How can instilling ethics as a standard practice safeguard a business’s interests and reputation?
When the fence of the farm starts eating the farm, there is no crop left to harvest. The fence is supposed to safeguard the farm. The accounting practices [of a business] are supposed to be the fence and the mirror of what a company’s financial position is. If they cease to be that, then that’s where the problems start. Start by instituting proper checks and balances and by introducing proper accounting processes and procedures. By doing that, you can reduce what Alan Greenspan once called the ‘avenues to greed.’ It also has to do with the ethical training of people. A company has values, and then people that work in the company have their values. Research shows that if people have their own strong values of uprightness and moral integrity, it is more likely that you will have an ethical workplace than if it is the other way around. Many times, we think what is legal is ethical, which is not the case. What is legal is the baseline, then you ask yourself what is right. And then you ask
