The topic of ethics in business has taken centre stage of late, with the country being plagued by reports of malfeasance by corporates operating across all sectors.
While there has always been an attitude of accepting dubious behaviour by the corporate and business sectors with a ‘nod and a wink’, and sometimes-open admiration, the spotlight is now firmly focused on the behaviour of this sector.
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The public will no longer accept grey areas, and the expectation now is that the distinction will be as clear as that between black and white.
It was common practice for business people to have two distinct set of ethics: one for their work and one for their personal lives.
In their private lives, they exhibited the exemplary personal values of honesty, love of family, charity and the like.
Yet in business, ruthlessness and duplicity were the order of the day, and indeed admired as the hallmarks of a driven businessperson.
This is no longer the case, as the burden of being socially responsible corporate citizens forces a more consistent approach to one’s public and private behaviour.
The practice of good business ethics is a crosscutting one, affecting every sphere of an enterprise’s operations, and comprises values such as honesty, transparency, and fairness.
These should be practised consistently and consciously in dealing with all stakeholders
One of the most overlooked areas of damage the recent degradation in business ethics has caused is to the emerging business sector.
The perception has been created that ‘cutting corners’ and compromising one’s ethics is an acceptable, indeed necessary, route to success.
Preventing this perception from becoming a reality of doing business in this country is a task that falls to all of us.
Those of us who engage with and advise new businesses need to actively promote a foundation of ethical behaviour that will hopefully entrench itself as these enterprises mature.
Ethical business practises are rarely an impediment to building a successful enterprise.
They may slow down the path to success a little, but ultimately, building success on the foundation of solid business values will prove to be much more rewarding and sustainable.
After matriculating, Vijay Naidoo studied Economics in the UK. Upon his return, hejoined the family construction business as MD for 10 years.
He subsequently joined his sister in their furniture manufacturing business as director for quality assurance and operations. He was responsible for all quality aspects of their products, and led the project to the business achieving an ISO 9000 quality accreditation. As an export focused business, this was important for our international competitiveness.
Mr Naidoo has an abiding interest in quality management and productivity improvement, particularly in manufacturing.
More recently, he has focused a lot of his time on giving back to the community by way of mentorship of small businesses and sitting on the executive of the South Coast Chamber of Commerce. He also sits on the Board of the Ugu South Coast Development Agency.
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