Ethics and Business - Why Bother?

I have embarked on a difficult journey in developing skills in Counselling with the University of Hertfordshire. Part of that is a commitment to an ethical framework set out by the British Association of Counsellors and Psychotherapists. I consequently considered that I need to make a similar commitment to my Mentoring clients (or prospective clients). I have separately adapted/abbreviated the BACP framework

Now in business many people describe themselves as ethical and portray themselves to their customers and partners in that way. Rarely do they actually set down in writing the ethical framework of how they will do business. Some for fear that they may be found wanting. I worked for nigh on 10 years as a close partner with IBM and I can say that during my period with them I saw the benefit of working with an at heart ethical organisation. That is not to say that all employees or partners lived up to those standards; humans are venal and subject to temptation especially in a competitive commercial environment. In some winning was everything and the line would occasionally come out

"You get no prizes for coming second"

But as a very successful salesman over those ten years selling over £30Mn of hardware and software I at heart remained ethical. That is not to say that at times I coloured the truth and swerved close to the wind. It became even harder when I was an MD and survival was the name of the game. When your largest customer goes bust owing you £50,000 the penalty for failure meant more than losing a sale; it could have meant losing my house! There are one or two decisions and actions that occurred in that period that would not bear deep review. Justifying the positions taken was difficult but necessary. If I had had an ethical framework written down would I have made the same decisions? Who knows?

But I am now no longer subject to those terrible pressures and as a Business Mentor I need to act as a conscience to my clients. Also if, as I say in my committed framework, if I do not live up to a commitment to be honest with them how can I expect them to trust what I say is not coloured by some external influence.

But there is another point that has an interesting comparison with my business career. In the late 80's and early 90's I was working with a Software House that provided systems to both small and large retailers. The latter primarily in partnership with IBM. As a consequence of working with IBM we had to follow clear process guidelines (an early version of ISO 9000 if you like). This had a cost overhead that could be passed on to the larger retailer who expected that cost infrastructure and discipline.

We then realised that in fact we had to layer the same disciplines and therefore costs onto the systems provided to smaller retailers. This latter marketplace however was filled with suppliers who did not do this and so could seemingly supply at a cheaper price. In the end we had to forgo our place in the smaller retailer marketplace because we had to have one standard practice/process across the whole business - no matter what the size of the contract. We were the better company for it; eventually smaller retailers began to realise the quality of service delivered by my company more than outweighed the rather slapdash, amateurish approaches of our competition. Thankfully we were around long enough for that to become apparent. I am well aware that is not always the case.

The reason for mentioning this anecdote is that as I progress through the disciplines of Counselling, I need to, have to apply the same levels to my Mentoring practice.