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Welcome back! This is
Don Mayer, Professor of
Business Ethics
and Legal Studies
at the University of Denver.
This is lecture 3 of
the Henry Stewart Talks:
What about business ethics?
In this lecture, we ask and
answer: Can there be ethics in
business and why should
business people
care about ethics?
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Tuning into current cultural
memes at least in the US,
it can often sound like the
end justifies the means,
that the winners write
the history books and to
the victors go the spoils.
If winning is the
most important thing,
then you should do
whatever it takes to win.
Ray Kroc, founder of
McDonald's, once said
"If any of my competitors were
drowning I'd stick a
hose in their mouth and
turn on the water".
It is Ridiculous to
call this an industry,
this is not, this
is rat-eat-rat,
dog-eat-dog.
I'll kill him and I'm going to
kill him before they kill me.
You're talking about
the American way of
survival of the fittest, yet
Ray Kroc also said If you
work just for
money, you'll never
make it. But if you
love what you're
doing and you always
put the customer
first, success will be yours.
This introduces the idea
that each business has
numerous stakeholders,
people, and
institutions that are affected
by the decisions
of the business.
Ray Kroc like management
guru Peter Drucker
was emphasizing the importance
of having customers
and the necessity of taking
care of customer's actual and
potential. In any business
you want to keep the
customers you have.
The best way to do that,
is to take the best
possible care of them.
The entrepreneurs and
even large companies
who forget that, they
usually run into
trouble. It's never
just about you
minding the store means
minding the customer.
But what about employees or
investors or suppliers or
creditors, all of
them have a stake in
your business whether
small or large.
You had better find
ways of minding
their needs in a way that
will keep them close to you.
No business thrives with
a constant employee turnover or
unhappy creditors that want
to throw you into bankruptcy.
A sound approach to business
requires you to give
mindful moral consideration
to all of your stakeholders.
Many management
experts will say that
your most important internal
stakeholders are your customers
and your employees,
treating both with
great respect will be the best
path to business success.
A few years ago, I
had a student with
a new GM truck that had
some serious issues,
after some negotiating GM
did the right thing and
replaced his truck.
He wrote about this saying
I don't believe they build
inferior products any car
or truck can have issues.
I was very happy to see they
decided to stand behind
their products and I
respect the manager
of the dealership for
his part and making sure
the process was smooth.
He told GM, he would be a
loyal customer for life.
It can be so easy to disrespect
your customers, I once worked
for some people in
the hotel business
that regarded people as
wallets disguised
as human beings.
What was in their wallets
or purses was always
more important to them than
the customer experience.
While it is not true
that the customer is
always right those
scammers are everywhere,
it is important to focus
on considering how
your own actions can enhance
your customer's experience.
My former employers, not
coincidentally, often failed to
show respect and fairness to
their employees and
their suppliers.
They seem to enjoy making
their suppliers and
contractors wait for
months and months before
finally paying what
was justly owed.
