We know where there’s corruption you will always find poor or no governance, lack of transparency, nepotism, poor work conditions that exploit the vulnerable, high staff turnover, profit maximisation and cost stripping at the expense of sustainability, tax avoidance, and unethical leaders, underpinned by vested interests, at the helm of enterprises looking for self-enrichment at our expense promoting the ‘greed is good’ mantra.
For almost 20 years, Australia ranked in the top 10 least corrupt countries. However, by 2018, we’d fallen 8 points to 13. The fact that we are falling down the scale raises serious questions about the ethical underpinnings of politics, business, and institutions in this country. Think sports rorts, carpark rorts, the Banking Royal Commission and Aged Care Commission, corporate exploitation of JobKeeper, corporate tax avoidance and tax havens, the list goes on.
This is a warning sign. This is our wakeup call.
Corruption erodes trust, it erodes relationships, and it erodes the social contract and fabric a society relies upon to prosper. Without transparency, integrity, good governance, and trustworthiness we cannot create healthy human relationships and partnerships or flourishing businesses and societies which leaves us all vulnerable and weak.
So, what can businesses do?
It’s about being Business-worthy.
Businesses have a responsibility for improving the societies in which they operate, such as fairly paid jobs, including for local suppliers, and paying local taxes while also respecting human rights.
This shift to a more holistic approach to doing business is having a profound effect on how businesses operate, including how they set up their sales teams, sales operations and value chains.
Across the world, regulators, industry and public interest groups are looking for ways to identify alternative, more sustainable and transparent models of doing business. This quest is supported by a wealth of entrepreneurial practices, initiatives and ‘experiments’ aiming to address these specific concerns.
Companies that are focused on running socially responsible businesses, are focused on taking care of society. They recognise that when societies, their workers, suppliers and customers are vulnerable and are unable to support themselves through a reasonable household income level, or if public finances are not sufficient to support public services, then their businesses are vulnerable.
As we have always stated and promoted, business is an answer to human needs.
What does that really mean for sales and service?
It means that businesses need to be looking after customers, employees, suppliers, communities, and the planet. Human-centred selling is the means by which we create and generate opportunity that is honourable as well as sustainable. It’s about putting humanity back on the corporate map and endorsing buying and selling experiences that treat people with dignity and respect.
If we come back to the purpose of business as defined by Peter Drucker in his work The Age of Discontinuity, 1953, “The purpose of business is NOT to make profit but to satisfy the needs and expectations of customers. The consequence of satisfied customers is incremental profit.”
This is not some new age, woke, progressive concept.
Business is an answer to human needs therefore, it is our duty to fight corruption and be human-centred.
If you want to implement your own systems approach to sales and service, please contact us or phone 03 9533 0000.
Remember everybody lives by selling something.
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Thanks John. We need to keep raising awareness about better ways to live, vote, do politics and business. Cheers Sue
This is the best summation on our nations current appalling attitude towards, and acceptance of, the greed and exploitation you highlight.
This article should be widely published, most notably in a certain media corporation that either ignores, or worse, encourages and celebrates the ‘profit before people’ mantra in both their newspapers and nighttime opinionated television programs.