Business Ethics: What Rotary Can Do

1
Business Ethics What Rotary Can Do
David P. Schmidt Fairfield Club
2
Objectives

• Business and Ethics The Current Situation
• Resources from Rotary
• What Rotary is Doing
• What Rotary Might Do

3

• Business and Ethics
• The Current Situation

4
Impact of Recent Issues
Enron
ImClone
WorldCom
BernieMadoff
Tyco
GenRe
GlobalCrossing
It was the best of times . . . It was the worst
of times.
5

• Loss of Trust The Key Issue for Business Today.

6
A Minimal View of Ethics

• Q What is the bottom line in ethics?

7
A Minimal View of Ethics

• Q What is the bottom line in ethics?
• A Do No Harm

8
A Minimal View of Ethics

• Dont sink below the ethics bottom line!
• How can we avoid doing harm?

Bottom Line
Amount of Harm (try to minimize)
Compliance
9
A Positive View of Ethics

• Try to go above the bottom line!How much good
  should I do?

Amount of Good (skys the limit)
Pursuit of Excellence Building Trust
Bottom Line
Amount of Harm (try to minimize)
Compliance
10

• Resources from Rotary

11
Mission

• The mission of Rotary International, a worldwide
  association of Rotary clubs, is to provide
  service to others, to promote high ethical
  standards, and to advance world understanding,
  goodwill, and peace through its fellowship of
  business, professional, and community leaders.

12
Avenues of Service

• Based on the Object of Rotary, the Avenues of
  Service are Rotarys philosophical cornerstone
  and the foundation on which club activity is
  based
• Club Service focuses on strengthening fellowship
  and ensuring the effective functioning of the
  club.
• Vocational Service encourages Rotarians to serve
  others through their vocations and to practice
  high ethical standards.
• Community Service covers the projects and
  activities the club undertakes to improve life in
  its community.
• International Service encompasses actions taken
  to expand Rotarys humanitarian reach around the
  globe and to promote world understanding and
  peace.

13
The Object of Rotary

• The Object of Rotary is to encourage and foster
  the ideal of service as a basis of worthy
  enterprise and, in particular, to encourage and
  foster
• FIRST. The development of acquaintance as an
  opportunity for service
• SECOND. High ethical standards in business and
  professions, the recognition of the worthiness of
  all useful occupations, and the dignifying of
  each Rotarian's occupation as an opportunity to
  serve society
• THIRD. The application of the ideal of service in
  each Rotarian's personal, business, and community
  life
• FOURTH. The advancement of international
  understanding, goodwill, and peace through a
  world fellowship of business and professional
  persons united in the ideal of service.

14

• So, high ethical standards are important . . .
• But what counts as high ethical standards?

15

• Two Rotary Approaches to High Ethical
  Standards

16
Decision ListsThe Four-Way Test

• Of the things we think, say or do
• 1. Is it the TRUTH?
• 2. Is it FAIR to all concerned?
• 3. Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER
  FRIENDSHIPS?
• 4. Will it be BENEFICIAL to all concerned?

17

• A Second Rotary Approach to High Ethical
  Standards

18
Its People
1/21/2008 - Cathy Forsberg and Mike Lipman (from
the Hamden Rotary Club) after their presentation
on the Bio-Sand Water Filter project in India
(left to right John Lee, Cathy Forsberg, Norma
Peterson, Mike Lipman)
19
Source Rotary International search on business
ethics

• What Rotary is Doing

20
Education Overnight Ethics

• Camp Enterprise, created by the Rotary Club of
  Kansas City, Mo., USA, in 1977, has spread to
  over 125 clubs from California to Texas, and
  across the border to Ontario, Canada.
• The annual weekend retreat introduces selected
  high school students to entrepreneurship and
  ethics. Participants typically compete in groups
  to create the best business plan and head
  outdoors for team-building games.

21
Ethics Awards

• Like many clubs, the Rotary Club of Golden,
  Colo., USA, sponsors an annual ethics awards
  competition for local businesses but with a
  special twist.
• The club honors companies that follow not only
  The Four-Way Test but also cowboy ethics.
• A Colorado School of Mines professor, along with
  some of her ethics students, evaluated the
  for-profit and nonprofit entries on criteria such
  as environmental record, employee relations,
  community involvement, and customer service.

22
Guide for the Workplace

• At any Walgreens drugstore in the United States,
  youre likely to see The Four-Way Test hanging on
  the wall in the managers office and in the
  pharmacy.
• These plaques are tangible evidence of a
  philosophy that has guided the companys
  corporate culture for decades, championed by
  Rotarian Charles R. Walgreen Jr., the son of its
  founder.

23
Online Mentoring

• An online ethics mentoring program was organized
  by Ga. Macon Rotary Club member Linda Brennan, an
  associate professor who teaches business ethics
  at Mercer University.
• Brennan matched members of her club with 22 of
  her students, most of whom worked part time. They
  could only communicate by e-mail.
• Participants were instructed to initiate e-mails
  with their mentors at least once a month

24
Education 4-Way Speech Contest

• The purpose of the contest is to encourage youth,
  Rotarians and the community at large to more
  completely understand, encourage and foster the
  principles of Rotary and the object of "Service
  Above Self".
• The speech contestants may speak on any subject
  to which they can apply "The Four Way Test". The
  speech must reflect clearly the practical
  application of all four points of the Four-Way
  Test.

25
Contact Me!

• David Schmidt
• rotarydave_at_att.net
• 203-256-9067