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?

A Tryst With Destiny

70 years ago, our first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, spoke these words in his speech: 'Awake to freedom.' He said, "Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure, but very substantially.  That future is not one of ease or resting, but of incessant striving so that we might fulfil the pledges we have so often taken, and the one we shall take today. The service of India means the service of the millions who suffer. It means the ending of poverty and ignorance and disease and inequality of opportunity. The ambition of the greatest man of our generation has been to wipe every tear from every eye. That may be beyond us but as long as there are tears and suffering, so long our work will not be over."

INTEGRITY: IS IT WHO I AM?

by Dr. Cecil Clements (27th March 2012)

This morning I want to share a deep thought that has been on my mind for some time. I keep seeing by-lines of different companies, signature tunes if you will, that say ‘People Do Come First’ or ‘Honesty is What We Stand For’. Then when you find that people don’t come first in the company, you begin to question everything that the company stands for.

So today I want to talk about integrity. Integrity is beginning to become a core value for a lot of companies. But I want to start by reading this story to you – a true story that happened in the late 1920s and it centers around a man called Al Capone. He was a gangster and one of his lawyers was a man called Easy Eddie who was one of the most efficient lawyers in the United States. Although the US government spent a fortune trying to put Al Capone in jail, Easy Eddie as he was known, always found a way to keep him out. Capone rewarded Eddie with a huge salary, luxuries, political power, everything. He had a house, a huge place in Chicago.

REPUTATION COUNTS

by Dr. Cecil Clements (28th February 2012)

Consider this scenario. In the Belgian city of Antwerp, a man pulls his long black coat more tightly around him to keep out the cold chill of the winter wind that blasts off the cobblestoned streets like waves crashing against the rocks. As the wind gusts, he quickly grabs his black hat to steady it on his head and ducks into the doorway of a large building. Entering a long high-ceilinged room, he loosens his coat to free his long graying beard as he walked quickly past the 2 dozen or so fraying wooden tables that lined the high-windowed wall. He greets another man dressed in a white shirt and black vest and quickly takes a seat across from him.

PRINCIPLES: MAKE THEM, STICK BY THEM

Johnson & Johnson, a pharmaceutical powerhouse, is a company that I’ve had a soft spot for, for many years for varying reasons. I remember when I first moved to Mumbai almost 34 years ago, I used to take the bus from Andheri Station towards Mulund. Reaching Mulund, one of the sights I would look forward to, was the beautiful well-manicured lawn on a sloping hill. Right on top was the company; in the foreground on that lawn was the sign – Johnson & Johnson. I love that picture.

‘Hard Nose’ With A Soft Touch

I was looking at some articles on good governance and came across a quote by N. R. Narayana Murthy, where he writes as Chairman of the Board and Chief Mentor of Infosys. He says, “The primary purpose of corporate leadership is to create wealth, legally and ethically. This translates to bringing a high level of satisfaction to 5 constituencies – customers, employees, investors, vendors and society at large. The raison d’être of every corporate body is to ensure predictability, sustainability and profitability of revenues, year after year.”

The value of Integrity

I want to share with you this morning, something that’s beginning to be a core value in a lot of companies. The word integrity is what is being passed around in many companies as a core value for the companies. And I thought to myself, it would be good for us to look at the word integrity and see what it would mean for us.

Before I do that, I want to tell you a true story. It’s about a gangster from the 1920’s, his name was Al Capone. One of his lawyers, Easy Eddie, was one of the most effective lawyers in the country. Although the US government spent a fortune trying to put Al Capone in jail, Easy Eddie, as he was known, always found a way to keep him out. Capone rewarded Eddie with a huge salary, luxuries, political power, everything. He had a house, a huge place in Chicago. But Eddie and his wife had a son and Eddie loved his son dearly, and as all fathers would, he tried to teach his son the difference between right and wrong, and provide a good education for him, a good life, money, wonderful holidays, good clothes and every comfort. But there was one thing that Eddie couldn’t give his son and that was a good name. The son’s friends knew the truth about his father. That his father was keeping a criminal free to keep stealing, killing and corrupting society. Eddie, it is said, wrestled with this decision. As he saw his son growing up, he wanted to do what was right with his son. He knew he had to come to a decision of whether he was doing the right or wrong thing. Finally, knowing that the consequences would be very serious, he made the difficult choice of turning himself in to the police. Thanks to his testimony in court, Al Capone was finally imprisoned. The story ends, in a way, sadly for Eddie. He was shot to death on a dark street of Chicago. But here is the enduring legacy. His beloved son went on to become a hero in WW2, in part, because of the example of his father’s character. Today, the international airport of Chicago is called the O’Hare Airport and it’s in honor of Butch O’Hare, who’s the son of Easy Eddie. If you think about it, it was such a difficult decision for Easy Eddie - to live his life as he lived it, and yet he found that it was corrupting the life of his son. And that the legacy that he was leaving his son was a bad legacy, a tainted legacy. So he changed all of that and allowed his son to grow and mature into the kind of person that he needed to be.