Ethics and results

Andrew Tay

President, Zebra Technologies Asia Pacific

Business ethics and the bottom line are directly proportional to each other, not inversely proportional.

A company like Zebra Technologies can only grow to become a sustainable global organisation by having a strong sense of business ethics, supported by a working code of conduct. You don’t have to look far to find examples where this is not the case – just see Enron, Worldcom, and other cases in recent history. In each of these, major companies were brought to their knees because of poor ethics and compliance structures.

A strong company culture that advocates and reinforces business ethics is the key to avoiding these types of situations. Also, an effective orientation programme for new employees that clearly spells out the company’s expectations is one of the best ways to maintain high ethical standards. Once integrated, staff need constant communication to maintain a suitable work culture.

Let us also not forget that business ethics not only reside in the company itself, they also have to be cascaded down to partners and stakeholders constantly. At the end of the day, prevention is always the best, and most profitable, cure.

Janine Seebeck

Vice President of Finance, Premiere Global Services, Asia Pacific

The balance between growing the business bottom line and ensuring that the company is delivering to all its stakeholders can, on occasion, result in challenges. We have to manage these challenges as best as we can to help all stakeholders understand where we are and where we are going as a company.

I believe these challenges become more prevalent in tough economic times, as businesses feel pressure to continue to achieve on company expectations and be positioned for success once the storm has subsided. During these times, we have to be smarter about how we operate and really look for wins through cost optimisation strategies that do not compromise on ethics and compliance.

Some cost optimisation strategies to consider include, proactively renegotiating real estate portfolios and vendor contracts. Internally, becoming a “change agent” and continuing to review individual team functions for opportunities that will streamline processes and create more effective teams. Identifying your knowledge base and restructuring departments to harvest those skills will also empower employees and improve productivity over the long term.

Jim Burke

CEO, Global Compliance

Yes, business ethics and bottom line imperatives may often conflict. The true test of an ethical, value-based company is how they handle the conflict and the resulting impact on the employees.

In our experiences, those companies that have a solid ethical culture will opt for doing the right thing versus bottom line imperatives. It may hurt the company in the short run but will almost certainly pay dividends over the long haul.

It is extremely difficult to make this decision.

Therefore, it takes the right people with the right values to represent the company in this type of situation.

The strategies employed are the keys. They always start from the top of management and the board by setting the tone for the business as a whole. Then, companies follow that up with a strict and effective Code of Ethics, supporting their values.

They then need to concentrate on training employees on accepted behaviours that support the culture.

Finally, but perhaps most importantly, the corporate environment should be open for any employee to report misconduct, whether it is by a colleague, a superior or a subordinate.