Pls critique this Analysis of an Issue - #110

[Andr359]

Are the most effective leaders those who maintain the highest ethical standards? In my view, they are. To effectively lead a company requires of business executives a sound level of trust and coherence of behavior which is only attainable through integrity.

An effective business leader gets results, knows how to plan a set of financial and strategic objectives and how to achieve them in the proposed time frame. In order to succeed in these tasks in the long run, a business leader must show and maintain a high level of ethical standards to ensure the trust and support of employees, business partners, and the industry as a whole. A few real world cases exemplify my position. One of them is related to the development of Daewoo Corporation, which rised in 30 years to become one of the most prominent diversified business conglomerates in the world. Nevertheless, its CEO had been repeatedly incurring in a series of legal offenses such as bribery, unfair competition, and exagerated use of governmental funds to maintain the company afloat. His illegal deeds were found out and disclosed, and he was put to trial and declared guilty. Daewoo´s ex-CEO was a very skilled businessman, but compromised his integrity and thus jeopardized his company´s healthy development and reputation.

Some careful observation leads to the conclusion that high ethical standards are at the core of every business that succeeds in the long run, and thus at the core of the actions of its business leaders. From excellent customer service to sound and honest financial decisions, an effective business leader molds his company to values that he must hold himself so that his beliefs are coherent with his words and actions, an essential characteristic of a leader.

Acknowledgedly, sometimes lack of high ethical standards can lead a business to gain some advantage, but this advantage is most times, if not all, short-lived, efimerous. Companies which deviate from the path of integrity are sooner or later identified, and the customers and the general public reacts by withdrawing their trust and decreasing their level of business with them.

In sum, I believe that the most effective business leaders maintain the highest ethical standards, because these standards lie at the core of the trust relationship between companies and the markets, which is in turn essential to attain efficient business results.