adminGodfrey Wasara Business Correspondent
In my previous article, under the theme, entrepreneurship, personal integrity and business ethics I talked about the need for an entrepreneur to foresee, accept and manage change in pursuit of his passion.
In this article I am going to touch in detail on personal integrity and business ethics as they impact on the entrepreneur.
I enjoyed reading Nyaradzo Mavindidze’s article titled “Entrepreneurship versus self-employment”.
It was indeed an educative piece clearly illustrating how one graduates from being employed, going on to self employment and finally nurturing the necessary qualities to venture into entrepreneurship.
Without adding much to what she said, the process requires vision, determination and a lot more.
Incidentally in issue, there was an article titled, “Apple’s market value tops $700 billion.” Apple is just one company, and has a market capitalisation value of just $222 billion below South Africa listed companies combined. (See Business Herald dated November 16 2014 P1.) This is a feat that goes far beyond what was achieved by Aladdin’s lamp bearing in mind that Apple was co-founded by three guys namely Steve Jobs, Steve Wozniak and Ronald Wayne in a garage belonging to Steve Job’s parents.
The Apple story like every other story started off from humble beginnings with one, two or few more individuals “waking up from their wildest dreams.”
What keeps encouraging me to write are the proven cases where mankind challenged the paradigm that imagination totally failed mankind.
I would like to start by saluting mankind for continuously daring the perceived threats of failed imagination by congratulating the European Space Agency for the success of their Rosetta spacecraft mission that made a historic landing on November 12 2014 on Comet 67P/C-G’s surface some 510 million kilometres away from earth.
The Philae is as of now, transmitting information to earth and I am sure the information is going to trigger many more questions and events.
I am very positive these guys will partly dedicate their achievement to Wernher von Braun the Godfather of rocket science.
I will touch on this guy in more detail when I discuss threats and opportunities under the same theme. For now, let me go back to my subject.
Entrepreneurship vs
personal integrity
and business ethics
According to tradition the above never mix. From as far back as I can remember, business people have been viewed with suspicion.
I still remember my mother telling us as kids, to tread carefully as XYZ was planning to open a business.
These were moments of unbearable terror. We would move in groups whenever we were going to, were at or coming from school.
We were told that prospective business people needed human parts as a pre requisite for business success and that we were the main targets.
The Goliath Effect has made it worse. To this day the belief still holds. As you graduate to entrepreneurship guided by modern management science, it is up to you to ensure that the community you serve or operate in is reoriented away from this notion; both by word and deeds.
This is but the starting point of transforming black entrepreneurship into world class business ventures.
Although black entrepreneurs have done a lot to improve lives of close relatives the disadvantaged and the communities they operate in, they have always been held liable for deaths of their close relatives, wives and children.
As you pursue your passion as an entrepreneur, you need to tread with a clear conscience which can be acquired by applying modern methods of business management at the same time ridding communities of this weird belief of human sacrifice.
This is an extreme case but nevertheless true.
Evolution of integrity
and business ethics
I defined integrity, honesty and creditability in my earlier article. Ethical behaviour is consistent with the concepts, norms and standards of business practices agreed upon by society, conducting business honestly, fairly, respecting law as well as valuing nature surrounding you.
Theory of Amorality
This theory was put forward by Adam Smith a renowned economist. He posits that business activities are conducted without due consideration to right or wrong because they are not done with full adherence to societal norms.
He, however, argues that ordinary people tend to benefit more than was intended by the business owner due to the invisible hand of market forces.
Pressure created by competition leads to justification of behaviour not usually acceptable in private life.
Theory of Moral Unity
The theory proposes that business ought to be judged by the ethical standards of the community and not permissive standards acceptable in the business sector.
Business is treated as a sub-system of a broader system and is leveraged on the premise that good behaviour cannot be compartmentalised into different sectors.
Historical perceptions
on business
Worldwide, evolution of business was viewed with suspicion just like we observe today. Merchants or people in business
were never trusted and were often looked down upon with disdain.
Aristotle, the ancient Greek philosopher (remember ancient Greece was one of the pioneers of civilisation) put forward the theory that wealth was fixed.
Anybody accumulating wealth was therefore doing it at the expense of other people. Thus merchants seen to be accumulating wealth were doing so by taking or stealing it from other people.
Later on, the Roman Church went on to propose just price ahead of market price. The just price was meant to keep the merchant afloat.
It was later day economists like Adam Smith who came forward with ideas advocating for marketing prices.
He argued the invisible hand of market forces had a tendency of ironing out price anomalies for the good of the consuming public
Earliest forms of business being agrarian had respect for nature and the coming in of industrialisation brought with an opposing culture of conquering nature.
For long this has been the prevalent industrial paradigm until recently when industry became aware that such paradigm was to the detriment of the environment surrounding them and future generations.
On the other hand communities and consumers have not stood by watching business malpractices going on.
Pressure groups have been formed to co-ordinate boycotts of products of those companies that are seen to disregard acceptable business practices.
There are plenty of companies on whose products boycotts were mulled and co-ordinated for reasons ranching from business malpractices to supporting institutions or governments violating human rights.
These are but some of the few considerations you have to make as you traverse the highs and lows of entrepreneurship. Your most reliable weapon is a clear conscience.
Continue following your passion with determination.
- Godfrey Wasara is a registered public accountant, author and founder of Godane Business Conventions-GBC-a business solutions think-tank. He strives to make positive global contribution by articulating and stimulating the importance and significance of financial literacy. You may contact him on [email protected]
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