StrictlyExecs

The opinion article in the WSJ last week had the description correct by changing epic to ethic when describing our current challenges. The article went on to blame the problems we are currently experiencing on the ethic lapses in our financial system. In other words, business leaders in the financial market did what ever it took to make $ and the chicken really did come home to roost on that one.

Our ethics problems run much deeper. The leaders of the financial system are not the only ones, they simply got caught. Look to our politicians for instance, they are barely trusted at the congrssional and senate level and our President has won a popularity contest that may or may not hold. We’ll see as we judge the ‘ethics’ of his administration…in hindsight of course.

But these are symptoms of a larger problem. We don’t teach ethics well anymore at our schools and in many of our homes. Capitalism cannot thrive unless it is based on strong sthics and for a number of reasons we have lost ours. As executives, it is imperative we create and nurture cultures that value integrity, honesty, doing the right thing even if it means a smaller profit or the loss of a client. If we don’t the government will try to position itself as big brother regulator insuring business follow the right path. Is this path necessary? Is it the right path? We need to pay attention today and build businesses that do business the right way  - ethically.

This entry was posted on Monday, April 27th, 2009 at 1:08 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.