Give Your Ethical Business a Boost

If you are a business that has set up with an ethical basis or has re-orientated itself in that direction, to what extent are your relationships with all the stakeholders in your business consistent with the stated ethical focus of the business? If not, building in congruency can add considerable potency to the business.

Bearing in mind that law is the glue that keeps society together and, in particular, is the glue in the relationships between you and the stakeholders in your business, how much attention has been paid to those relationships to make sure that they are consistent in your commitment to ethical business?

You might want to take the opportunity of identifying all of the stakeholders in your business, looking at the nature of the relationship and any documentation that exists regarding that relationship and then assessing whether the terms of that agreement (or any implied terms where contracts are not actually in writing) are consistent with a company that is ethical.

So what does it mean to be “ethical”? It means a myriad different things and it is not for us to dictate what should be there. Each company will have its own ideas of what that would mean but in our experience companies sometime need support in being able to stand back from the relationship to enable them to see where they are “walking the talk” and where they are not. This then allows you to acknowledge achievements where you are being consistent and to plan bringing consistency over a period of time where it is found to be missing.

Ask yourself, “Who are the “stakeholders” in my business?”. Again, this will vary. It can include the business owners, employees, suppliers/advisors, customers, joint venture partners, strategic alliance, partners and the general public and within these general categories there can be different types of relationships – e.g. with business owners, there may be sleeping partners and our active partners in the business.

Ethically based companies will usually want to make sure that in all their dealings they are open, honest, transparent, fair and balanced.