In B school you come across terms like business ethics and corporate social responsibility quite a lot. I remember doing a certain case study which had you decide between selling a faulty product at the cost of jeapordising lives or not selling the product and losing out on sales revenues. At the end of it, only 2 teams actually opted for the former option: selling the product though it would risk lives.
However, if you think about it, its really easy to come up with the "appropriate" conclusion in a case study but how many of us actually have an truly ethical, corruption free bent of mind? Oh come on, I think weve all slipped a Rs 100 note in the pocket of a policeman to avoid paying a fine for some wrongdoing or other.
I guess thats why this weekend was quite a refreshing change for me! I met an old ISB classmate who actually put his money where his mouth is! :) seriously, this guy was on a one man crusade. From stopping vehicles that were travelling in the wrong direction on a one way road and taking pictures of their licence plates to ensuring that none of us drove drunk, he was really on a roll! He is not even on facebook due to his allegiance with google and his loathing for Marc Zuckerberg's underhanded ways!
Honestly speaking, his behavior seemed borderline ridiculous at times but thats just the point!!!! Even after 20 lakhs and one year of ethics, and corporate spocial responsibility, we still feel least inclined to make a difference. In fact, when someone tries to do the right thing, we feel its an aberration!
WHOA HOLD IT!!! So lets go back to the paying off the corrupt policement once again! What is going to ensure that you, who are now just paying off a policeman, wont eventually extend the chalta hai attitude to noting that a product may have a 1% probability of causing injury and just approving the product right along. "Chalta hai yaar, production mat band karo 1% hai sirf"...not so unlike "yaar eki to red light jump kara Rs 100 lelo"!
So as i get ready to go to work, I have decided to start small, start early...wrong side drivers beware!!!
However, if you think about it, its really easy to come up with the "appropriate" conclusion in a case study but how many of us actually have an truly ethical, corruption free bent of mind? Oh come on, I think weve all slipped a Rs 100 note in the pocket of a policeman to avoid paying a fine for some wrongdoing or other.
I guess thats why this weekend was quite a refreshing change for me! I met an old ISB classmate who actually put his money where his mouth is! :) seriously, this guy was on a one man crusade. From stopping vehicles that were travelling in the wrong direction on a one way road and taking pictures of their licence plates to ensuring that none of us drove drunk, he was really on a roll! He is not even on facebook due to his allegiance with google and his loathing for Marc Zuckerberg's underhanded ways!
Honestly speaking, his behavior seemed borderline ridiculous at times but thats just the point!!!! Even after 20 lakhs and one year of ethics, and corporate spocial responsibility, we still feel least inclined to make a difference. In fact, when someone tries to do the right thing, we feel its an aberration!
WHOA HOLD IT!!! So lets go back to the paying off the corrupt policement once again! What is going to ensure that you, who are now just paying off a policeman, wont eventually extend the chalta hai attitude to noting that a product may have a 1% probability of causing injury and just approving the product right along. "Chalta hai yaar, production mat band karo 1% hai sirf"...not so unlike "yaar eki to red light jump kara Rs 100 lelo"!
So as i get ready to go to work, I have decided to start small, start early...wrong side drivers beware!!!
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