Corruption in business and government is legendary. Dont become a legend. You could end up disgraced and in the slammer.

When I was a kid, my friends father piled me in the family car along with my friend and his sister. We took a long drive around the city and we were treated to ice cream and candy. It was a big day for us kids. It was the last day for my friends father.

My father was the auditor of a large city in the mountain west. Sometimes his accountants would find discrepancies in certain accounts. My father was aware of what could happen to a person caught in embezzlement. He wanted no more suicides like the one that had taken his friend and my friends father. Sometimes he was able to prevent a suicide. Other times he could not. Some folks are so embarrassed that no retribution seems sufficient. They take their own lives.

Unfortunately, too many still take the suicide way out. Most others face the court.

Even here in Idaho we read in the newspapers of individuals taking funds that are not theirs from government and business coffers. Some get a tap on the wrist; others are sent to jail. Each case is an individual and family tragedy.

Most people are not intentional thieves. A clerk with access to funds decides that she must get some money to buy her kid a birthday present. She borrows ten bucks from the cash box. She puts it back the next Monday after she has cashed her paycheck. She does that over again and again.

Then one day, she doesnt replace the stolen money (loan to her).

Pretty soon she looks at the money box as a cash cow. She starts juggling the books to cover her pillage.

Then she gets caught.

The accountants say that she has embezzled twelve grand.

She didnt imagine it was that much.

She promises to pay it all back out of her paycheck. She is terminated and prosecuted. She is fined and she spends three years cooling her heals in the state prison for women.

At least she doesnt kill herself.

With some of our noble congressmenwho are supposed to be icons of truth and justicethey take a little gift from a lobbyist. Then they go to Canada with him on a fishing trip. Next, the lobbyist is throwing money into the congressmans charity trust or campaign fund. When the congressman leaves office, he has a ton of money he can spend on himself. Charity begins at home.

Some business meneducated in our noblest institutionshave no morals after graduation. They want power and money. They obtain exorbitant salaries, stock options, and quirks. They suck money out of the corporation denying the ownersstock holdersa decent return on their investment. They cut the benefits to employees and they rifle the company pension funds. These men are called crooks.

To rifle the corporation, they get fancy with the accounting. They claim false profits to drive up the stock so that they can exercise their stock options. They spend company money on personal travel. Some purchase personal items with company money. They accept gifts from suppliers.

They have no shame.

I dont know what to do about these lowlifes that have no respect for themselves. We have to wait until they get caught so that the courts can handle them.

Im interested in helping those who have a basis for proper conduct. The ones who had parents that were able to teach them proper conduct. Those who would like to stay honest in all of their dealings.

Here are some suggestions:

1. If your associates are doing wrong that does not justify you in doing the same things. (Are you listening Congress?) If they try to get you in bed with them, tell them that you are not interested. When you get promoted and they dont, you can straighten them out as to what is proper conduct. If you are kept from advancement because of honest conduct, find another job. Tell your attorney why you left the company.

2. If you were a Boy Scout, recite the Scout Oath occasionally to remind you to stay away from corrupting influences. If you were not a Boy Scout, remember what your mother taught you. (You Girl Scouts figure this out for yourselves.) Try to remember what you were taught in school and at church. Recite the Ten Commandments. Well, do something of this order that doesnt sound silly to you.

3. Teach your children to be honest. Be an example of honesty to them. Dont redefine honesty to suit your interest. Dont let greed (yours or your wifes) dictate your actions. When you pick up your child ask yourself if you are a good example to your child.

4. We had instructions at one company where I worked to always pay for samples and never to tell the supplier what we were doing with the samples. Another company asked that we take suppliers to lunch part of the time rather than have the supplier always pay the bill. The deeper suppliers get into your business, the more leverage they have. Keep your distance to avoid gifts and overindulgence.

5. Find a picture or a motto that you can hang in your office. A friend of mine had a motto in his office that read: Integrity is being good when nobody is looking. If you have a picture, when you hang it up, say to yourself, Im hanging this picture here to remind me to be honest in all that I do.

6. If you are CEO of a company and the Board offers you and other company officers exorbitant wages, stock options, insurance, and other quirks, suggest that they could be more prudent and that they place the stockholders first. If you want a huge estate like the other CEOs that are ripping off the workers and stockholders, ask yourself this question: Would that really make my family happy or do we have more than what we need now?

7. Give your excess assets to charity or return them to the company when you retire. Dont spoil your kids with excess. Leave them what they need, not what they want.

8. When you look in the mirror ask yourself: Am I truly being honest?

The End

John T. Jones, Ph.D. (tjbooks@hotmail.com, a retired VP of R&D for Lenox China, is author of detective & western novels, nonfiction (business, scientific, engineering, humor), poetry, etc. Former editor of Ceramic Industry Magazine. He calls himself “Taylor Jones, the hack writer.”

More info: http://www.tjbooks.com

Business web site: http://www.dumbincome.com

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In the last few years, business ethics and company core values are among the most critical discussions I facilitate during strategic planning and business coaching endeavors. This is partly due to he tremendous negative reaction to corporate ethics scandals. My encouragement to clients is to go public with their core values and ethical standards so it becomes known what the company stands for and how the leaders will conduct business.

Many businesses also will use the core values and ethical standards for guidance in making critical decisions, to create an ethical corporate culture, to attract high quality employees and to differentiate themselves from competitors. I applaud those businesses that establish and declare their core values and ethical standards in some written form and/or posting them on their web site and other company materials.

So, you may ask how would a business go about establishing and emphasizing a set of core values and ethical standards? Based upon my personal and professional experiences and research, I would recommend making the following nine commitments:

Commitment #1: Verify a strong commitment from company management to establish core values for the business.

Commitment #2: Develop a forum to gather information from employees and company stakeholders.

Commitment #3: Use an experienced professional outside facilitator to conduct the developed forum and facilitate the discussion to gather input.

Commitment #4: Obtain and verify management and employee commitment to the selected company core values and their consideration in everyday decision making.

Commitment #5: Establish a set of ethical standards as an integral part of the company core values and make them public.

Commitment #6: Keep the ethical standards and company core values current. Amend them as warranted to reflect reality.

Commitment #7: Monitor the companys commitment and performance regarding its ethical standards and core values. Survey employees and stakeholders to find out how they feel about the company living up to its own standards and values.

Commitment #8: Develop a process and/or procedure to deal with violations of ethical standards and company core values.

Commitment #9: Recognize and reward ethical behavior.

If you would like to discuss the value of business core values and ethics and learn more about fostering that type of ethical environment within your organization, please contact Glenn Ebersole today through his website at http://www.businesscoach4u.com or by email at jgecoach@aol.com

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The Securities and Exchange Board of India unearthed yet another Initial Public Offering (IPO) scam in the public issue of shares of Infrastructure Development Finance Company (IDFC) Ltd.

The market regulator found that on August 8, 2005, one Roopalben Panchal received 266 shares each from 12,253 demat accounts aggregating to 32,59,298 shares and 532 shares each from four dematerialised accounts aggregating to 2,128 shares.

“Thus she had received a total of 32,61,426 shares in off market transactions from 12,257 dematerialised accounts,” Sebi said. The regulator further said that it would investigate registrar to the issue, Karvy.

As an encore to this, there was the IPO scam in IDFC and YES bank, which resulted in loss of Rs 320m (4m/$7m) to the exchequer. In response the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) conducted searches at 21 places of officials and brokers in three Indian cities, including the national capital region (NCR) in New Delhi.

As I read this piece, I saw images floating in my mind of doors being closed after the horses had bolted of a glass falling in slow motion to the ground, and people scurrying to recover the milk and finally, I saw a doctor performing a post-mortem on a corpse.

Its ironic that the regulatory machinery is being used to fight fires rather than proactively create an ethical culture. Putting preventive checks and balances in place would provide triggers to alert the system before such outbreaks occur.

Its not that regulators havent taken steps in this direction. For instance, the Know your customer guideline is an effective preventive tool to validate the existence of customers. If the same had been followed in spirit, would Ms. Panchal have been able to open 12000 odd demat accounts?

The markets are expanding and organizations are relying on more channels to direct business to them. In such a scenario, it becomes imperative that they have a third party objective mechanism in place. This will act as a deterrent for mis-information in the sales process. It will also alert the system of irregularities much before the damage.

This is not only true for filtering customers. The pre empanelment vendors background screening process has to be more robust. It has to encompass sales personnel at the direct selling partner, agents, franchisees and all such frontline interfaces. Ultimately the quality of portfolio will directly depend on the quality of channel partners

Weve partnered with companies who support this stance. Theyve not only put into place risk prevention policies and processes for the future, but have leveraged CRP extensive branch network that covers over 70 location in India to profile their existing portfolio and vendors. Investing time, effort and money in this exercise invested time, efforts and money in the exercise has helped them weed out risks and put them in a stronger position. Today they can relax in the awareness that their brand is less prone to take beating from scam artists.

As an example, for an online stock broking company that conducted a KYC [Know Your Customer] exercise, we flagged around 23% of their portfolio High Alert on parameters like No such person existing, Client has never applied for any Demat account, Person expired etc.

The results are very similar for the liability products that we filter for leading private sector banks. Around 12-15 percent of the applications are in the pre-defined high-risk negative categories. Can you conceive of the risk that would have entered the system had these filters not been in place?

Risk mitigation is all about a corporates vision. If youre looking to build an organization that has stability, growth and consistency, as its basic tenets, then risk management becomes a no compromise option. The rest will view it not as an investment but as a cost.

Hitesh Asrani is Director of the Risk Management Firm, CRP Technologies, and has a deep-rooted passion for nurturing ethical governance in India Inc. His ideas on Risk Mitigation are featured in his upcoming book “Walk The Talk.” Visit the CRP Blog for more Risk Management updates.

This article may be reprinted as long as the resource box is left intact and all links are hyperlinked.

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Recently during a radio interview, one of the hosts made this statement:

Integrity is putting your values into action. Robin Siemens

Immediately, I jotted down this incredibly powerful definition because Robin had not only defined the word, but more importantly connected the word to performance. So many words are used to define business ethics and yet the lack of actual demonstrated ethics still remains very high within business and the rest of our society. One can only read the paper or listen to the media about “corporate greed” how how this corruption culture has damaged our country.

The reason for this disconnect is because the definition is not connected to any measurable action. By taking the word beyond the cognitive state and making it about behaviors, Robin now is walking the talk as some would say.

So, how do you define integrity for your business? If you cannot define key words within the values statement located inside of your strategic plan, you are trying to hit a moving target. Yes, moving targets can be hit, but it takes far more effort. Also, there does exist a greater likelihood of missing the target.

After you define integrity for your business, then how are you connecting to your daily business actions? Alignment is a key when making connections between the values statement and the actual behaviors of your employees and even yourself.

A recent survey of employees indicated that many managers lacked business ethics. The old Do as I say and Not as I do appears to be still very much alive in corporate America regardless of the size of the organization.

Since another survey indicated that bad attitudes which are a definite result of bad ethics are the reason for 68% of customers not returning. Take that with the knowledge that people leave managers and not organizations should be reason enough to construct and implement a values statement right now.

Then maybe you will be able to clearly articulate what integrity to respect means within your code of business ethics. And who knows some day when you are on the radio, you can quickly share your definition just like Robin did.

What else should be in your strategic plan? These strategic planning steps just might help.

Leadership of any business is responsible for demonstrating the ethics and beliefs. How do you fair as a leader? Take this leadership audit at http://www.processspecialist.com/od.htm

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Business ethics are a matter of much debate. Every MBA entrant is taught the meaning of them, and yet many will never follow these guidelines in their real life careers. It has become a vast and complex field, and is the subject of much research. Business ethics encompass a large and significant portion of what it takes to do business today. Under the umbrella of business ethics comes:

The social responsibility that a business is supposed to have towards the community in general, particularly the one in which it operates or has any interests. An example of this would be the Exxon Mobil oil spill. It is the responsibility of a business to protect the interests of the people, animals and environment where it uses resources. Due to improper handling of the issue, it became a public relations nightmare for the company. Exxon has now been ordered to clean up the area which it should have taken care not to damage in the first place. Indifference to business ethics in this case, caused a negative public image for the company and a huge lawsuit.

Issues regarding a companys responsibility towards its shareholders. This is a heavily regulated area but one that requires a lot of government intervention due to certain unethical practices adopted by many companies in the past. The concept of increasing shareholder value is part of the fundamental principles of a company and if business ethics are not brought into play here, the business can collapse due to the pressure exerted by shareholders.

Inter-company dealings and negotiations. Often rivalries in business can turn ugly due to the amount of money and ego riding on them. Hostile takeovers and business espionage are some of the examples of unethical behavior within the business world. If discovered, these deeds can be punishable by law or simply public opinion. To allow for fair play and keeping the best interests of the consumers in mind, the government regulates a great deal of what goes on in company dealings. Microsoft has been the target of much abuse and outrage due to its allegedly monopolistic techniques of doing business. While this has not sunk the IT giant, many say that it may have long term repercussions. The government has also stepped in to make sure that other businesses and consumers are not harmed.

Stakeholder protection. Every business has stakeholders other than its owners the employees, the stockholders and the general public. The business has to ensure that the rights and interests of all of these groups are adequately protected in the course of its operations. The recent outcry about the harassment and bad working conditions of employees in Wal-Mart led to the generation of a lot of negative press about the outsized department store. This gives the competition the lead and rivals take the opportunity to get ahead while the company is busy trying to do some damage control.

Fundamental business practices of a company. Underhanded dealings, the use of substandard products, spreading misinformation about the product, hiring illegal workers at lower than minimum wage, etc. prove that a business is run in an unethical way and that it is not a high quality work place or service provider. For instance, cigarette companies that spent most of the seventies telling people that it was not unhealthy to smoke, though they knew this to be untrue. In a recent judgment, one such company was forced to pay out $28 billion.

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If you think about this for a second; “It is human nature to propagate!” Sure especially in groups, government agencies (as they defraud and misrepresent) and such. And Monkeys do this too (sometimes the same). Monkeys in observation use deception to mislead to allow them selves a better helping of a meal by crying wolf, when their pecking order does not allow for what they desire in the amounts they desire.

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The best professional advice!

All of your possibilities from this moment, are located in your own personal expectations. All of your expectations are located in the very personal relationship you have with yourself. The relationship you have with yourself is the relationship you will have with others.

What matters most is how you see yourself! Take very good care of the relationship you have with yourself at all times.

I was a member of Toastmaster International and in 1984 Caroline Sander RN introduced me to the National Speakers Association. I went to all the local chapter meeting and to the National Conventions. The first meeting I attended, I felt a little uneasy about being in this new setting. Billy Arcement came up to me and introduces himself from Donaldsonville Louisiana. Billy knew that I was uneasy about being at this meeting. He said, If you have a dream in your heart long enough, you have what takes to realize that dream.
I never forgot those words.

Ginger Bondi was the president of our local chapter. Ginger was tough love. I listened and took notes of everything other speakers in the chapter said that I must do to convince people to hire my topics. I practice all of these ideas.

I called Ginger Bondi and ask if I could come and speak with her. I told her that I did not want to do anything to hurt the speaking profession. That I wanted to abide by the code of etitics of the National Speakers Association.

I shared with Ginger how I just signed a contract for a speaking engagement in Tampa Florida. This was my first really serious paying engagement. I told her I was nervous that they would find out that I was just a Bicycle Shop Owner. This audience was to executives of the steel industry. Ginger said, Knock it Off, Mike Marino; I want you to go to Tampa and just be yourself! If you go there thinking they are better, you will not do well. If you go there thinking you are better than they are, you will definitely not do well.

You must go to Tampa and be who you are and allow them to be who they are, and you will do just fine. I embraced Gingers advice. I did well and was privilege to speak with many of the other chapters in the steel industry after that.

The next best advice that I received was from Michael Lebouf PhD. I was attending a local chapter meeting of NSA and everyone was sharing what it took to be a full time professional speaker. When it was Dr. Leboufs turn to share he said, Just be good!
If you are good, people will say she is good! He is good!

Rick Phillips sales & staff trainer gave me this advice. Never beat a dead horse! All good things come to an end and then something better begins. Get on a new horse to take you the rest of the way. Forward ever, backwards never!

All of this advice applies to any profession. Keep your dream in your heart. Be yourself, and be good at what you do. Never beat a dead horse. Its over! What are you going to do about it?

The room for improvement is still the greatest room in the world. You can improve on your dreams. You can improve on your relationship with yourself and others. You can improve on your proformance in your profession. You can get a new horse. It does not cost anything to think big. It pays to be good.

All advice translates into the same thing. Take care of yourself. If you want to do twice as much for yourself, your family, your profession, community, take care of yourself twice as much.

Mike Marino, Jr. aka In Person, is the co-author of two books and a Distinguished Toastmaster who helps people fall in love with learning. He speaks and writes on the love of Knowledge is the root of all good!. To book Mike for your next association meeting, conference or corporate event, contact Mike Marino, Jr. In person 504 833 4405 or email marinojr@bellsouth.net
Proud member of the New Orleans Metropolitan Convention and Visitors Bureau. All presentations are available in PowerPoint or Keynote.

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Every entrepreneur should have a business mentorsomeone whos been through everything that theyre going through and can share their wisdom. Whether he knows it or not, my business mentor is none other than former Enron Executive Ken Lay. For many, he might not make the most obvious choice of a mentor, with his track record of lying, cheating, and stealing his way to success, but that is precisely why this choice is so appealing to me.

As his first duty as my business mentor, Ken (Mr. Lay to the rest of you) can grow my social network. This guy knows everybodylikely because hes paid most of them off at one point or another. He can introduce me to people who will come in handy when I need to get out of felony conspiracy charges. This is just one of the many valuable aspects of our business mentoring relationship.

I can trust Ken to be my business mentor, because he knows that if he makes one false move the government will be on him like white on rice. Much like the old saying that the safest time to fly is the day after a crash, I feel like the safest day to have Ken as my business mentor is right after a huge financial scandal that covers the television, newspaper and radio waves for years, and gets used as water cooler fodder even now.

Furthermore, hell be my business mentor for freeunlike many online services that try to charge for business mentoring services, Ken just got away with the biggest scandal in business history. Thus, he doesnt really need my money, because we all know that he has a few million stashed in a bank somewhere overseas. I get a free business mentor, and he gets to pretend that hes still somebody specialits a true symbiotic relationship.

But, one of the most important reasons that I choose Ken as my business mentor: hes already made every mistake in the book, so I can utilize his expertise in steering me away from potential business disasterslike billion-dollar financial scandals, or particularly creative bookkeeping practices. Also, as my business mentorshould the need arise, Ken can point me in the direction of a good lawyer to get me out of any particularly sticky situations.

Since Ken doesnt have anything better to do right now than be my business mentor, I cant see any reason why hed decline the request. After all, its not like hell ever be hired at another company worth a hill of beans, so be may as well use his spare time to promote entrepreneurship in the global community. By being my business mentor, Ken can pay off his debt to society, one lie at a time, all the while keeping me from heading to prison.

So, its easy to see why Ken Lay makes the best business mentor everI dont even see any other choices. So, over the course of our business mentoring relationship, Ill expect him to help me with some creative math, then help me to tuck that creative math away where no pesky FBI agents can find it. Like I saida true symbiotic relationship.

Ben Jordan an Austin, TX based x-Fortune 500 Marketing Consultant, now a rogue direct response internet marketer. His true love is helping small business owners, not become a 90% statistic that will fail historically. To receive for FREE “The Science of Getting Rich” e-book, please visit http://www.mymillionairementor.com

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So you want high business ethics? Well, that may just be a pipe dream if the data from existing universities is confirmed through actual behaviors.

In 2005, Duke University released one report that revealed over 75% of high school students admitted to cheating. That number climbs to over 90% if copying by sharing homework is included.

An extensive article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Regan McMahon published on September 9, 2007 shows the depth of cheating and the potential impact to the business world within the secondary education world.

And the graduate world is also a mecca for cheating students. A report published in 2006 by the Academy of Management Learning and Education journal suggested that 56% of the MBA students admitted to cheating. These are potentially the future business leaders. Other reports released have suggested that soon to be lawyers and teachers also practice cheating on a consistent basis.

The American business economy has already experienced the affects of bad business ethics. When people point the finger at companies such as Enron and Arthur Anderson, the unethical behavior was not caused by the organization, but rather these individuals were already unethical. Again, the belief that everyone does it was probably not far from their conscious actions.

The excuses for cheating are many just like in the work place where business ethics are violated on a daily basis. However, what is interesting to note is that when everything is peeled away, the belief that everyone does it whether they do or do not is driving this cheating behavior.

This belief that everyone does it is not only regulated to business ethics, but human behavior in general. Children complain to parents well so and so can do it. Adults complain to other adults about so and so doing something.

To change business ethics demands that the beliefs driving the attitudes demonstrated through the behaviors must be identify. Ignoring these beliefs will only make the current situation worse.

Simply speaking, would you like to increase the overall performance of your organization? Then you may find the FREE Leadership Audit of interest at http://www.processspecialist.com/od.htm

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A few months ago, I was given a bar of soap from a very well know high-end chain store. The person who gave me the soap knew I worked with this type of product and wanted to give something she thought Id like.

I looked at product, liked color and fragrance, put it on a shelf, and honestly forgot about it. The other day, needing a new bar of soap, I found the bar and decided to use it.

Reading the back, it gave the name of the company with their motto, From the Heartland of America. The very next line read, made in Guatemala.

So when, may I ask, did Guatemala become a State?

And, on top of that, once I took the clear wrap off, I was disappointed in the soap itself.

To anyone who has used M&P, you will understand. To all others M&P means Melt & Pour. You go to your local craft store, buy a base, heat it up and pour into molds of choice. Nice way to have decorative soap without the hassle and having lye around the house.

So, this soap looked like someone had used M&P, added color and fragrance. Because it came from this well know chain, I was curious about what the cost was and decided to go to my local mall to check out the price for myself. $8.00 a bar, only one word for that, RIP-Off! OK, so thats two, but whos counting.

Now, please dont get me wrong, Im all for fair trade, but to say the product is from the heartland of America, than have the very next line read Made in., sounds a little false advertising to me.

Company headquarters, yep, in the heartland of America, but Guatemala? Maybe my sense of geography is playing tricks on me. Last time I looked at my map of the world Guatemala was in Central America, or have we annexed it, so that it is a protectorate like Puerto Rico and Guam? If so, then yes, it can then say, Made in America, or for that matter from any region of this great country.

But, maybe Ive read it wrong, they were on two separate lines. Just maybe in my old age, Im beginning to run words together. But to read From the Heartland of American, then to read Made in Guatemala, simply does not ring true.

Producing products outside of the USA, may save companies money by paying less for wages, but why not pass that savings to the consumer. If they can give retiring executives retirement packages worth millions, why not give a little back to the average buyer.

High-end products are nice, but when money is running low, guess I will not be going to the mall for my soap. The best soap Ive used has been made by a friend, the old fashioned way. In fact, my son swears by her Goats Milk Soap.

Since made in .. has become our 53rd state, wonder if I can save money but shopping there?

Copyrighted 2006

Michele Winslow
Owner: Gaias Breowan, Inc.
Find us at http://www.ladyoftheherbs.com
When word gets around about your command of Ethical facts, others who need to know about Ethics will start to actively seek you out.

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