Gene Del Vecchio believes our understanding of ethical behavior is one of the major concerns in this day and age. There’s only one problem: Ethics don’t sell.
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That’s right. I said it. Ethics don’t sell.
I know this for a fact because of the six books I have authored, which included both fiction and non-fiction titles, the book that sold the least number of copies was the one that detailed how to lead an ethical life in the corporate world. It was based on over two decades of my own experiences and those of other senior executives in dealing with ethical dilemmas both big and small.
But the book failed because ethics don’t sell.
I wrote the book in 2003 in the fallout of the Enron bankruptcy scandal. I thought it was an ideal time to awaken people’s need for ethical standards. But I was wrong. People did not care to buy a book that discussed ethical behaviors to strive for. Instead, they preferred books that detailed the titillating facts of the Enron villains and the many other corporate villains that followed. People love to read about the other guy’s malfeasance. It’s the same motivation that drives us to watch villains such as JR on the TV show Dallas, Frank Underwood on House of Cards, and Walter White on Breaking Bad. We love to read about the bad boys.
It could be that the topic of living an ethical corporate life has appeal but that the way I approached it was weak. But given that books on how to achieve corporate ethics never seem to make bestseller lists, I think a far more important factor was in play. It’s that no one thinks they need to learn ethics. That’s the bottom line. Either they mistakenly believe that they are already ethical, or they knowingly bend their ethics because they believe they are justified in doing so. In either case, there’s no reason for them to buy a book on how to achieve high moral character in the corporate world.
So ethics don’t sell.
The eye opener was when I sent early, signed copies of my book to the deans of a dozen prominent business schools. In a couple of days, one of the books that I had sent to an east coast university showed up online as a “signed by author” copy. Apparently, the dean wanted the $20 bucks more than he wanted tips on how to lead an ethical corporate life.
So ethics don’t sell.
Beyond the titillating aspects of scandals, what also sells is legal advice on how to stay within the law. Why? Because people are far more concerned about staying out of jail than staying ethical. As a result, many discussions inside the boardroom are not about what is ethical. They are about what is legal.
So legalese sells more than ethics.
I worked at an advertising agency for years and developed an expertise in youth marketing and entertainment, among other things. Almost by definition, many people would consider that an admission of unethical behavior. We did face many ethical minefields, but we did our best to balance the desires of children and the needs of their parents, the desires of stockholders seeking profits and the desires of consumer activist groups seeking to safeguard society. Many times our personal ethics (most of us were parents) made us censor ourselves long before lawyers got a chance. I was proud of that.
Add still, ethics is a hard sell.
Part of the problem is that we convince ourselves that unethical behavior in the business world is not so much dishonest as it is smart. As an example, we might unjustifiably disparage a capable co-worker when speaking to the boss because we want to beat the co-worker out of a promotion. Or we might tell the boss that we have another job offer in order to get a raise, when in fact no offer exists. Or we might blame another department for not completing a report on time, when the delay was our fault. Or we fail to tell a customer of a product safety problem because we need to make a monthly sales quota. Or we bill a client for hours that we never spent on his business because our kids need braces.
These examples may sound like small stuff compared to the pyramid scheme masterminded by Bernie Madoff who stole billions of dollars from investors. But we need to realize that unethical executives found in the boardroom did not suddenly become unethical with their final promotion to the top spot. They acquired the propensity to be unethical slowly, starting near the bottom of the corporate ladder. The unethical behavior then rose with each and every promotion.
So teachings on how to act ethically need to start early in a person’s corporate career. It should start with self awareness of our actions and their deep motivations. It should start with taking personal responsibility and with treating others in ways we want to be treated. Ethics should start with an understanding that sometimes we need to take two paces back from achieving our personal goals in order to be four paces closer in achieving our societal goals.
Perhaps someday it will become common to hear an executive say, “I don’t care that our action is smart and legal, it is still unethical so I won’t do it.”
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Image by aeneastudio / flickr
Only then will ethics sell.
Hi Gene, great essay. Much merit for giving the ethics in business book a birth. You act as a role model/mentor in doing that. So some few will take note and be inspired and carry the work on its a chain reaction. Your story has inspired me to write about my work in ethics in the ‘mens movement’, mainly around violence and sexual abuse and generally too much emphasis on the dark shadow or bad boy. Like business there is a rejection of owning ethics as important. It sure is puzzling, but I am gradually developing some useful hypotheses around… Read more »
I feel like this whole article needs a caveat that it is talking about corporate culture only, because that’s who your book was marketed towards. So if the point is that people in the marketing field are more likely to buy a book on successful marketing than on ethics, it seems like a no-brainer. You write “People did not care to buy a book that discussed ethical behaviors to strive for. Instead, they preferred books that detailed the titillating facts of the Enron villains and the many other corporate villains that followed. People love to read about the other guy’s… Read more »
I should’ve been more specific about working in education because I know you’re a business school professor. I was thinking about my own experiences as someone who works with elementary school kids; I feel like discussions about how to encourage ethical behavior and ethical ways for adults to treat children are commonplace in my field.
Good piece. I agree with you except for on one important point. You say that “teachings on how to act ethically need to start early in a person’s corporate career. ” However, I believe that ethical standards are mostly developed in childhood from the influence of an individual’s environment, not in some instructional class in their 20’s or later. If anything, that class should be a recap of the standards that (ideally) the audience has been taught growing up. You cannot expect a class on ethics so late in a person’s development to actually change their ethical behavior. I believe… Read more »
Hi Scott
Thank you for your comment. I agree that moral development starts early. In the class I teach at USC, I state that a person’s values are often in place by age 10, and that following what “mama” taught you is always good advice…don’t steal…don’t cheat…don’t lie, etc. My point in the article above was not meant to negate that, but to address the need to examine it early in one’s corporate career. Thank you for pointing it out.
Gene
But you found publishers and that says there had to have had some value. So I applaud you for your successes. These books did sell and that within itself is a success.
Businesses are like entertainers. If someone succeeds by breaking the rules, others will emulate that. It’s unfortunate. People laud the success but don’t question the method. Those who gain from their unethical behavior are labeled go-getters, ambitious, or dynamic. One benefit of entrepreneurship is the right to choose clients and colleagues based on ethics.
“Ethics should start with an understanding that sometimes we need to take two paces back from achieving our personal goals in order to be four paces closer in achieving our societal goals.” Ethics requires having societal goals. But we’ve had almost four decades of celebrating the success of the individual, at any price, over the success of our society. Take a look at your streets. Take a look at your unemployment/under-employment, your poverty rate, your literacy rate, the decline in national education standards. For the last 20 years, the US has consistently enacted policies that preference the benefits of the… Read more »
Both your work, talent, and the common ethics that bind us all together will have their day. I think we can all agree that society is headed toward some sort of an awakening, be it rude or not, no one can say, but it’s coming. I’m sure you agree. As far as your book writing efforts go –hey man– over ‘n over again I was told “prison doesn’t sell,” but I kept submitting Where Excuses Go to Die. I had faith that there was an audience for a book about life behind bars it was funny, principled, and unlike published… Read more »
Excellent piece, Gene. Remember this, if just one person hears yours message, and that person rises to a place of authority, and that person internalizes the message of doing the right thing and does it, you have played a monumental role in change for the better. So don’t worry about big numbers, continue to focus on big ideas. Change happens when the pain of change is less than the pain of staying the same. Business cannot stay the same, it has to evolve to the good — so keep writing and spreading the word. The people you can reach will… Read more »
I absolutely agree with Ken. We have to work with a mindset that helping one can help millions.