RE: Business ethics and Harsha's comments

[Guest guest]

Hi all,

 

This is an edited version of something I sent Harsha, who encouraged me to

pass it on to the list (thank you Harsha). It's long, so get yourself a

drink

 

 

Harsha, I make no claim to know the lessons you may find in the story,

though I certainly learned a few for myself!

 

In 1992, I was a director in a small, innovative publishing company. We

went through tight financial times, yet, because we always treated the

staff as part of our team, and never held anything back from them, they

remained loyal to the end. More than once we had to tell them we couldn't

pay them that week, and said we would understand completely if they left

and found other work, and we would give them good references, and every one

of them turned up the next day as if nothing had happened!

 

The effect on the MD and me was to redouble our efforts to make the company

work out so that these ppl would remain working with us. We gave them

encouragement to develop their work, to offer ideas, to voice their

worries, be themselves, and were repaid with great ideas, one of which

improved the printing methods by 100%.

 

The pecking orders that normally apply in companies had been smoothed out,

with a pragmatic vanguard of directors, but with a community spirit which

meant we ate together and most contact with other businesses happened in an

open space: if visitors needed discretion, it was provided. The staff were

shown that we operated as a team, and our work mingled with theirs. Without

their trust, it could not have worked at all.

 

During 2 1/2 months, we revamped the company, from culture to processes,

and created a new business plan that we presented to banks and private

investors. One company brought in their accountant to pick apart our plan

and accounts and three of them grilled us for two hours: Afterwards they

told us we had a great idea that looked very promising and was well thought

out. Plus we had six months of back orders. Our landlord extended our

payment period because he believed in our sincerity. We felt encouraged and

supported, despite the hardships. Our relationships with other companies

went well once they saw that we had a viable way of doing business.

 

Unfortunately we were sabotaged (strong word, but really the only one I can

think of that fits) by an ex-director who had falsified the previous

accounts, was a disguised bankrupt, made us technically insolvent and

refused to relinquish his proxy shares when an interested group of

investors asked us to sell them before they would invest in us (and they

were serious about the investment...).

 

The irony was that, as a crooked person, the ex-director could not believe

our assurances that when the company was back on track again, we would give

him a percentage shareholding again, so he refused to let the shares go! We

had to hand the company over to the Dapartment of Trade and Industry, since

we would have been liable for his deceit from that point on, and anyway we

couldn't get any investment now, and we had run out of time.

 

Shortly after the company folded, and all the loyal staff had left, I was

invited to a birthday party by one of them. It was at a pub, and all his

family, children and friends were there. I was a bit nervous, because I was

a boss who had lost the company he worked for, and we were all unemployed.

Everyone was kind, welcoming and bought me drinks and introduced me to his

family. It was humbling, and validating, as if all the good efforts we'd

made had been recognised, even if we didn't succeed: also, his loss was not

so strong to him that he could think only of his misfortune. It was one

person recognising another. That will never show up in my CV, nor any

company accounts, but it was real and had real results.

 

That was when I entered a long period of hardship, and yet I'd do it again,

just to see the way people open up when you look them in the eye and say,

this is what we're doing: we mean it. I still believe it can work. It just

requires a fair start. And a little knowledge of the viscissitudes of human

nature ;-/

 

I am committed to setting something like this up again. One of the

difficulties, apart from the obvious financial one, is having a common

cause to champion. There are business needs that can be peddled, and there

are human needs that can be offered. If the idea is truly worth the value

of creating a living, because it benefits everyone/thing in some way, then

that is sufficient. If investment is required, then there has to be a way

to generate this based on the undeniable "rightness" of the idea, imho.

Influential people who have the power to make changes are often necessary

at present, and without schmoozing them it requires us to a) know our stuff

and b) be honest, sincere and committed. And I think that heart speaks to

heart, if the heart is listening.

 

Another thought that has been bouncing around my head has been the sense of

community driving individualism within a cooperative structure. This

community already exists, it's just we like to put visible structures on

it, and then it becomes "us and them".

 

I found a saying the other day: "The heart with God within belongs to

everyone". If that could be the driving vision for a business i could

involve myself in, I would be a lucky man. And I think the time for this is

nigh, since everywhere I look I see the obvious needs for fundamental

change in the world, from division to unity. As Charles Fort would say, it

steam-engine's when it comes steam-engine time, and the clues are everywhere.

 

I think for many of us the transition between old and new worlds will be

disorientating. We're going to need facilitators! Not to prescribe what to

do, but to encourage people to follow their hearts and honour each others'

too. That old survival imprinting will need to metamorphose into something

more beautiful... And all that against a backdrop of a decaying system that

will struggle to distrust the possibility.

 

I really want to read what Harsha develops for his course! Here's to the

future!

 

I welcome any comments/ideas/thoughts/feelings/poetry/information. Happy to

discuss with anyone. Need to get back to work ))

 

Best regards, and thanks for lasting this long,

 

Robert