Some might believe that business ethics should not be the highest priority for an entrepreneur. Certainly, there are more important things to worry about. The world is tough, and business is even tougher. If you want to survive as an entrepreneur, you have to fight. Of course, you will not do things that harm others or are blatantly dishonest, but sometimes it may seem that you will need to cut a corner. When you're only starting to be successful, business ethics require resources and effort at a moment when you have no money, no time or energy to waste. Indeed, we all know of some people with questionable business ethics but still, seem successful in their businesses. And it can’t be denied that being ethical costs money. If your competitor is not paying taxes and makes employees work 14 hours/day, how can you pay taxes and organise an 8-hour working day? Isn't that just naive? Being ethical on your own sounds like a recipe for failure. These arguments may sound convincing initially, but they are fundamentally misguided. Business ethics is not an add-on that you can decide to introduce in your business at the point you feel appropriate, preferably somewhere in the future, like a luxury item that you just can't afford at the moment. Business ethics is not decorative; it is at the heart of a business. Let us take the example of customer care. By now, most entrepreneurs are aware of the importance of customer care. Still, most clients will tell you that there is still room for improvement. So, what is going wrong? Looking at the shiny surface of customer care, it seems straightforward: the waiter has to smile; your products have to be well presented; you always say 'please' and 'thank you' to your customer. How difficult can it be? The secret is that customer care is not about the shiny surface. It is about what lies underneath. As an entrepreneur, more is needed to second guess what will please the client and then try to deliver it. Instead, you must genuinely care about your customer's well-being. Without business ethics, customer care is a facade. Real customer care starts from the conviction that your client is worth being taken well care of. When customers feel respected and valued, they will naturally run your mouth-to-mouth publicity for free. There are more examples. If you are not paying your suppliers, all your mental energy is wasted on thinking up the next lie or excuses to confuse them. If you are profiteering from your employees, you will continuously need to intervene and control them because they will try to take advantage of you whenever they see an opportunity. If you cheat a client by making him pay double the price, this client will come back to complain and will ruin your reputation. If you do not repay your loans, penalties go up and up, and your worries go up at the same rate. Low business ethics may be beneficial in the short run, but in the long run, it never is. So having good business ethics is not only a matter of ethical principles. It is also a matter of doing sound business. Similar effects also play out on a country level. Amartya Sen, Nobel Prize winner in economics, found out that countries where entrepreneurship is not very well established often lack a good business ethics culture. This is because it takes time to establish such a culture. Rwanda’s Small and Medium Enterprise (SME) sector is starting to pick up but is not yet matured. The best way to grow the SME sector is to ensure that more and more businesses abide to sound ethics principles. As successful economies worldwide prove, every individual business benefits if it can build on the trust that other businesses with whom it collaborates have its best interests in mind. In conclusion, to be a successful entrepreneur, you must be part of a successful business community. If you ever want to be a successful business community, there is no other way than to be an ethical businessperson. For all these reasons, business ethics should be an integral part of all Business Development Services. Not only because it is the right thing to do but also because it is the only way to create a successful private sector in the long run. The author is the Country Director of the Business Professionals Network (BPN) Rwanda. She is also a board member of the Rwanda Development Board (RDB) and I&M Bank.
