Business is driven by a single ethical law and it’s simply this: Will the world be a better place as a result of this activity or not? If the business activity does not pass this test, we have an ethical problem. However, before you can answer the above question, you need to define the words “better” and “world.” In other words, whose world are we making better? This is where the debates begin.

Let us look at an example of this law in action. A pharmaceutical company wants to stop people using generic penicillin in Africa. One night the company’s chairman is confronted by his son who recently came back from Africa. The son asks, “Dad, how does stopping people from using generic penicillin make the world a better place? How can you even sleep at night knowing that these people in Africa need the generic penicillin at thirty-four cents and you want to increase the price to five-dollars? How does it even help your shareholders? How much extra money could you possibly get from these African nations anyway?”

Now the only way the chairman can argue against this ethic questions is to say, “Ah yes! Let me tell you why the world would be a worst place. If we continue to allow generic penicillin drugs to be sold at thirty-four cents, I promise you that those cheap drugs will be all over America and Europe. If that happens, we will lose money causing our shareholders to run away. Do you know that seventy-five percent of all our shares are owned by pensioners? We are owned by pensioners and the reason why pension funds are in a mess is because companies do not respect their trust. We need to preserve their capital and grow their wealth. Furthermore, for us to grow their wealth, we need to earn one billion dollars on every drug to begin making a profit and we only have ten years to do it before our patent expires. If generic penicillin is allowed to stay at thirty-four cents, it will close down the whole private pharmaceutical industry. As a result, I believe hundreds of millions of more people will die from perfectly preventable diseases because you would have destroyed research and innovation in this sector.” Read the rest of this entry »

In today’s economy, many small businesses are struggling to stay afloat. With credit and money becoming even tighter, small business owners are looking for ways to be more efficient and effective. At the same time, marketing efforts that translate into profits are also important.

Save Money – Outsource

One of the ways in which small business owners can take a step forward is to take advantage of the many opportunities that are available to outsource many office tasks. By using virtual assistants and outsourcing business activities such as appointment scheduling, sales, website management and content writing, you can not only free up your time to focus on other necessary tasks, but you can save money on overhead.

Since you will not be providing office space for these employees, you will not have the expenses of employee taxes, additional office space or workers compensation. Additionally, you can often find contract workers for outsource work in locations around the world, where the cost of living and wages are lower than in the United States. By using global resources, you can have many office and business tasks performed extremely efficiently, for a lot less money.

Social Media and Marketing

Another newer business concept that is proving to be extremely economical and efficient is using social networking for marketing purposes. Social networking can be an extremely effective method of getting messages out about products and services with very little effort. With only a few keystrokes, your messages can be sent to literally thousands of potential customers. Read the rest of this entry »