
	We are here on earth to do good for others. What the others are here for, I don't know. (Auden)

Dioptra for Business

Companies that ignore ethical problems face risks. They include loss of trust from customers, suppliers and financial partners, more difficulty finding and keeping talented workers, and drop in share value. Executives are dismissed, even when they have not personally behaved unethically. In the worst cases, businesses pay large fines, and executives face jail time. Firms are becoming sensitive to even the appearance of ethical violations.

Business executives are in a difficult position.

The real world demands tradeoffs, that company decisions benefit some and not others...

... but everyone can sue.

The law and the market hold executives responsible for unethical actions by employees...

... even when employees violate company policy.

If executives talk openly about ethical tradeoffs ...

... do they and their companies become more vulnerable?

Despite the ambiguity, some things are clear.

Executives who do not create and enforce ethics policies are at risk.
Sometimes employee reward systems encourage unethical behavior. Executives who allow those systems to exist are at risk.
Some executives "look the other way," hoping their supposed ignorance of employee actions will protect them. It will not. They are playing Russian roulette with the law and the market.

Executives have little choice but to face the problem squarely. This is neither easy nor pleasant - except when compared to the alternatives. Executives should consider building a company-wide ethics monitoring and compliance process.

Dioptra can be part of this process. It can help make ethical decision making easier. It can help people organize their thinking, and work together in a common framework that they create.

Dioptra will not make people ethical. All it can do is help ethical people be better decision makers.

Dioptra will not make up for an organizational culture that tolerates unethical behavior. Dioptra can be effective only in companies that have committed to doing business ethically.