This newsletter is the first in a series I’m going to do on business and ethics. It’s not intended to be some academic paper on what comprises ‘ethics’ – just a statement of what I believe good business habits should be. See if you can agree with me!

I feel very strongly that unless we begin to make some changes to the present general culture of doing business, we are going to descend into the chaos so prevalent in much of the rest of Africa. And although the odds are stacked against good ethics in this day and age, I’m not willing to give in without a fight!

Business today is tough! Achieving targets and preserving those elusive margins is becoming more difficult by the day, for business owners and for their employees. Its even more difficult when you know your competition are not charging VAT, or they’re bribing government officials, or they’re not even registered with the tax authorities, for anything!

Sometimes the difference between making it in business, and closing the doors comes down to what can be slipped ‘under the radar’ of good business ethics, or even what’s legal.
Opportunities to skirt the edge of the law abound. And then there are those ethical issues; they’re not illegal, but easily justified for expediency sake. There are a number of them around too!

In South Africa, we are faced with burgeoning corruption at almost every level of government. And let’s not kid ourselves; it exists in business too. Some business people have simply said that if they want to do business with government they have to pay bribes. So, who is to blame – the chicken or the egg? And how can we stop this?

(more…)