Ethics & Its Importance in Business

What are ethics?

It is one’s judgement about what is right or wrong.

In our lives, we are faced with ethical dilemmas.

 

What is being ethical?

It is to do what is right when facing an ethical dilemma.

 

In today’s blogpost, we will look at one of the biggest schemes ever committed.

 

 

Bernard Madoff is well known as a master Ponzi schemer (BBC 2014).

Ponzi? Is that some type of Japanese sauce?

 

NO, that is Ponzu.        

 

A Ponzi scheme explained very simply, is when an individual from an organisation give returns to investors with money invested by other investors rather than the actual dividend earned from the investment.

 

Although this sounds like a genius idea to achieve my dreams of becoming a millionaire before the age of 30, it is a very UNETHICAL thing to do. It is deceptive and manipulative.

 

 

Madoff stole BILLIONS of dollars from his clients.

 

He mentioned, “It starts out with you taking a little bit, and before you know it, it snowballs into something big” (BBC 2014).

 

 

What goes around, comes around. 

Madoff was turned in by his sons and was sentenced to 150 years of prison time (Bloomberg 2008).

 

Ethics are extremely important for a business organisation. We must make ethical decisions and practice good ethics to develop a good reputation among our clients and investors.  This will develop a good relationship between the client and the organisation, which will ultimately lead to: PROFIT.

And as we all learned in Sauder, the sole purpose of doing business is to eventually make a profit. So start being ETHICAL today!

 

Thank you for reading!

-James Lau Jun Yee (9/9/2014)

 

Workcited

Images hyperlinks:

http://images.businessweek.com/ss/09/03/0311_madoff/2.htm

http://www.edenfoods.com/store/product_info.php?products_id=109880

http://imotwom.wikia.com/wiki/File:FACEPALM.png

Web sources (Information):

Borzykowski, Bryan. “The Slippery Slope of Getting Away with Small Stuff.” BBC Capital. BBC, 7 Aug. 2014. Web. 09 Sept. 2014.

“Definition of Ponzi Scheme in English:.” Ponzi Scheme: Definition of Ponzi Scheme in Oxford Dictionary (British & World English). N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Sept. 2014.

Levisohn, Ben. “How to Make a Madoff.” Bloomberg Business Week. Bloomberg, 16 Dec. 2008. Web. 10 Sept. 2014.