Ethics. Amidst all these blank-cheque bank bail-outs of late, it’s a word I’m yet to hear mentioned amidst all the media pundits’ white noise surrounding the current financial quagmire we find ourselves in.
So how heartening it was to read on FT.com last Sunday an article entitled Unethical companies suffer in the long run. A clever Swiss masters student named Julian Kölbel has studied the correlation between negative publicity on environmental and social issues and a company's share price to pose a very timely question, namely: ‘Is dirty business more efficient than ethically sound business?’
The outcome is a heartening shot in the arm for honest business people everywhere. Herr Kölbel, it appears, has found that companies with high levels of critical press coverage outperformed in the short term but underperformed over a longer period.
A case of what goes around, comes around, if ever there was one.
Note to the upper echelons of the international banking community who were all too happy to swap long-term, socially and financially responsible investment practices for quick-fix, what’s-in-it-for-me, bonus-boosting speculation, if I could be so bold: Your Thatcherite, deregulated bubble has well and truly burst.
So, dear readers, if you’d like to raise your glasses/mouses/laptops – whatever! - I’d like to propose this e-toast: Here’s to the return of sound business ethics and making an honest buck.
Because god knows, the community needs these now more than ever if we’re to survive this monetary merde-fest.
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