Yes, Business CAN be Ethical

A few years ago, I quit a contract to design an interface for the MIB (Medical Insurance Bureau) for a health insurance company.? It just didn’t feel right that a health insurance company would ‘blacklist’ people because of some sickness.? This was in New Jersey.? It was also in New Jersey, that more than ten calls with offers of cash fees to doctors went unanswered — they were only interested in knowing about my health insurance plan, so that they could, in the words of one receptionist, ‘continue to bill me’.? It was in Connecticut that a dermatologist apologized for running one test, and then using the wrong bill code while billing my credit card.? It was in Rochester, Minnesota, that I declined another assignment because a pregnancy was deemed to be a ‘pre-existing’ condition and the client offered a co-pay on ‘COBRA’.

Although I have not worked in the U.S. for a long time, I share in the feeling that there may be room for the U.S. to gain genuine respect in the community of nations.? It may have the courage to confront their business and political leaders that lied about health-care knowingly and are now furiously back-pedaling.

Well, before the news about the U.S. health-care bill, I meant to write this post about a graduate thesis by a student in Harvard that has not only relentlessly analyzed the financial meltdown, but also won support from inside the industry.? Yes, I did read the whole thing, and it reads well.? How could a student pull data and analysis that neither the financial industry, nor the regulators, and nor academic professors pull together?

Well, in the words of U.S. President Lincoln, as echoed by President Obama, ‘I may not win, but I will be true’.? Not everything in life is about winning.? As some of the most powerful organizations in the world today, corporations do not only need to win, they also need to be true sometimes.? They may even realize that being true may even be financially rewarding.