Business ethics have never been more important than they are today – from a social standpoint. Business decisions made each day have profound effects on the environment, the economy, on our health, on our safety, and on our future as a whole. What are your social responsibilities from a business and ethical point of view?

First and foremost, you must consider your fellow humans. How do your business practices affect your customers, your employees, your community, your country, and the global community as a whole?

If you fail to consider the human side of your business and the effects of your business, you are not only acting in a socially responsible way, you are also setting your business up for failure, because you will eventually do some harm that puts you out of business, and at the very least, you will not garner any public support, because of a poor public image, which does indeed have a profound effect on your bottom line.

Some people do not distinguish between the effect of business decisions on human life and the effects on the environment. Activists believe that one is as important as the next, but others agree that human life is more important than the environment. Logic, of course, says that human life is more important, but if a business has a negative effect on the environment, at some point in time, that damage to the environment has an effect on human life. Do your business decisions negatively affect either?

Do businesses have more of a social responsibilitythan individuals have? Some believe that they do, while others do not think so. Others believe that individuals and businesses are equally responsible for society. This, however, is not your debate as a business owner, because everyone does indeed agree that businesses do have some level of social responsibility, and that this social responsibility is more important than the bottom line. Even the Government believes this.

For example, recently there were congressional hearings with executives of the top five oil companies. Congress essentially wanted to know what these companies were doing to reduce fuel costs, and also wanted to know that with $40 billion dollar profits annually, why these companies were only investing about $100 million back into research for renewable energy resources.

Those, of course, were tough questions for these executives who do not have trouble paying for their gasoline and of great interest to those of us who do, in fact, have to be very careful when driving our cars or heating our homes, because we can’t afford today’s fuel prices. These oil companies have a social responsibility that they have been essentially ignoring for years, and now want to open up drilling in areas where it was banned to preserve the environment or wildlife. Obviously, these are not ethical business decisions or practices, and they do indeed have a profound effect on the economy, the environment, and eventually on human life as a whole.

So, when you make business decisions, remember that ethics must play a role in those decisions – because whether you realize it or not, those decisions do have a social effect at some point in time, in some way – great or small.

To Your Success

Pay It Forward/Pass It On

Jed A. Reay

Jed A. Reay
Managing Partner of 5 Star Success Team
800-863-4592 Option #1
www.jedreay.com
www.jedthecommunicator.com

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