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How Important is "Ethics" for a Startup?
By siliconindia
Fremont: "To give real service you must add something which cannot be bought or measured with money, and that is sincerity and integrity," said Douglas Adams. So true for every business. A business grows along with its ethics and earns their share in the market. Startup needs to build this integrity by infusing ethics into their core fundamentals of the business activities.
According to Ben and Jerry's Co-Founder, Ben Cohen, if progressive thinking gets too far of convention it can lead to some disastrous effects to the company. He came across this experience when he himself started a company to help the environment. Also, several environmentally conscious companies recycle their obsolete computers rather than leaving them in a landfill to aggravate for years together.
Sometimes, companies can encounter ethical lapses that can result into a tailspin for the business and the entrepreneur might need to pay the price for such lapses that cannot be eliminated completely, but certain steps can be taken to avoid it. Startups that have ethics infused in its operations sets the owner free from several worries after the company reaches a certain size.
With so many things in mind, an entrepreneur tries to strike a balance between his value proposition, features of product or service, financing, technology, building the team, and several others. But what role does ethics play in the first few months of the startup? It is not necessary for every startup nor is it possible for them all to appoint an ethics officer to handle the integrity of the organization. Even some of these entrepreneurs declare themselves the self-proclaimed ethics officer.
Several startups compromise their principles to get their first deal, obtain financing, hire the employee that they want to; but at the end, such decisions can hamper the image of the business. Sticking to ethics by the entrepreneur alone will not help the company to grow; it requires to be embedded from the bottom line by hiring ethical employees who does the smart and the right thing. This can be done by asking ethics-minded questions during the time of interview, like asking him to describe an ethical dilemma that he encountered in the past few hours. An ethical company will always attract good talents; fresh or experienced, thus further enabling the organization to grow substantially.
The simple step to incorporating ethics into a startup is by deciding what ethical conduct means to the owner. A closed-minded leader will lead his business to a dumping yard. For a continuous improvement of a company, he should always be open to new ideas, ask for opinion and feedback from customers as well as employees and team members. This will help him to intake the required changes that are necessary for the growth of the organization.
A code of conduct is not the sole ethic building process; it is about fulfilling all the obligations regardless of the circumstances that the entrepreneur undertakes. Customers want to do business with the organization that they can trust upon by judging the character and ability, strength, and truth of the business. Even several funding organizations and mentors feel obliged to be associated with such businesses and help them take to the next level.
