Integrity Matters

I was preparing for a talk I needed to deliver to students at a Hospitality Institute, and as I was looking at some of the key issues that were coming up in my research, I thought that some of them would be quite relevant in the different corporate sectors that each of us are in. Some of the issues that came up primarily had to do with the tension that existed between the two words – hospitality and industry. On the one hand, hospitality had a focus on being social, with moral issues involved in it. And on the other side, industry had this hard-nosed, make-profit attitude attached to it. So, the key issue here was: how do these two come together?

 

Ruud Welten, well known in the Netherlands, is a professor of Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility at the University of Netherlands, said this, and I think it makes interesting reading. "But the industry has found itself self-contradictory from the outset: on the one hand, it is a business sector with its own economic responsibilities, while on the other a term like 'hospitality' refers to social and moral attitudes that are not typically bound by those same economic criteria." Two different aspects to the words 'hospitality' and 'industry', - one, hard-nosed, bound into economic responsibilities; the other dealing more with social and moral attitudes that are quite different from the economic criteria that is often used in business.

It made me think about us and life in general. How do we handle ourselves in these two areas? We live lives where we are called upon to have social and moral issues linked to the things that we do. And yet, in our areas of work, we are also called to be businessmen, we are called to follow an economic standard. We are called to make money, keep profits up and costs down and serve community. All of these things factor into every aspect of our own lives. I thought it would be neat for us to push this through and see how it affects our own lives and whether we can get some nuggets that can help us navigate through the work that we do.

Welton talks of the Icelandic ash cloud in May 2010, where many hotels in Europe jacked up their prices because of the number of tourists that were stuck and couldn't move out of that place. I also remember the time when the cyclone hit Vishakapatnam a few years ago. A dairy company was selling milk at twice and thrice the actual cost to exploit the situation that people were in. All of these bring home the fact that while there is a need to make money, there must also be some kind of balance without losing the approval of people itself.

The late Kenneth Dayton who was CEO of a giant retail empire said this, "We are not in business to make maximum profit for our shareholders; we are in business for only one reason – to serve society. Profit is our reward for doing it well. if business does not serve society, society will not tolerate our profits, or even our existence." True words!

We look at these almost mutually exclusive positions and we have to ask ourselves: How do we navigate through these two seemingly exclusive positions without too much of tension? On the one hand, we need to do business with one's best friend (and I'm referring back to the hospitality industry). And on the other hand, we must offer that same service that we are offering to our best friend, to a stranger as well, without taking advantage of a stranger's need or condition. How do we hold the two together? I believe our integrity is the key that holds these two positions in positive tension, that we treat strangers as our best friends and we will soon find that strangers will soon become our best customers.

As I follow through that line of thinking, I felt that there was so much of truth in it. While sometimes we want to press on in the industry mode, the economic mode, there is still room for us to have compassion, to be social and have moral values that will guide our path through this world.

Proverbs 11:3 from our Bible says this: The integrity of the honest keeps them on track, but the deviousness of crooks brings them to ruin.

I believe integrity is so important to help us find that neat balance between what is good, honest and ethical and what is good business and practical sense.

I want to close with 'The Paradoxical Commandments' by Kent Keith, because as I was working through this, I thought that this was not an easy place to be, and yet, it is a place that we ought to be. Life isn't only a pathway that leads through easy streets; it's a pathway that takes us through rocky terrain as well, and that terrain is a must for life itself. So, 'Paradoxical Commandments' by Kent Keith.

People are illogical, unreasonable, and self-centered.

Love them anyway.

If you do good, people will accuse you of selfish ulterior motives.

Succeed anyway.

If you are successful, you will win false friends and true enemies.

Do good anyway.

The good you do today will be forgotten tomorrow.

Do good anyway.

Honesty and frankness make you vulnerable.

Be honest and frank anyway.

The biggest men and women with the biggest ideas can be shot down by the smallest men and women with the smallest minds.

Think big anyway.

People favor underdogs but follow only top dogs.

Fight for a few underdogs anyway.

What you spend years building may be destroyed overnight.

Build anyway.

People really need help but may attack you if you do help them.

Help people anyway.

Give the world the best you have and you'll get kicked in the teeth.

Give the world the best you have anyway.

This used to be in Mother Teresa's room and she did all of this with the help of the Almighty God. And God today, offers us that same help to help us to navigate our lives with great integrity so that we can keep these two areas that seem so mutually exclusive, together in honest positive tension.

Difficult? Yes, of course! Impossible? No, not at all! And worth it? Undoubtedly! And my prayer is that you would embrace it. Allow me to pray for you.

Almighty God, to each one of us, help us to see the path that we need to walk, holding these two areas together, to be able to deal in life and with life, with compassion and moral values and good ethical decisions. And yet, to be able to do business well and honestly and to succeed in what we do, holding them together with great integrity. Give us the means to see what integrity means in these areas. But, Almighty God, we lean on Your understanding to help us through. In Jesus' name, we pray. Amen.

·       Ebeni, "Does Integrity Matter." https://ebeni.wordpress.com/ebeni-conferences/conference/presentation/industry-integrity/

·       Kent M. Keith, "The Paradoxical Commandments," http://www.paradoxicalcommandments.com