Business Ethics: Some outstanding

Indian examples
In business, ethics is very important. If the owners or promoters do not follow ethics, they
will have ruined the banks, the suppliers, and the employees. The wider public would suffer
too. However, in India, we have some really outstanding examples, and what we have is a
superb mosaic of very good practices from the outstanding examples. The finer details of
such examples are discussed in this article.

Introduction
Business ethics is the foundation of any successful business. Any business organization that seeks
to serve the society, its employees, its suppliers, and not merely the promoters or owners, will
survive as an institution known for business ethics of a tall order. There are three essential qualities
that need to be nurtured by any such business organization. These are: a) looking at ethics and all
that it stands for, as more important than the business itself b) institutionalizing processes that
clearly communicate business ethics as the most important bedrock of the organization, in totality
and c) making business ethics, a way of life in the organization.

There are some superb examples in India. These examples are sought to be discussed in some
detail, with reference to the essential qualities outlined above.

When business ethics becomes more important than the business itself, magic happens. The
business organization attains a stature totally unheard of, in the history of business ethics itself.

Business Ethics Benefits

The importance of business ethics reaches far beyond employee loyalty and morale or the
strength of a management team bond. As with all business initiatives, the ethical operation
of a company is directly related to profitability in both the short and long term. The
reputation of a business in the surrounding community, other businesses, and individual
investors is paramount in determining whether a company is a worthwhile investment. If a
company is perceived to not operate ethically, investors are less inclined to buy stock or
otherwise support its operations.

Companies have more and more of an incentive to be ethical as the area of socially
responsible and ethical investing keeps growing. The increasing number of investors
seeking out ethically operating companies to invest in is driving more firms to take this issue
more seriously

Institutionalizing processes to communicate business ethics

Institutionalizing processes that clearly communicate business ethics is an art, fine tuned by the best
companies. For instance, in Chennai, a TVS group company called Sundram Finance would serve
all its senior citizen customers in ten minutes flat. No questions asked. Free financial advice is given
on tax matters. It has over two thousand crores in fixed deposits, mostly collected from senior
citizens. The deposit interest is not high, slightly more than what is offered in banks. Still, the money
comes in. The interest is credited one day in advance, if the 1st of the month is a holiday. Not a
single amount of interest has ever been unpaid to any customer, at any point in time. The
organization has a huge network of borrowers, who also repay dues on time, as they know the value
of TVS, which actually stands for Trust, Values and Service.

The different TVS group companies have one thing in common in all their factories. Each employee
carries home a small gift, in the form of some eatable, like a small biscuit packet, a packet of banana
chips, or potato chips and so on. This is illustrative of the philosophy of the TVS group: care and
share. This is also reflected in the fact that there are third generation employees happily working in
the same TVS group. The quality of the products of the TVS group is world-class, which itself
communicates the best to the best-in-class customers like General Motors and Ford: our ethical
standards will always produce such products.