Business 183

To me the most impactful message that we learned this week was from Clayton Christensen's speech where he stated, " The lesson I learned from this is that it’s easier to hold to your principles 100% of the time than it is to hold to them 98% of the time. If you give in to “just this once,” based on a marginal cost analysis, as some of my former class- mates have done, you’ll regret where you end up. You’ve got to define for yourself what you stand for and draw the line in a safe place."  

This is so true, the first time that we adjust our standards; we start to slide down a slippery slop of justification.  The more that we have to justify our actions the more questionable our moral compass becomes.  I think that the society’s ethical standards continue to decline and if we judge ourselves against others than we become susceptible to the declining moral standards, but if we maintain our integrity by never compromising it, we will have peace.  I have watched good men and women become ruined based on unethical business practices, but the most devastating part is to watch them grapple with the consequences of actions because success was more important than their integrity.