Make Business Ethics Specific, Make them Personal, Make them Work

Business ethics frequently remain as just airy ideals, trotted out insincerely at interviews or at company training sessions, or as unnoticed platitudes in glossy corporate literature.

These days it is increasingly common for pundits, from academic researchers through to organisational development consultants, to call for a greater emphasis on  business ethics - but there is a general vagueness about how they can be successfully operationalised.

A typical example of a corporate mission statement which ends up appealing to no-one because it tries to reach out in a -specific way to everyone would be: "We are a dynamic and progressive organisation which aims to be best in the field and to deliver exceptional customer service and value for money."

There is an implicit rallying call to excellence and to integrity but there is a complete lack of authentic resonance in vacuous statements such as these, which sadly decorate many a business plan and annual statement.

Two steps can transform the process from one of badly missing business ethics relevance to tying corporate goals and personal value-led performance closely together.

The first of these is to be ultra-specific in what is an appropriate mission statement based on higher values. The second is to track these desirable features through into what can be called Personal Business Values.

There follow two examples of mission statements, illustrating how what might be fitting and compelling for one kind of operation can be horribly misjudged for another. Firstly consider this:

"We are an entrepreneurial organisation which relentlessly hunts out innovation to increase our productivity and cut costs."

Such a set of values and propositions could be absolutely convincing if you were a clothing retailer looking for an overnight parcel delivery service provider. The same proposition would appear terribly off putting, however, if you were facing major heart or brain surgery and were seeking to locate an appropriate and confidence inspiring health care facility.

A second example is:

"We are a traditional organisation which is proud of our focus on continuity and our timeless processes."

This would seem very attractive if you were seeking to buy a pair of luxury leather country shoes in which to attend a prestige equine event. But the same words would have absolutely zero appeal if your looking for a social media brand development company to help promote your cutting edge music playing device.

The first point is that business ethics can work best if they are made specific to an individual location - they will inevitably struggle to connect if they remain as abstracted and lofty ideals.

The second step from here is to translate them through into Personal Business Values.

If we return to the first example, set best within the scene of a speedy parcel deliverer, we can now consider how goals can be brought alive via individual values.

"We are an entrepreneurial organisation which relentlessly hunts out innovation to increase our productivity and cut costs."

A raft of key values would include creativity, speed, innovation, customer delivery and productivity. This would require commitment, competence and consistency. Very quickly one can see how an overall pattern of performance and human guidance comes together via this approach.

And to return to the second example of an upmarket bespoke shoe maker:

"We are a traditional organisation which is proud of our focus on continuity and our timeless processes."

One can immediately detect the need for attention to detail, unstinting commitment to excellence in all things, a refusal to compromise or to cut corners and an understated reliance on craftsmanship, top materials and an expectation of the highest customer expectations and demands - and an expectation that these demands and expectations will be continually exceeded.

In summary, in these twin ways of being both specific to business needs and then drilling those needs into precise human requirement, business ethics can be powerfully animated and set to work in a winning combination of superior corporate performance and higher human satisfaction, so helping to drive a sustainable and superior corporate culture.