John C. Maxwell’s book There’s no such thing as business ethics.

john said:

Want to know about BUSINESS ETHICS – read this (then read John C. Maxwell’s book There’s no such thing as business ethics.

I came to this web site looking for information about John C. Maxwell ; I just finished reading his book “There is No Such Thing as Business Ethics (There is only one rule for making decision)“. In a world where superlatives are overused “ad nausium” I remain inclined to state that this book is the best one on business ethics I’ve ever read. It’s not only to the point, it puts ethical considerations clearly into focus in simple and memorable ways. Maxwell’s elaboration on the principle he champions (that the “Golden Rule” should be one’s guide – in business too) is outstanding.

It’s widely accepted that ethics is an important topic in business. America’s business schools focus on it (at both the undergraduate and the MBA level) as part of the standard business curriculum. However as many people who have experience in business know actual practices employed by managers and executives can be another matter entirely, whether or not they understand business ethics. Maxwell makes the point that that no one claims to be unethical; but it’s what one DOES that counts, not what one SAYS – is extremely well taken.

Can you imagine a student in an MBA class discussing ethics standing up and saying openly something like … “When I get there (in a business position) I’m going to screw all the customers and torque more money out of them to fatten our bottom line”, or “My plan for promotion includes identifying my chief competitors within our company and finding ways to discredit them and run their careers”? Of course not. Maxwell’s point is clear – no student in his or her right mind would say anything like that – in the classroom in front of the professor and other students. Such a student would be immediately chastised, and he or she knows it. But it doesn’t matter at that time anyway. Maxwell says it’s what they DO later on that matters. And in so saying he puts his finger on the crux of the problem.

What does matter is what those same people do years later when they are actually in business jobs, have positions of authority and are subject to the “pull” of unethical behavior. Maxwell does a really good job of showing WHY people succumb to ethical failure. There are real, and powerful reasons for this. Consequently it takes a lot more than just having “good intentions” to resist. It takes strength of moral conviction and a good understanding of the circumstances involved to stand up for doing what is right when the time comes and when circumstances conspire against it.

So why then have we seen ethical transgressions such as at former “Big 6″ accounting firm Arthur Anderson (which subsequently drove the company out of business and destroying 100% of shareholder value)? And what about the reactions from the business school community that took place at that time. The Wharton School of Business (Univ. of Pennsylvania) stepped up its focus on business ethics right after the Arthur Anderson scandal (of falsifying financial audits). But ethics had been a regular part of the educational fare at all business schools, including at Wharton – for years. Would Wharton’s extra emphasis on it “fix the problem”?

All the teaching about ethics that takes place in the classroom will do no good whatsoever if business school graduates don’t carry out ethical principles once they are “out in the profession” (and far removed from their well meaning professors and classmates from college). Only belief that good ethics and success go hand in hand will accomplish this. Maxwell does an outstanding job of showing that exemplary ethical behavior in fact paves the road for business success. It’s not a “luxury one can afford” if you are successful. That implies that it’s a drain on profits (aka – and therefore bad). In fact Maxwell shows how good ethics can be the cornerstone upon which business success is built, and that it maximizes everything from employee productivity to customer value, and hence profitability.

Of course the path a business takes is what it is. There is no way in business to run a “controlled test”, a shadow business run in a different manner with which to compare outcomes. The lack of empirical evidence from a controlled test leads business managers to assume and to claim that their choices were the best. Consequently it’s important that people understand how ethical practices organically lead to best business practices. Maxwell provides not only examples from real businesses, but also scenarios that are intuitively comprehensible that show how ethical actions lay the foundation for growth. This stands in opposition to unethical practices which merely “take from others” resulting in a zero sum game. As any business analyst can tell you, only growth leads to the pinnacle of success.

But since recall of why “doing the right thing” (when decision times come) can be problematic, Maxwell has a good approach to ethics for business by focusing its essence as the embodiment of the Golden Rule. And his treatment of the subject (which is easy to digest in a small 120 page book) makes it easy to get up to speed on as well. Since “remembering ethics” in the future seems to be the problem “hanging ones hat” on the widely known, and easy to remember Golden Rule seems like a good idea. Since we already know the Golden Rule it’s easy to remember – which should also make it hard to forget. And that (forgetting at opportune times) is the problem with business ethic. Remembering, therefore, is central to how this shortcoming can be fixed.

http://sourcesofinsight.com/lessons-learned-from-john-maxwell/