Purity is an idea for successful business people

It is unfortunate that one of the most popular beliefs in the corporate world is that seeking others' interest is naive. A twin belief that I have found as popular yet false it that treachery is a necessary evil for success in business. World wisdom assumes that the only way to get ahead is to have dirty hands (Sartre 1948). These ideas are popularized and embraced by people everywhere. The best such convictions can do is to serve those who embrace them for a relatively short time. When their effects fire back, they cost a lot much more that whatever they could have benefited their followers. Khan (2006) gives eight values that are correlated with long lasting success in business according to research: (1) Treat others with uncompromising truth, (2) lavish trust on your associates (3), mentor unselfishly, (4) be receptive to new ideas regardless of their origin, (5) take personal risks for the organization's sake, (6) give credit where it is due, (7) do not touch dishonest dollars, and (8) putt the interests of others before your own.


Let us elaborate on truth, empathy, and honesty. These values build and maintain trust. They keep their followers free and happy. They facilitates followership and make business relationships less constrained and costly. Biblical wisdom instructs: "Speak the truth, each one to his neighbor, because we are members of one another" (Ephesians 4: 25, Holman Christian Standard Bible). The reason the Bible gives for speaking the truth is that if I hurt my neighbor, I hurt part of myself. It seems evident to me that that in business, a stakeholder (partner, client supplier, government, employee …) cannot be hurt while I remain totally safe. His or her stability is tightly linked with mine.


Even if we imagined a possibility of remaining safe while cheating on stakeholders, we know that liars are constantly worried that their lies can be exposed. And when this happens, it splashes the reputation and kills trust. And there is no bigger asset a company has than its reputation. Take Tradex for instance, an oil retailer in Cameroon. In about 10 years Tradex has risen to become the largest oil retailer after Total in Cameroon. I recently talked with a gas station manager in my neighborhood. This man was happy that a new Tradex gas station in the neighborhood was built on a different street that his. "If they had built it on this street, we would be in serious difficulty" he said. This is because in a country where some oil retailers mix petrol with cheaper kerosene, Tradex has a reputation of selling unaltered high quality petrol. Purity is certainly not an idea for a yogi or a monk (Sartre, 1948). It is a smart idea for successful business people.

References

Khan, S. (2006). It is not so much What as How. Consulting to Management, 17(2), 62-63.
Sartre, J. P. (1948). Les mains sales [Dirty Hands]. Paris: Gallimard.