![]() ![]() In the past, I have lied on at least one occasion. Why be truthful? Let me be honest with you. If you are interested in truth in business because you want to learn how to become better, more accomplished at lying, then you will also learn something. If you are interested in truth in business because you want to grapple with some of the problems of being truthful in your dealings with customers or other business people - or even the tax man - then you will learn something. ![]() I don't know you, and I can't be sure of the reasons why you have come here today. You shouldn't be here.Īs I went on to say, that 'won't stop such persons listening in at the door: it is the nature of business that all information is regarded as potentially of use, for example as a way of predicting how others will behave.' If you disagree with that statement, there is no point in reading any further. If ethical questions leave you cold, or if you would like to be ethical but become flustered and reduced to inaction by your first encounter with an ethical dilemma, then you lack something that is required for being good in business - no matter how successful you may be in making money for yourself, or your company. In the first unit Ethical Dilemmas: a primer for decision makers I wrote, What does not seem to me to be a matter of debate is that being a good judge of business ethics is an essential accomplishment of a business person. I'm not a cynic, at least I don't think I am. ![]() It says something when you succeed in keeping a business like that going for 31 years. Down our high street, the competition for take-aways is cut throat. He'd learned the hard way not to trust anyone - not bankers, not accountants, not estate agents, least of all sales people. 'There isn't any!' He started his business 31 years ago, in his early 20s. When I told him I was going to Prague to give a talk on truth in the business arena, his features stretched to a broad smile. The Greek Cypriot owner of a local fish and chip shop where I get my weekly take-away put the point more concisely. You want your lawyer to manipulate others for you, your accountant to avoid as much tax as possible, your estate agent to gloss up the facts, the shop keeper to ask you how you are when they don't give a damn. Her reply was forthright: We don't want business people to be honest. When I first got the idea for this talk, I asked a colleague what she thought of the title. TRUTH IN THE BUSINESS ARENA by Geoffrey Klempner Geoffrey Klempner: Truth in the Business Arena ![]()
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