Business Ethics With Shel Horowitz

In my interview with Shel, I asked, “what questions should a business owner ask in order to set up an ethical framework for operating?”

• Businesses are more likely to succeed when they base themselves in ethics—in honesty, integrity, and quality

• Businesses must look at the “triple bottom line”: financial, environmental, and social impacts (and this will require major pressure: currently, US public corporations are required by law to focus only on the economic bottom line, to the exclusion of other objectives and stakeholders)

• Amazing things can happen when all stakeholders (employees, customers, suppliers, neighborhood residents, even competitors) become your active champions-but that only happens if your business specifically empowers each of these groups and addresses their different needs and desires

• Line employees, managers, and even CEOs need support to show that ethical principles will help their businesses succeed, and that they won’t be penalized by the marketplace for taking an ethical stand.