A Better Way to Think About Business How Personal Integrity Leads to Corporate Success

Is business ethics a contradiction in terms? Absolutely not, says Robert Solomon. In fact, he maintains that sound ethics is a necessary precondition of any long-term business enterprise, and that excellence in business must exist on the foundation of values that most of us hold dear. Drawing on twenty years of experience consulting with major corporations on ethics, Solomon clarifies the difficult ethical choices all people in business are faced with from time to time. He takes an "Aristotelian" approach to ethical questions, reminding readers that a corporation--like anindividual--is embedded in a community, and that corporate values such as fairness and honesty are meaningless until transformed into action. Values--coupled with action--become virtues, and virtues make possible any good business corporate relationship. Without a base of shared values, trust andmutual benefits, today's national and international business world will fall apart. In keeping with his conviction that virtue and profit must thrive together, Solomon both examines the ways in which deficient values actually destroy businesses, and debunks the pervasive myths that encourageunethical business practices. Complete with a working catalog of virtues designed to illustrate the importance of integrity in any business situation, this compelling handbook contains a goldmine of wisdom for either the small business manager or the corporate executive struggling with ethical issues.

Robert C. Solomon is Quincy Lee Centennial Professor of Philosophy at the University of Texas, and is the author of A Short History of Philosophy, A Passion for Wisdom: A Very Brief History of Philosophy, and Ethics and Excellence (all available from Oxford). He lives in the hills just west of Austin, Texas.