These days, it’s all about making a profit, and be damned to everything else! But this is a very selfish approach to doing business, not to mention an unethical one. As our reputation doesn’t just rely on the products we sell, but it’s about the personality we present, highlighting our ethical stance has never been more important. But what if you’re someone that has to make numerous changes in this respect? Can you transform an unethical business into an ethical one?
Who Are Your Suppliers And Clients?
We gain a certain reputation based on who we do business with. When we work with clients that don’t have an ethical standing, we’ve got to fight even harder against the tide. While there are many companies out there that do things that we can’t all agree with, if we work with suppliers that are looking to make a change themselves, we can begin to spread the message further that we are ethical. On the surface, suppliers of crude oil or similar substances and materials may not appear to be ethical but if we can work with suppliers who are looking to make a positive stance and make amends, then we’ve got a better chance of surviving.
Reevaluating Your Core Values
What is your mission? If you aren’t communicating an ethical standpoint through your core values, this won’t serve you well. You won’t have people flock to you, whether it’s customers, clients, or even employees. It’s all about the mission you present. It’s easy enough to create one of these statements, but it’s more difficult to live by it. Look at what you stand for.
Ethics In A Personal Sense
An ethical business is one of integrity. There are so many stories flying around about charities that are not as ethical as they appear to be, and this can hammer the point home that if we’re not ethical throughout the culture of the business, we aren’t doing our job properly. It’s all about respect, not just for your employees, but your customers as well as everybody in between. Demonstrating this respect is even more difficult, but if you go back to your core values, and do everything you can to demonstrate this in the practices and processes, you won’t go far wrong.
Changing Your Attitude
Not just in terms of your practices, but your leadership style. You define the business in every manner. And if you are difficult, then there’s no such chance of anything else embodying this attitude. This is why you’ve got to change your own, and make a conscious decision to go down an ethical path. This could mean undertaking various research or having a long look in the mirror to see what you really want to get out of running a business.
It’s a change that doesn’t happen overnight. Making a company that doesn’t have any ethics to one that has it oozing out of every pore requires a drastic overhaul. But it’s something that is necessary in the modern business world.
