E-Magazine
Adrian Ashton
Over recent years there's something of a groundswell of interest in the concept of 'ethical/social enterprise' – the agendas around corporate social responsibility; the growth of the fair trade movement; government policy in respect of social enterprise and legislation concerning environmental impact to name but a few.
Clearly, this interest reflects the growing sense of 'ethics', or rather, what society and the people who make it up (you and I) feel to be appropriate and 'just'. Given that there would also seem to be such an overlap with the values and principles of faith-based organisations (whose ethics are not determined by society per se), it should perhaps be no surprise that 'ethical enterprise' is becoming a term which includes those organisations of faith and those of an otherwise ethical mission (there is a difference which I'll soon come to).
However, there is a risk to this growth and emergence of 'ethical enterprise' – ethics are subjective: they are whatever we as a society choose and shape them to be. For example 200 years ago (after the introduction of company law, local authorities and other current 'institutions'), the slave trading industry was not only deemed 'ethically acceptable', it was pro actively encouraged on a global scale, yet today we actively oppose any activity that bears even a passing resemblance to it; and only 10 years ago fair trade coffee was seen to be so incidental to the marketplace that nestle stated it would never become involved in it, yet they've spent millions on launching their own fair trade coffee brand and now turned their famous 4-finger bar into a fair trade product as well.
Therefore ethical enterprises and entrepreneurs, in whatever form they take, and their owners, managers, employees and communities need to be aware that they're trading in an environment of changing fashions and trends. Faith, however, is more consistent in offering 'universal truths': teachings and theologies that are consistent and absolute despite changing fashions, trends, political agendas, etc. Indeed, it could be argued that it was faith-based enterprises (and not always charities) in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries that directly led to the concept of ethical enterprise we see today: Quakers and Christian business leaders of the day (they weren’t calling them ‘entrepreneurs’ at that time) introduced working practices and structures in not only their businesses, but openly challenged others to do the same. Ultimately, this has changed our expectations of what is ethically acceptable in today's workplaces – minimum working ages, limits on how many hours work can be expected of an employee, responsibilities of employers, how suppliers should be treated, and so on.
The challenge then, to this new generation of ethical entrepreneurs is what is your motivation? Are you responding to changes in the marketplace and your customers' expectations and demands, or acting from a deeper desire to influence the 'bigger picture' – if so, you could have a lot to learn from faith-based enterprises that have been successfully trading from a values set that has lasted centuries and have in turn directly influenced the values and ethics of today's marketplaces.
Otherwise you may find that your business loses credibility when fashions and ethics change again and you change with them – not because of your own personal values, but because that’s what you have to do to chase the sale...
Adrian Ashton, independent advisor and trainer, www.adrianashton.co.uk