Business needs to be ethical in order to be fruitful in the long term and unethical practices kill the very life of business. People often forget this or are unaware of this. 

 

Doing something unethical requires a lot of creativity! And to do something unethical, and to get away with it, one needs much more creativity! But if the same creativity is channeled properly, it can help the company innovate better and be more productive! If the same creativity is invested in your R & D department, then you don’t need to get into any unethical practice at all.

It is intellectual bankruptcy which leads to unethical business practices. It happens when efforts are not being put in the right direction. If you want to really study the health of a company, you should see how enthusiastic their R & D department is. Call and talk to them and examine their level of enthusiasm. Then you will be able to see if that company will go upwards, stagnate or go down. Give them a small problem; you will know if they can tackle the problem or not. You will know whether they are fit to be in R & D or elsewhere. Most corporate companies do not give much importance to the R & D department, especially in India.

Often a corporate house only looks at the academic qualification. They see a degree holder and put them in the R & D Department. But qualities like creativity, intelligence, curiosity and enthusiasm to innovate and find solutions is not to held ransom to degrees and PhDs, and we should recognize this, for our benefit. 

If you see Japan, you learn a lot about this kind of hiring practice. They develop and invest in creativity. When there is creativity, there is no need to go into unethical practices. The ground reality is that the companies need to sustain, develop, maintain, and build. If creativity can be channelled into development of products, in R & D, in Marketing and Negotiating skills, we don’t need to resort to unethical ways to sustain or maintain a company. For example, if you have good negotiating skills then you will be able to talk to the government agencies or buyers, and you will succeed.In this regard, we have a lot to learn from every country like, Americans are very good negotiators; very good in marketing;Japanese and Germans are very good in technology and innovation; and Indians have all these three talents. They can be the best in marketing, they can be the best in R&D, and they can be the win in negotiations. Unfortunately, they are underutilized.

 

Unethical practices give you short-term joy and make you miserable in the long run. Right ethics is that for which though you have to hold your breath for a short period of time, would bring long-term success and enable you to enjoy the sustained development.

 

Additionally, we need to take care of the big communication gap in our industries. Today, one manager can easily bring down a company or be responsible for the collapse of an organization due to his manipulation of people who hold the company. Personal animosity and grudges have crept into our industries and businesses. This is very unfortunate! A certain level of human development, maturity and understanding has become imperative, absolutely essential for the growth of any organization, any society.

 

Another aspect is stress. When you are stressed you don’t listen to anybody. There are two kinds of people who do not listen– the stressed and the unhappy. Also, if someone is against you, even if they are talking sense, because of your hatred you become biased. You are not ready to take even the good things they say and you think they are wrong.  

 

So, what can be done?

First of all, recognize these problems. Once you know this, half of the problem is solved. Next step is to improve communication and develop human values in our set up, in our environment and surroundings; create a sense of belongingness and a broad vision, then deal with stress. There are lots of programmes on stress-relief. From time to time get together sing, meditate, loosen-up; celebrate now and then! Instil self-confidence, self esteem in your subordinates. We often point out mistakes of other people and make them feel so guilty that they do not want to go ahead at all the next time. Skilfully point out their mistakes without making them lose their enthusiasm to work again. We need to look at this aspect in life.

 

Take a look at your own mind from time to time. Look at yourself; at what’s happening inside your mind. By simple self-examination from time to time you will sort out a lot of knots now and then. Becoming conscious of what is happening in your mind, body, in the self.

Another technique you can follow is, whenever you have to do any important job, ethical or unethical, give it a fifteen seconds thinking time. Someone once wrote a very nasty letter to his boss. He was going to sign off and send it, when suddenly he remembered what his Guru had said? to give a fifteen seconds gap. When he went through the letter again it was so nasty, he himself could not read it. That fifteen seconds gap made so much of difference! Take home this technique. The mind has a very strange tendency. Anything wrong, it wants to do immediately. From now on, you postpone it. If you want to shout at somebody, postpone it to next week. We have a tendency of postponing positive actions and immediately executing negative actions. 

 

Look at the world around you! See all those people who have amassed wealth in a fraudulent manner. Where are they? What has happened to them? Are they happy? Are they blissful? Do they have honour? This broad vision of things the way they are can also give us a direction. You could argue that even the Mahabharata war could not have been won without a little yukti. Yes, you need a little bit of it, but not too much. Yukti should be like salt in the food, without over shadowing the ethics, which is the central line of our conduct. Otherwise it is not going to be fruitful, will not yield business or improve things in any manner. 

 

So, channel the creativity in the three areas of productivity, new designs– R & D, negotiating skills and marketing. 

 

Attend to the source of creativity. Our consciousness is the source of all creativity. Taking a little time for oneself is a great investment. Take a few days, spend a week in a year to relax, become calm, meditate, and expand your awareness. And then you will see that you will be able to achieve a lot with less effort. Do less and accomplish more. That is a sign of intelligence. Do a lot and accomplish less is a sign of foolishness. This understanding needs to be developed within ourselves. As corporate members take some time off.  The more responsibilities you have, the more stressed you are, the more the need for you to take some time off for yourself for 4-5 days in a year. Go to some place, meditate and relax. The more responsibilities you have, more is the need to rejuvenate the body, mind and spirit. Brings out the enormous amount of creativity that is hidden within you.  The Creator is within you. There are millions of variety of flora and fauna in the creation, millions of species on this planet. That same consciousness is within us. Everyone should spend a little time with oneself. It is the greatest, biggest, most yielding investment for sure.