I’m not a suit person, I’ve never been one, and even though I teach at a business college and study business administration, I suspect I will never be one. I’ve never believed in the cosmetics industry, I’ve never believed that a lotion in a bottle would make me beautiful and guarantee me eternal happiness. I want a lotion to help me keep my skin healthy and a healthy skin in itself is beautiful, with or without wrinkles.
I believe in Open Business. I believe that when I produce something and sell it to you, I have to tell the truth about the product. I believe that if my product is good I wouldn’t have to promise you things that aren’t true. I shouldn’t have to promise you beauty and eternal happiness for you to buy my lotion. Sometimes I wonder why I’m planning a business in the cosmetics field, since it seems to be a field that is so different from who I am and what I believe in.
I know there are people like me. I know there are a lot of women using beauty products that help them keep a healthy skin without them thinking the product will bring them eternal happiness. They are fully aware of happiness being up to them to achieve, it doesn’t come in a bottle. I know there are people who believe in fair and honest business. Unfortunately it seems to me that the ones doing fair and honest business are the ones that struggle to keep their business afloat.
Every company needs a mission statement and while working on mine I’ve been thinking about business ethics… or the lack of business ethics. Businesses are built by people, some are like you, others are like me, some are like us, but all of them are people. Some people build their businesses for the future. They want their business to be around for a while and make sure their products are good enough for people to want to buy more. Others build their business for today. They want as many people as possible to buy as much as possible today, without a thought about tomorrow. They promise a lot and their products hardly ever live up to what they promise, but that’s not a problem. When people figure out the product is no good, these businessmen have already moved on to a new product.
Then there are those companies building for the future, and once they have developed a good product people want to buy, they stick to that, no matter what. The world might change, the product might be good for someone, but not so good for someone else. They develop their product, use a lot of money and time to make it perfect. But they overlook one small part, they don’t have all the knowledge and one small part of it might not be so good after all. What should they do? Should they change the product, use more money on research and make it as good as it was before without the harmful part? Or should they try to prove the harmful part isn’t harmful after all and stick to a product they already know a lot about? What would you do and what do you think is the right thing to do? Is ethical business something we should strive for or should everything be about economics? Should we do the business that pays the most and forget all about ethics?
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January 28th, 2008 at 11:14 pm
Susie~
I read this and thought “Wow! if only we had more people like you in the business world, maybe we wouldn’t have the insanity that seems so prevalent.” I read about Dannon Yogurts being sued for false advertising and think ” Why LIE??“
This was a wonderful and insightful commentary on the world as we know it. Stick to cosmetics and business, There are many of us women wanting stuff that works, not removes wrinkles, promises youth, or beauty. I just want something that helps my dried out skin! LOL
January 31st, 2008 at 7:59 am
I don’t know if the Activia yogurt’s better than any other yogurt, but I would be very careful of promising too much, even if it would be true. I’m tired of all the ads that promise the moon from the sky if I buy their products. Maybe I’m just too earthbound to be able to believe that something I buy in a shop will be able to change my life dramatically. A good life is built by many little things and the stuff I buy doesn’t have that big of a deal in making me happy.
I teach advertising and I like a good ad when I see one. The ads promising too much are usually not the one’s I consider good ads.
February 2nd, 2008 at 7:25 am
I’m in…woohoo…i haven’t made it this far since your cool new site went up…son’t ask me about ethics in business I used to be in the floral industryl…that’s dicey at best..lol
February 2nd, 2008 at 8:11 am
I’m sorry about your commenting problems. I’m going to move to a new host in a couple of weeks. Hopefully the problems are going to be sorted out then.
I didn’t know the floral industry was that tough
April 6th, 2008 at 12:45 pm
Hi Sue
My name is Mr. Wendell Linder. I am retired from the United States Army, live in Germany.. I really like that article, would like to learn more. Read what I believe below. Thank you and keep up the good work.
Everyday is a blessing, and in each moment there are many things that we can be grateful for.
The world opens up to us when we live in a space of gratitude. In essence, gratitude has a snowball effect.
When we are appreciative and express that gratitude, the universe glows a bit brighter and showers us with even more blessings.
Ninety percent of the time when we’re engaged in discussion something is being sold. So what is Wendell selling today?
I believe that certain people come into our lives for a reason… Sometime, it’s to help us see something new and wonderful.
Sometimes it to encourage us and strengthen our purpose. And sometime, it just to remind us that we are never truly alone and that it is important to share our smile and our dreams and ever our tear.
We create our life to learn lesson about ourselves. The people that come into our lives are a reflection of ourselves.
Whatever the reason, he had in bring us together, I’m very glad that he did, welcome to the “Wendell” world.
Just be open to all possibilities and remain positive in love with life even when the outer world may seem hopeless.
We are all one spirit connected to all of life.
Words can promise.
Words can lie.
But words can also inspire you to soar to heights you never dreamed you could go. Carefully choose whom you’ll listen to remember garbage in garbage out.
I honor the light within you. Thank you for listen to me.
I wish u the BEST! Wendell
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