Forget Nonsense Talk About Ethics, Honesty and Character: It's About Business ~ B W C J AOMOLE

Friday, 7 July 2017

Forget Nonsense Talk About Ethics, Honesty and Character: It's About Business

By BWC J A OMOLE July 07, 2017 No comments:

The disloyalty deed

The problem isn't bad, dishonest or greedy people. It's not about putting the brakes on acquisitiveness or isolating some defective moral gene. The bedrock issue is totally different: All of these executives exhibited a total disregard for their companies. No matter what position of responsibility they held, their actions were identical: they were disloyal to their employers.

It's striking that in many cases it was the founders of these corporations who did the most damage. They willfully destroyed what they created. If those who perpetrated such wholesale destruction are faulted, it should be for disloyalty. This may seem dated at a time when loyalty has all but disappeared. And that's the problem.

Many look upon those who spend their entire working lives in one or two companies as wimpish or even stupid. Just hearing about some old timer who worked for IBM for 40 years must seem quaint.

The destructiveness of disloyalty

While waiting for a plane in what was then National Airport in Washington, D.C., a business executive was intrigued by the candid conversations of the corporate types waiting for their flights. He reports sitting across from a man with a Macintosh computer case at his feet. He told a fellow traveler that he worked for the now-defunct Digital Equipment Corp. Recognizing the bright little apple, the person asked, "Why do you use a Mac computer when you work for DEC?"

The questioner was clearly confused and even slightly aghast at what she perceived to be a not so inconsequential breech of loyalty. "I don't like DEC computers," shot back the man, without even a twinge of embarrassment.

The issue is not whether GM employees should be expected to drive GM products or DEC employees to use DEC computers. At the same time, the honor code works in certain colleges not because the students are more ethical than those attending other institutions or are afraid of getting caught. It works because there is a high regard for the institution.

Damaging the corporation is no different from injuring the family, the college, the team, or even the country. The devastating flaw is disloyalty.

Implications for action

The loyalty issue has practical implications for every business. Here are a few possibilities:

Post a Comment

Presentations That Persuade

Since the pain of speaking in public is so deep, most of us should be tolerant of those who put themselves to the test and make presentations. Actually, just the opposite prevails. But while we'll do just about anything to stay away from a podium, we're more than willing to criticize those who do. The ability to gain an audience's attention, hold it for a period of time, persuade the listeners to your viewpoint and then move them to action is a skill that can be learned by just about anyone who is willing to develop it.

Theme SupportIs Telemarketing Feasible For My Business

There is no doubt that the systematic use of the telephone is the fastest growing sales and marketing strategy today. This rapid growth of telemarketing has stimulated marketers from companies and organizations of all sizes to question whether or not there is some application of telemarketing in their business. If you're one, you may be asking the question, "Is telemarketing feasible in my business?" The answer to this question rests in the answer to two more basic questions. First, do you have an appropriate application? And second, do you have the necessary resources to give a telemarketing effort a fair test? Let's look at each of these in detail. First, the question of an appropriate application. Telemarketing applications fall into three general categories, the first of which is information gathering. Telemarketing is the most powerful means of collecting marketing information about individual prospects and customers available today. This application of telemarketing can more than justify a telemarketing effort. Additionally, this information collecting can, and should, be an "add-on" aspect of every other telemarketing program.