Ethics and Entrepreneurship

Is this an oxymoron I hear you ask? Can you be an honest entrepreneur? I recently gave a lecture on entrepreneurship and a portfolio management approach to evaluating ideas then bringing them in as ventures into a number you may be managing at any one time. I disclosed my ‘dance card’ to a point, and then included a couple of question marks to indicate ‘other activities’ that I couldn’t talk about.

The impression from the class was that they were dealings that were perhaps less than palatable, or ‘clean’.

It’s interesting because the simple reality was that I wasn’t at liberty to discuss them at all due to confidentiality agreements, verbal, implied or otherwise. I explained that was all it was, but I think I had some non-believers in my class which got me thinking about this topic.

I think we can all agree that we’ve horse whipped all our bad old entrepreneurial types, including Bondy (who did his time) Skasey and even a hiding for goodol’e John Elliot. For those non-Australians reading this, they are just some of the notable ‘players’ in our country. They were simply were high profile entrepreneurs and were in the media limelight regularly.

Is it possible to be a player and be ethical, moral and clean of heart?

For me its simple, I know that I will be held accountable by my kids when they grow up, not only what we did as a family in our commercial dealings, but as citizens in this country and our world. I don’t want to be seen as a hypocrite by my kids given my fife and I espouse transparency and honesty in all our dealings. I do make sure my interests are clear and protected, but when it comes to border line activities, it’s not so easy.

However there are circumstances that beg discretion. I read recently an example where a company received a prepayment for a software they knew they couldn’t delver. The significant sum came in at a time where without it they would not have made payroll. They chose to engage the ‘client’ for a period of weeks to until the situation was rectified then advised the client that they could have their money back and that they wouldn’t be bale to help in this case.

The important thing is that there is a genuine opportunity or vision you are heading to that will result in profits for your business and the subsequent taxes and salaries for other parties involved. While some level of discretion needs to be present, it’s the risk takers and the pushers of the boundaries that, create value where there was nothing before.

So, what does the moral zealot entrepreneur look like?

In my experience the MZE has some or all of the following traits:

o The talk about their high level of commercial morality and honesty just that little bit too often.

o They overdo the “I’m commercially moral” bit, with zero benefit to anyone, and in fact it generally costs them and the people who rely on their business. Eg: give away what they should charge for, and they make ‘morality’ based judgments that don’t align with any consistent business rules or a strategy.

o Businesses are less than 10 people in size or sub $2M have been for a long time.

o Much talk about action followed by no action at all. So risk averse (Makes you wonder what compelled them into business anyway).

So on one scale you have the risk taker --- no risk taker, and on the other is being astute through to being wantonly deceitful and criminal.

Just my two bits worth!