Business and Ethics

Some people like soap operas, some watch “Reality TV”, some play online gambling to unwind. Everyone has a fetish.

It’s time to reveal mine.
During the week I develop software solutions, I negotiate with customers, I review technical specs, I read BPM articles, innovations and trends.

Over the weekend I like to unwind from the sophisticated technical babble …
by reading the “News Of The Week“.
There.. I’ve said it… I read the “News Of The Week”

For those of you who are not familiar with the British tabloids, here a clip from “Yes Minister” to explain…

Hacker: Don’t tell me about the press. I know exactly who reads the papers:
The Daily Mirror is read by people who think they run the country;
The Guardian is read by people who think they ought to run the country;
The Times is read by the people who actually do run the country;
The Daily Mail is read by the wives of the people who run the country;
The Financial Times is read by people who own the country;
The Morning Star is read by people who think the country ought to be run by another country;
And The Daily Telegraph is read by people who think it is.

Sir Humphrey: Prime Minister, what about the people who read The Sun?

Bernard: Sun readers don’t care who runs the country, as long as she’s got big tits.

The 168-year-old U.K. tabloid which sells 2.6m copies a week will close on Sunday.
The decision to close it was made by its chairman and chief executive Rupert Murdoch in a bid to put a lid on the phone hacking scandal before it can do any more damage to the wider business, its bid for BSkyB and News Corp’s succession plans.

Now the point behind this post is not to highlight BPM advantages. Implementing BPM here would not have saved it.
This is not Enron or BP or one of the other business disasters that we like to say that governance and stricter business process compliance could have saved them.
This $40 billion company died because of business ethics.
We all reacted with disgust to the revelations that journalists hacked into voicemail messages belonging to murdered teenager Milly Dowler, relatives of British servicemen killed in war and survivors of the 7/7 terrorist attacks on London. Advertisers pulled out, readers boycotted, retailers boycotted, legal cases stocking up, the risk of losing the BSkyB bid… and the empire crumbled.

It’s a warning to everyone in business. Be aware. You can optimise your business processes until you’re blue in the face. Being unethical will ruin your business.