Take Aways!

If you do not read another word on this site, take these along.

• Understand the impact of an ethical business model.  It is the closest thing to a sure-fire road to higher profits.  By harvesting the bounty of ethically driven self-preservation and self-interest, it brings a wide range of economic and social benefits to every one it touches.

• Understand where an ethical culture must begin if it is to flourish.

At the top.

• Communications professionals must be in the fore to mark the ethical line in the sand.  They are the corporate responsibility troops on the front line, they are Paul Revere, the canaries in the coal mine.  As lawyers mark the line to keep you out of court (or jail), the communications pros mark the line —somewhere way north of that— that protects and enhances both reputation and profitability.  Remembering the distinction between these two valuable and important but very different disciplines is critical to corporate health and well-being.

• Embrace benevolent capitalism. A form of capitalism that is not just the best way to make the most money, it is the key to over-coming many of the evils of the world.  A prosperous, content middle class does not breed terror.  Successful trading relation-ships defuse a toxic atmosphere where war can brew.

• We have only begun to create a world where every human being can develop their full potential.  About a half-billion of those of us who inhabit the earth earn $15,000 a year or more.  Three times that many, a billion and a half, earn between $1,500 and $15,000 a year.