8/15/2009

Making money above ethical considerations

We need ethical leadership. We need ethical management. We need ethical business practices. Making money at all cost, with no regards to ethics will make us look no different from the loan sharks, the pimps, the gambling den operators or prostitutes. The fact that I have to post this means that unethical leadership, management and business practices are prevalent in our system. The minibond fiasco and other unfair practices in the financial system, the fraudulent practices and corruption in public and charitable organizations, are only the tip of the iceberg. Everyone knows but no one is talking. Anyone who dares claim that he does not know is either pretending or lying. Do we have people with the guts to stamp out such violations of ethics and human decency in our organisations ? There are some individuals who are in very privileged positions to do so, to stand up against this degeneration in ethical standards in our system. Sadly, they are not doing anything, probably enjoying the ride. Has anyone learn anything from the recent fiascos and big sums of money lost, with many people at the brink of suicide for losing their life savings, for blindly following the American schemes and scams engineered by the Ivy League graduates? They are no better than the scams of loan sharks. When will we start to think, to question how we make money, whether the business model is ethical and fair to customers, to employees and to associates and shareholders? Or shall we just exploit the weak and the small, grab their money and run without feeling any guilt? While Hsien Loong would have his plate full with many hot issues in his National Day speech, I hope he will touch on the subject of ethics and moral responsibility in corporate practices, including ministries and govt linked organisations. We need moral leadership to bring back ethical conducts and human decency in the pursuit of profits and doing businesses. And actions are needed, not just motherhood statements.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Those with the power and those with the wealth in their hands will not want to stamp out such unethical practices. This is their most efficient way to making more money, so don't count on them to do anything other then to think of more schemes to get richer.

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

Redbean,

Have you forgotten that money is actually "certificates of performance"?

In a market economy the more certificates of performance you get from serving your customers with products which improve their lives, the better the job you are doing.

People who think that money is somehow "bad" or "evil" are either insane or just plain jealous.

They forget the basic tenet of free market capitalism:

Serve in order to be served

To be sure, some people think that "short term" gain is worth dropping ethics and morality — simply just to make money. But people are not fools — as soon as they catch on that someone is "cheating" them, the "victims" wise up and change their behaviour — usually by associating with someone else, and dump the crooked operator in the process.

Chua Chin Leng aka redbean said...

unfortunately in many instances the victims are the masses and will know too late after they have been cheated.

the sad part is that some of these organisations have strong backings and are untouchable and could use position power to silence the critics so that they can continue with their scams to cheat the people.