Some enterprises tell their customers:
We want what is best for you!
What they mean is: they want his money.
It goes without saying that this attitude is counterproductive for an “ethical enterprise”.
But what more can you do for a customer than deliver a precise result in excellent quality at the right time and place for the right price? Isn’t that quite something already?
To be sure, in an “ethical enterprise”, too, the customer is king. And it should need no further mentioning that you do not deceive a customer and that you describe your own achievement transparently.
An “ethical enterprise”, however, must deliver additional extra value to its customers:
- All employees must be especially aware of the fact that at the customer’s end of the deal, too, it is human beings they are communicating with.
- The interest of the customer has priority, even if this is against one’s own interests.
- This is also true if it is detrimental for one’s own business.
- There must be enough moral courage to tell the customer the truth (in a prudent way).
- What makes all the difference is to communicate unpleasantness in a way that does not harm yourself (in the magical land I am currently visiting, the bearer of bad news used to be beheaded).
An ethical enterprise must give the “customer’s interest” priority over the “own interests”. That is a huge challenge.
“In life, you should not wear your laurels around your bottom, because that is the wrong place”. I really like this saying by Franz-Josef Bierbrauer.
I can expand this saying: you should not wear the laurel yourself. Instead, the laurel should be an ornament on the head of your customer.
Now isn’t that a nice and useful additional requirement for the “ethical enterprise”!
RMD
(Translated by EG)
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