Business Ethics

Business ethics

What's business ethics? From my viewpoint, business ethics is the core values such as integrity, fairness, respect, trust that a company incorporates into its daily dealings with the world. A company that has a reputable tradition of following business ethics will win more trust and support from its stockholders, suppliers , customers, communities and so on and in that way, it will help enhance the company's corporate image and raise the company's profit as well.

Mahatma Gandhi, one of the most influential figures in modern social and political activism, puts "commerce without morality" as one of "seven deadly sins". I totally agree with that. We all know that the ultimate goal for a company is to make maximum profit, however, business ethics should be set as the base line and dirty behaviors should be avoided on the process of chasing after profit. Set Enron for example, it went bankruptcy in 2001 because of its violation of business ethics and was attributed as the biggest audit failure. On the contrary, Coca Cola which has a history of more than 100 years are still attracting lots of customers from all over the world and one important reason is that Coca Cola puts great emphasis on business ethics. Actually, following the business ethics in practice will in turn bring positive impact on the company's performance and raise profit.

From my perspective, business ethics is just like the soul of a company and the company cannot live without it. A powerful company is not only excellent in its profit-making performance, but more importantly, in its sense of responsibility for the world.