Importance of Business Ethics

1. IMPORTANCE OF BUSINESS ETHICS

2. • There is no certain way to succeed in
business, but if one honors his
commitment by instituting ethics in his
business, it will help a great deal.

3. ADVANTAGES OF ETHICAL BEHAVIOR IN
WORKPLACE
• Builds costumer loyalty
• Retains good employees
• Creates a positive work environment
• Gets easier to avoid legal problems
• Makes profit in the Long run

4. MORALITY AND HUMAN LIFE

5. • It was through human choices that an
individual gives meaning to life.
• The significance and importance of life
depends on his relationship with other
individuals.

6. • Morality is a set of ethical standard.
• It Is something an individual has to
conform with, such as a number of
customs, traditions, or laws
belonging to the society of which
he is a part.

7. • Morality gives direction and depth
to human life, while ethics serves
as the criteria of conducts.

8. 1. KANT’S MAXIM
• Act only those principles which you are
willing to become universal moral laws.

9. 2. SPENCER’S PRINCIPLE
• Action to be right must be conducive to
self-preservation

10. 3. DEWEY’S PRINCIPLE
• Discover the probable consequences of what
you consider doing, by going through
imaginative rehearsal of the possibilities

11. SY FAMILY TO SEC. ABAYA: YOU CAN BUILD THE
COMMON STATION ANYWHERE, SO LONG AS
IT'S NAMED 'SM'

12. • That was the headline on interaksyon.com. The issue stemmed
from the building of the common station of LRT1 and MRT3
where SM North Edsa would be the common terminal for the
metro train stations in Metro Manila.
• Transport Secretary Joseph Abaya said that the government
had decided to "ditch SM North EDSA as the common terminal
for the Metro Rail Transit 3 and Light Railway Transit 1" after
Hans Sy, son of business tycoon Henry Sy and President of SM
Prime Holdings had said that the terminal should not only use
North EDSA as the name for the common station, but must carry
the symbol of SM as well. This, after SM had also given the
government P200M ($5M) for bragging rights for the station's
name. The station would also serve as the connection to MRT7.

13. • This is a good case for business ethics in school. To some, it
would probably mean that the Sy's seem greedy at promoting
their company's name and emblazooning the name of the
company at the station meant that it would be promoting it's
company for business purposes.
But here's the flip side of the issue. The Sy's have recently been
cited by Forbes Asia as one of the top philanthropists in the
country. "John Koppisch, senior editor of Forbes Asia, was
quoted in the report as saying that they picked only 'true
philanthropists who are giving their own money, not their
company’s because donating shareholder funds isn’t charity.'"

14. • "The magazine cited Sy for donating $7 million to De La Salle University to
build an eco-friendly building and $112 million to an unnamed foundation. Sy
is the founder and chairman of the SM Group of Companies that is engaged
in retail, shopping malls, banking, hotels and property development."
• Many schools and institutions have buildings named after major donors. UST
for example has three buildings named after donors - Tan Yan Kee Building
(a donation of tycoon Lucio Tan), Alfredo Velayo Building (housing the
college of accountancy, and the Angelo King Auditorium in the Benavides
Cancer Institute. De La Salle University itself has a whole building donated
by the Yuchengco family and is called the Don Enrique Yuchengco Hall.
Ateneo de Manila houses the Eugenio Lopez Jr. Center for Multimedia
Communications, John Gokongwei School of Management Business
Accelerator, Ninoy and Cory Aquino Center for Leadership, Ricardo Leong
Center for Chinese Studies, Konrad Adenauer Asian Center for Journalism
(ACFJ), and the Governor José B. Fernandez Ethics Center for Business
and Public Service. These are but a few examples of donors whose names
have been affixed to what they donate.

15. So here's the rub - what was so wrong
in having the common station at
North EDSA renamed to SM North
EDSA?

16. • We all know that these tycoons have provided food on
the table by providing jobs, schools, and other
philanthropic work through what they have earned.
Something that is palpably lacking with government.
The taxes we have paid our government that should be
translated to the masses are inevitably visibly lacking.
The donation or "bragging rights" the Sy's have
extended to the government in building the common
station at North EDSA on the property of the Sy's would
certainly go a long way in terms of public service
programs.

17. • However one puts it, I always say that "beggars
can't be choosers". The government should
reexamine why, in the first place, it accepted the
P200M before deciding to "return" the money of
the Sys. The ethical dilemma here is a two way
street - and government must justify whether the
decision is one of conscience or of ego.
Ego will never feed a nation where 70% of its
people live below the poverty line.