It’s never a good idea to speak evil of anyone, you end up sounding like a gossip, or what’s worse you sound like someone with an axe to grind, prejudiced and out to do harm, so that you gain greater stature. This is not a good policy. You should generally follow the golden rule, “If you have nothing good to say about someone, say nothing.”

However, I’d like to tell you about an incident from several years back.

I was sitting in my office talking to three prospective clients. They were all members of the same lounge band. They were playing locally for a short time and they wanted to record a demo. There were to be about half a dozen songs video taped with each one lasting no longer than a minute or two.

We were talking about coming at closing time and shooting until dawn. I was explaining what techniques I would use and what scenes I would be looking for, when an associate came into my office. She smiled at my guests and then walked over to my desk and put down an article face down, turned around and walked away. At the door she looked back at me. I peaked at the article, nodded and smiled. I turned back to my clients and said, “It’s a news story about a competitor, they haven’t paid their taxes.”

The discussion went on. It soon sounded like their decisions came down to two video production companies, of which we were one. They wanted to know what kind of clients we had and how secure their stock footage would be. I assured them we had long-standing, important clients and pointed to the shelves of client tapes on the wall.

I asked the name of their other choice and they mentioned “ABC Video Productions.” I said, “Oh, yes. They do really good stuff. I used to work with them a couple of years ago.”

The direction of the meeting took a short-cut with the following action, however. With two fingers I moved the article on my desk a few inches closer to them and said, “Would you like to read about them?”

The jaws of my clients nearly reached the floor in disbelief, and then they all laughed. They passed the article back and forth among them. The implication being the production company’s assets could be seized, and among those assets would be client stock footage. I never said a word.

We signed a contract and my clients had a wonderful demo. My competitor eventually went out of business.

I said nothing harmful about my competitor, but had only made certain information available to my clients. All I really did was flick my fingers. They made their decision and actually felt relieved. I’ve never felt bad about what I did. Would you?

Author Don Doman: Don is a published author of books for small business, corporate video producer, and owner of Ideas and Training (http://www.ideasandtraining.com), which provides business training products. Don also owns Human Resources Radio (http://www.humanresourcesradio.com), which provides business training programs and previews 24-hours a day.

Tags: business ethics, ethics, gossipbusiness ethics, ethics, gossip

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There is much talk today about ethics in business - as there should be, but there should be more than talk; there should be a high moral code for all executives who are responsible to both their customers and their shareholders.

I have been the president and CEO of one publicly owned company and also was president of another that was responsible to customers who traded equities. This carries a high responsibility to all concerned. You have to be more than worried if you do something wrong because you will go to jail. You must have the desire to try to always do your best for everyone who works for you as well as all the customers or investors that deal with your company.

Ethics is supposed to be either black or white, right or wrong, but today it is many shades of grey. If any company does shady business you can be sure it starts at the top and filters down because the president is the one who sets the example for the actions of the entire company. This is as true for actions of our elected officials as it is for corporations or individuals. We have had some pretty sorry examples of that in Washington.

Each time there is a new scandal the public seems less disturbed. The recent disclosure that mutual funds have been allowing hedge funds and other large traders to take positions after the closing bell is a brutal example. Maybe investors are not aware that someone is writing checks on their account. This is stolen money that is no different than a guy with a gun holding up a 7-11 store. Yes, the one difference is that the mutual funds have allowed millions of dollars to be siphoned off from those to whom they owed a fiduciary relationship. The fund manager is a crook and deserves jail time. He just took the money with a click of the computer keyboard and that was his weapon. White collar crime deserves the same punishment as the guy with a gun.

When you give a brokerage company, a mutual fund or any financial institution your money you expect, in fact, you demand, that they treat you fairly within the rules of the industry. When you are short-changed you should not accept it.

Because of the huge amounts of money available and accessible to people in the financial industry it is easy to understand how they can be tempted into criminal actions. That is why all publicly traded companies are required to have their books audited annually. Lately we have seen that even these audits are tainted.

Investors rely upon the numbers set before them in order to make decisions about owning stock in a company. If the information is dishonest a proper decision cannot be made.

Today we are seeing another type of corporate officer being created. He is called the Governance Officer. It is his job to see that the company maintains high ethical standards. I applaud this action and hope he cannot be seduced by big bucks.

Al Thomas’ book, “If It Doesn’t Go Up, Don’t Buy
It!” has helped thousands of people make money
and keep their profits with his simple 2-step
method. Read the first chapter at
http://www.mutualfundmagic.com
and discover why he’s the man that Wall Street
does not want you to know.

Copyright 2005

al@mutualfundstrategy.com; 1-888-345-7870

Tags: brokers, business ethics, ethics, finance, investors, mutual funds, stock market, stocks, trustbrokers, business ethics, ethics, finance, investors, mutual funds, stock market, stocks, trust

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While watching Face the Nation one Sunday earlier this year, Bob Schiffer discussed the airline industry, his mother and ethics in business. Like Bob, I think it is a sad commentary today, that we have to police businesses. Whatever happened to going into business to provide a needed service, being loyal to employees, and keeping promises.

It seems like no one today is concerned about doing good business or being ethical in the process. Our forefathers would be ashamed at what this society has come to. I know I am.

Chuck and I teach our students how to run a good business, by being ethical, and making sure that everyone is happy. We run our business using the adage, “The customer is always right”. We know, however, from looking at others in business both on and offline, that we are in the minority. For most it is all about making money. They don’t care who they have to step on, how many lies they tell, just “show them the money”. As I pointed out in my article regarding “The Almighty Buck”, this should not be your only incentive for going into business, and if it is, you won’t be in business long.

We see sites every day that you can’t find a telephone number on, an address for, they just want you to take it on faith that they are on the up and up. Years ago, a business would never even think of operating this way. Their name, address, phone number, slogan etc. was very prominent on everything they did. Unfortunately today, you can’t take people on faith anymore. It’s very sad, but it seems if you do so, most of the time, you will get burned.

Years ago, companies were known for their honesty, their integrity, and their good products. They had to be to stay in business and keep the good image they wanted to project. This gave their company a good name. As many of you know, we come from New York. Kodak, Grumman, and IBM were major companies in down and upstate NY. If you got a job with them you had a job for life, and once you retired you didn’t have to worry. Today, people are losing their medical benefits, their pensions, their life savings; due to businesses thinking of only the bottom line.

Every time you open a newspaper or watch the news today you hear about another business’ unethical business practices. They cook the books, take bonuses they don’t disclose, while they expect employees to work for less. There is something very wrong with this picture. It also says to our future entrepreneurs, that this behavior is alright, just don’t get caught.

Like Bob Schiffer, I’d much rather go back to the time when businesses dealt with us in an ethical manner and didn’t only concentrate on lining their pockets, like today. Also, like Bob, I think what we need are different teachings in our business schools. The philosophy of today’s teachers, needs to re-vamped to reflect the philosophies of old. What we need is to “throw out the new, and bring back the old”. As Bob said, if his mom was teaching today, students would get a completely different viewan old fashioned one. Kudos to Bob’s mom!

Copyright 2003 DeFiore Enterprises

Interested in having your own successful, home based creative real estate investing business? Chuck and Sue have been helping folks start successful home based businesses for over 19 years, and we can help you too! To see how, visit http://www.homebusinesssolutions.com for the latest FREE tips and tricks, educational products and coaching in creative real estate investing and home based businesses. No time to visit the site? Subscribe to our “how to” Home Business Solutions Digest, it’s like having your own personal coach: mailto:subscribeHBS@homebusinesssolutions.com

Tags: business ethics, home based business, Small Businessbusiness ethics, home based business, Small Business

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