand Corporation looked at what factors caused companies to fail and what factors made companies succeed in building an ethics based culture.

One of the key factors that produces success is the notion that incorporating ethics into a culture begins at the top. The owner, the chief executive officer, the leader is where the seeding process begins, and it is they who must sustain the vision and provide the drive for transforming the corporate culture.

And there are several practical reasons why this top down approach is important. It is the leadership that infuses the values and standard of behavior into the business processes, practices, and procedures on which any organization runs. Doing this successfully can:

  1. Improve employee morale
  2. Strengthen customer relationships
  3. Improve company reputation in the community
  4. Give you a competitive edge
  5. Improve your bottom line
  6. Create a better workplace with a strong sense of business ethics

Does your company’s culture have a strong ethics component? Or is ethics in your company a static program that just sits on the office shelf for much of the year? The Ethics Workshop can help you make ethics an important part of your brand, improve your company’s ability to develop successful relationships with customers and stakeholders, and train employees to make positive choices with greater confidence.

Want to know more? Visit our website and learn about our upcoming ethics training class on May 5th and and what it can do for you.

The Ethics Workshop, in the entrepreneurial spirit that drives the small business community, all who read this post to find ways to support their local businesses. The Ethics Workshop does it part by supporting the Services Cooperative Association and its business building initiatives. Want to learn more? Visit www.servicesca.org.

Food for Thought: Corporate executives and business owners need to realize that there can be no compromise when it comes to ethics, and there are no easy shortcuts to success.  Ethics need to be carefully sown into the fabric of their companies.    (Vivek Wadhwa)