INTRODUCTION TO BUSINESS ETHICS

We have .............................

Action speak.......................

Unless there is....................

May companies .................that corporate .................... fine for those........................are

already..............have success then.......................in the fancy bits,..........corporate
responsibility. But until youve made it, or when you feel under threat, then you should
concentrate on the things which really affect the bottom line.

We disagree. We believe that business success, and for that matter business survival,
depends on the company being close not just to its customers, but to the community at large.
Businesses are doomed to find themselves in difficulty when they try to distance themselves
from the environment in which they operate. Society permits the effective conduct of
business because it recognize the contribution which business makes. If that recognition were
ever to be withdrawn, business would have real difficulty in surviving. On the other hand, the
greater the recognition, and the clearer the identification between the interest of the
community and of business, then the greater the chances of business success and growth.

We believe that corporate responsibility should lie at the very heart of a companys
business strategies. The reason for this belief become clear when we examine something
which is central not only to corporate responsibility, but to all of a businesss operations
business ethics.

Weve heard all the jokes about business ethics. We know that many people see it like
military intelligence a contradiction in terms. But the fact that the very expression business
ethics causes such merriment points up a very important fact. It shows how far businesses
have retreated from the fundamental debate about what is happening in society today and
what will be happening tomorrow.

In the course of the next few chapters we will argue that business ethics are the key to
business survival and business success. We will explain why this is so, and what business can
do to gain what we call the ethics edge.

In the course of this discussion we shall also look to the future. We shall attempt to
address not only how ethics can support a company in its present operations, but also how
they can be used to develop the successful company of the future. We shall also be debating
the paradox that corporate the responsibility is individual responsibility, and individual
responsibility is corporate responsibility, and we shall know that understanding and working
with this paradox is the key to obtaining the commitment of entire organizations in
responding to community needs.