Integrity

Business Integrity Payback
Why executive integrity pays

Business integrity and ethics has been a popular topic for several years. Consultants make presentations, books abound, companies establish business ethics programs, and advertising companies help businesses pitch their ethics agenda.

Integrity is its own reward. Most of us behave honestly and fairly because it makes us feel good. We value our own self worth. When it comes to business, we become more selective. We allow ourselves to believe that we cannot afford to apply our personal values to all aspects of the business. I will attempt in this essay to demonstrate that the opposite is true; that you cannot afford to NOT run all of your business with integrity.

We will need a few definitions to continue. Most ethics discussion is about “Situational Ethics” - a system of ethics by which acts are judged within their contexts instead of by categorical principles (Merriam-Webster online). Situational Ethics addresses questions such as “We just found out that our wonder drug will kill one patient in 500, and we don’t know which patients are at risk. What should we do?” At times, we see such an ethical dilemma being addressed by large advertising campaigns, not solving the problem, but “spinning” it.

“Ethic” is defined more broadly - the principles of conduct governing an individual or a group. (Merriam-Webster online)

John Dalla Costa author of The Ethical Imperative says simply “Ethics is others.”

“Integrity” is ethics, plus another dimension.

The Merriam-Webster online dictionary has two definitions of integrity that apply to our thinking:

Firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values

The quality or state of being complete or undivided

Former Wyoming Senator Alan Simpson said: “If you have integrity, nothing else matters. If you don’t have integrity, nothing else matters.”

The undivided nature of integrity is essential, as seen in an illustration. Suppose that my ethical principle tells me to treat my customers fairly, and to take responsibility if I make a mistake. That is a good ethic. However, suppose I do not apply that same value to my suppliers, or to my employees? Many managers will not admit a mistake to their employees, in fear of losing authority ? Applying an ethical principle selectively shows a lack of integrity. The executive’s mind is divided, not whole.

Integrity is a universal and fundamental set of principles, which can be used to judge every decision you, make, and determine what is the correct approach. Integrity is not a list of rules. It is impossible to write a rule for every situation, because in the real world, situations will occur that have never happened before.

There is a classic illustration of the difference between rules and principles. The Christian Bible is two very different documents. The first part, called the Old Testament by Christians, describes a period of four thousand years in which a group of people tried to live by a specific set of rules. The basic rules were phrased as “You shall not …” and contained the obvious list of kill, steal, witness falsely. You could get ready for bed at night, ask yourself, “Did I do any of these things”, and call it a good day if you didn’t. There were also rules about what you can eat, how you should prepare foods, when and how you should worship, and many more.

The New Testament (or covenant), as presented by a man named Jesus, restates the rules as principles. Jesus explained things. “All of the laws are based on love. If you love everyone, the laws will take care of themselves.” (paraphrased, but that’s what he said.). Then he told a story to make it clear. The outcast Samaritan found a guy beaten up and lying in a ditch. The rules didn’t say you had to help him, so the good guys didn’t bother. The Samaritan didn’t need to read the rules. It was obvious that love demanded he help the guy. That is integrity.

“But we’re talking about business, and business it’s eat or get eaten.” you say. That is true. It doesn’t mean you can throw out your integrity.

Who is an executive?

The integrity of any organization is the responsibility of the executives of that organization. To make this discussion relevant, we should share an understanding of who is considered an executive

Peter Drucker, in “The Effective Executive”, says an executive “… is responsible for a contribution that materially affects the capacity of the organization to perform and to obtain results.”

An executive doesn’t have to be a president, or even a high level manager. Anyone who has a significant influence on the way an organization operates is an executive.

An organization doesn’t have to be a for-profit company for integrity to be important, or to have a payback. The payback for a non-profit organization is the results that can be achieved with a given amount of funding.

Integrity and yourself

Before you read this section, take just a minute and write down (yes, on paper) the five or six things that make you feel great. Stop and think about them.

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Now ask yourself, does my personal integrity enhance these valuable things? Will I keep these things if I behave dishonestly? Is it worth risking these things? The things that are important to you are all connected to your personal integrity.

Integrity must begin with you. When a person truly learns to value him/herself, then it is possible to be caring, forgiving, generous, patient, and fair with others.

Wherever you are in the executive ranks, you came to this position for fulfillment. A big paycheck is important, but it isn’t why you are in this position. Power may also be a part of the motivation, but you don’t have power if you don’t have respect. Do you feel OK knowing that your secretary is a single mother with two kids, and you aren’t helping her grow in responsibility so she earn a better salary? Is it OK to meet all of your goals, but wake up one day realizing your kids are grown, or your wife is gone, of your heart won’t carry you up a flight of stairs?

My story

To introduce the idea of integrity payback, I’ll tell you about how I learned this. I was no big company executive. I worked for a few small companies, and joined IBM for ten years. Then a few friends and I saw an opportunity to start a business providing software and services to large hospitals.

We had time to discuss how we wanted to do business before we formed our company. We all believed that if we were open with our customers and treated them with respect, that they would, in turn, treat us with respect. That began our experiment, building the foundation for business integrity.

The first block in our foundation was “If it isn’t good business for both parties, it isn’t good business.” If it was not good for both of us, we would walk away from it.

The second block was responsibility. If we made a mistake, we would pay to fix it. This was a scary proposition in the first year of business, when we didn’t have money to spare. It turned out that I was the first to make a mistake. The mistake cost our fledgling company an airline ticket, two nights in a hotel, and sixteen hours of non-billable time. But that was who we were. That doesn’t sound like good business but it was. Here is the payback. That customer had several friends in the business. Instead of telling them that we failed, he told them how we corrected the problem.

The third block in our foundation was respect for our employees. One example is that our first employee became our first Division Director.

The payback came in many forms. The most obvious was that we very quickly started receiving calls from hospitals that wanted to do business with us. We paid for a small amount of advertising, but word of mouth was our main source of new business. The more subtle paybacks were in the feeling of satisfaction, and the ability to sleep well at night.

Summary

Business integrity is much more than situational ethics. It is the foundation of a successful business. Everyone with the ability to influence the decisions of the company is an executive, and therefore responsible for the integrity of the business.

In following chapters, I will discuss how to build integrity into the mission of the business, and how these principles apply to marketing, sales, service, employees, customers, suppliers, and the greater community.