"All that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke
You know, sometimes we discuss or learn about a topic for what seems to be forever. You tend to just go through the motions to get the "credits for the course", or you do it because it is the new "buzz-word" in the profession to be talking and focussing on.
This particular topic to me, is Ethics.
I think to give those of you reading this entry today, a visual of just how underwhelmingly indifferent I use to be to this topic, I suppose I need to take you back a few years...
In 2000, the year of the end of the world as we now it, where my childhood mostly involved trying to "bunk" history and maths class by slipping away during second break to listen to the latest pop music playing on the radio, I was mixing with some of the more shall I say "liberal" kids in school. One break-time we all sneaked out to the tennis courts to have cheeky little cigarette. It was amazing, that rush of adrenaline - I think I've always kind of enjoyed the dangerous side to life since then. But in anyway, I am getting distracted. The next minute we see about 5 or 6 matric guys coming our way at one helluva pace. It turned out to be 6 prefects, and naturally all 6 would be in the first team rugby squad at Grey as well... #myluck
The next minute all I remember was being pushed & punched to the floor. Let's just clear one thing up now, I was a total nerd at school - I smoked because of peer pressure, I think I hung out with the "bad-boys" so they won't beat me up. Back to the story, needless to say we nearly got suspended but instead we were not allowed to wear our ties with our school uniform for the next month. I don't know what was worse, I use to be able to simply hide below the radar - but not wearing a tie in an-all boys school of roughly 800 pupils, you kind of stand out like a sore thumb. I felt terribly "embarrassed" - almost as embarrassed as what I felt this week for not taking ethics in the workplace more seriously.
As I am typing this I am thinking how exactly I was planning on tying this childhood story with the topic of ethics today? Oh yes, that's right. It was to convey two significant feelings I recently experienced in the week about Ethics. They are "embarrassment" and "flabbergasted" (yeah, I checked - it is an actual word #lol).
I think the intensity of the embarrassment I felt that day at the tennis court, walking around school with no tie, seeing the teachers' disappointment in their faces - that's what I want you to feel if you're not taking ethics in your business more seriously. But it's the second feeling, the feeling of being "flabbergasted" about it, that shook my world hard enough in order for me to write about it today. The importance of ethics approached me like a "gorilla tactic soldier", it literally came out of nowhere and it smacked me in my face. And the hard part is, once your mind's open to it - it can't close to it again. It can not be undone.
You know the saying, the "penny has dropped"? Well that's how my experience with ethics this week has been. I've learnt about a company called WorldCom, who, up to the mid 2000's was the worlds 2nd biggest telecoms company and whose top management literally caused the demise of this multimillion dollar corporation due to their lack of business ethics. The "goss" is, (let's face it, we all love a bit of goss), that the financial guys committed fraud by over-valuing their assets, stocks & shares by about $12 billion. WorldCom's bankruptcy filing in 2002 was the largest such filing in U.S. history. The WorldCom scandal is regarded as one of the worst corporate crimes in history, and several former executives involved in the fraud faced criminal charges for their involvement. Most notably, company founder and former CEO Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and former CFO Scott Sullivan received a five-year jail sentence, which would have been longer had he not pleaded guilty and testified against Ebbers.
Alas, I eventually realised that it's the Ethics, the things we do at work when no ones watching, that is so important. How we treat our staff, our stakeholders and business partners. Are we honest in our daily interactions with our customers & suppliers?
Look, I get it - "we all live in glass houses", and in no way am I saying I can always distinguish between what's right and whats wrong. What is legal and what's not legal. The beauty is of course sometimes even when something is illegal, it can be ethical... Consider the case where you run a traffic light or speed, even though this action is illegal, it can be an ethical issue if it's someone's life that was depended on you getting them to the hospital as quick as possible.
Ethics is like Carma - you reap what you sow. I also feel there may be a lot of businesses in PE that feel they can't be doing business in an ethical manner all the time due to the increasingly tight and volatile market we find ourselves in. Whether it may be short-paying staff below the thresholds of collective agreements set at the bargaining councils or selling a product that may not be working as well as it should. I get it, we all need to make a living. But the aim of this entry is to get people to slowly change their perceptions - to realise that creating an ethical business climate will positively, unconditionally and rewardingly lead to better prospects and ultimately a better financial position for your business.
Start off by drafting your Code of Ethics Policy today. This will underpin your core values of your business and serve as a road map for the future of its success.
By Ruaan Kriel de Andrade - Contact us today to help you with your code of ethics policy. info@enigmahr.co.za
WorldCom Source: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/worldcom.asp
E·nig·ma (noun) "a person or thing that is mysterious, puzzling, or difficult to understand".
Sunday 17 August 2014
The Trouble with Ethics
"All that is required for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke
You know, sometimes we discuss or learn about a topic for what seems to be forever. You tend to just go through the motions to get the "credits for the course", or you do it because it is the new "buzz-word" in the profession to be talking and focussing on.
This particular topic to me, is Ethics.
I think to give those of you reading this entry today, a visual of just how underwhelmingly indifferent I use to be to this topic, I suppose I need to take you back a few years...
In 2000, the year of the end of the world as we now it, where my childhood mostly involved trying to "bunk" history and maths class by slipping away during second break to listen to the latest pop music playing on the radio, I was mixing with some of the more shall I say "liberal" kids in school. One break-time we all sneaked out to the tennis courts to have cheeky little cigarette. It was amazing, that rush of adrenaline - I think I've always kind of enjoyed the dangerous side to life since then. But in anyway, I am getting distracted. The next minute we see about 5 or 6 matric guys coming our way at one helluva pace. It turned out to be 6 prefects, and naturally all 6 would be in the first team rugby squad at Grey as well... #myluck
The next minute all I remember was being pushed & punched to the floor. Let's just clear one thing up now, I was a total nerd at school - I smoked because of peer pressure, I think I hung out with the "bad-boys" so they won't beat me up. Back to the story, needless to say we nearly got suspended but instead we were not allowed to wear our ties with our school uniform for the next month. I don't know what was worse, I use to be able to simply hide below the radar - but not wearing a tie in an-all boys school of roughly 800 pupils, you kind of stand out like a sore thumb. I felt terribly "embarrassed" - almost as embarrassed as what I felt this week for not taking ethics in the workplace more seriously.
As I am typing this I am thinking how exactly I was planning on tying this childhood story with the topic of ethics today? Oh yes, that's right. It was to convey two significant feelings I recently experienced in the week about Ethics. They are "embarrassment" and "flabbergasted" (yeah, I checked - it is an actual word #lol).
I think the intensity of the embarrassment I felt that day at the tennis court, walking around school with no tie, seeing the teachers' disappointment in their faces - that's what I want you to feel if you're not taking ethics in your business more seriously. But it's the second feeling, the feeling of being "flabbergasted" about it, that shook my world hard enough in order for me to write about it today. The importance of ethics approached me like a "gorilla tactic soldier", it literally came out of nowhere and it smacked me in my face. And the hard part is, once your mind's open to it - it can't close to it again. It can not be undone.
You know the saying, the "penny has dropped"? Well that's how my experience with ethics this week has been. I've learnt about a company called WorldCom, who, up to the mid 2000's was the worlds 2nd biggest telecoms company and whose top management literally caused the demise of this multimillion dollar corporation due to their lack of business ethics. The "goss" is, (let's face it, we all love a bit of goss), that the financial guys committed fraud by over-valuing their assets, stocks & shares by about $12 billion. WorldCom's bankruptcy filing in 2002 was the largest such filing in U.S. history. The WorldCom scandal is regarded as one of the worst corporate crimes in history, and several former executives involved in the fraud faced criminal charges for their involvement. Most notably, company founder and former CEO Bernard Ebbers was sentenced to 25 years in prison, and former CFO Scott Sullivan received a five-year jail sentence, which would have been longer had he not pleaded guilty and testified against Ebbers.
Alas, I eventually realised that it's the Ethics, the things we do at work when no ones watching, that is so important. How we treat our staff, our stakeholders and business partners. Are we honest in our daily interactions with our customers & suppliers?
Look, I get it - "we all live in glass houses", and in no way am I saying I can always distinguish between what's right and whats wrong. What is legal and what's not legal. The beauty is of course sometimes even when something is illegal, it can be ethical... Consider the case where you run a traffic light or speed, even though this action is illegal, it can be an ethical issue if it's someone's life that was depended on you getting them to the hospital as quick as possible.
Ethics is like Carma - you reap what you sow. I also feel there may be a lot of businesses in PE that feel they can't be doing business in an ethical manner all the time due to the increasingly tight and volatile market we find ourselves in. Whether it may be short-paying staff below the thresholds of collective agreements set at the bargaining councils or selling a product that may not be working as well as it should. I get it, we all need to make a living. But the aim of this entry is to get people to slowly change their perceptions - to realise that creating an ethical business climate will positively, unconditionally and rewardingly lead to better prospects and ultimately a better financial position for your business.
Start off by drafting your Code of Ethics Policy today. This will underpin your core values of your business and serve as a road map for the future of its success.
By Ruaan Kriel de Andrade - Contact us today to help you with your code of ethics policy. info@enigmahr.co.za
WorldCom Source: http://www.investopedia.com/terms/w/worldcom.asp
Sunday 10 August 2014
Numsa vows to fight against any limitations on right to strike
EWN reports that the National Union of Metalworkers of SA (Numsa) has vowed to launch mass demonstrations against the state if limitations are put on the rights of workers to strike. The union concluded its international symposium of left parties and movements in Benoni this weekend. Numsa's general secretary Irvin Jim raised serious concerns about labour reforms proposed by the state and supported by the ANC and said any forced arbitration would be rejected. "We must fight and reject the limitation of the right to strike that Gwede Mantashe wants to introduce," he stated. Jim blamed economic instability in SA on what he said has been two decades of anti-working class policies from government. He claimed the reason why investors have become hesitant to come to SA was not because of labour problems but rather the policies implemented by the post-apartheid administration.
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