In Between   

All of us—companies, professional firms and individuals—have a timeline.  We start—we finish.  In a well-known poem, The Dash, Linda Ellis emphasizes that the important part of the start and finish is what happens in between—“the dash.” 

Because we all have timelines, we have obituaries written or unwritten.  Some are sad, others inspiring and moving, still others somewhat whimsical and amusing.  

Recently I read of a man whose “dash” was described this way:  “No small children and animals were injured during the making of this life.”

The Richmond-Times Dispatch included the following comments in an obituary:  “During his life he excelled at mediocrity.  He loved to hear and tell jokes…He had a lifelong love affair with bacon, butter, cigars and bourbon…His sons said of Fred, ‘he was often wrong, but never in doubt.’”  Sounds like the kind of guy I’d love to have next to me in a golf cart.

Just as we are in effect writing our obituaries –our “dash”—while we’re working, playing, and living, so are companies and all entities developing reputations, accomplishments, and lasting impressions and memories of their presence in our lives.  And whether focused upon or not, all entities do have a timeline that portends at some point, whatever the reason, a cessation of their respective businesses.  Some fail and go out of business because of consolidation, bad business models or just failing to be attentive to the consuming public.  I’d place Braniff Airlines, Eastern Airlines, Wang Laboratories, Polaroid, and Schwinn Bicycle in that category.

The “dash” for some timed-out companies and firms isn’t so forgiving or rational.  We remember failed entities like Lehman Bros., American Home Mortgage, Enron, Arthur Andersen and Adelphia in not so kind ways.  However else they filled their timelines, unfortunately these companies are principally remembered for lack of integrity, broken trust and hundreds of millions in losses for the American public.

I realize that we are being flooded with information on value and mission statements, codes of conduct, commitments to the public, and mountains of communication inducing our trust.  But I prefer this approach to the passive, inattentive methodologies of the past.  Attention to their “dash” is critical…and I believe most companies and firms believe that, if for no other reason, ethics, integrity and trust is just good business.  We all want to believe that transparency, truth, and trustworthiness goes beyond “just good business.”

We are blessed in this country with great companies and professional firms who are living out their timelines in a positive, constructive and mutually beneficial ways.  There are literally thousands of private and publically held companies fitting that description.  Each year Ethisphere, a leading research-based firm, recognizes companies that truly go beyond making statements about doing business ethically and actually translate those words into action.  In 2012 a record 145 companies were honored to be included on Ethisphere’s World’s Most Ethical (WME) Companies list.  Some 23 companies have been included for all six years of the WME listing.  These include American Express, Starbucks, General Electric, Milliken & Company and Aflac.  Some other highly recognizable companies include:  The Aerospace Corporation; Accenture; Dun & Bradstreet; Microsoft; Kellogg Company; and Hospital Corporation of America.  No, they’re not perfect companies but they are according to Ethisphere intentional in their building an integrity foundation that benefits the public.  

“—“  What will yours say about you, your company, your firm?

Ad astra

Per aspera

David A. Costello, CPA

Honey Bees and Ethics

“When I put the bees in, I knew it probably would be against the covenant, but I knew it was going to be a safe situation and if it wasn’t, I was going to remove them.  I was bending the rules, but it’s not like I was raising vicious pit bulls in my backyard.  I wasn’t doing anything I felt was unsafe.”

Apiarist Bryce Martin of Spring Hill, Tennessee is having difficulty understanding why the Homeowner’s Association in his 346 home subdivision cited him for violation of restrictive covenants regarding his honey bees.  Martin said his bees are “wild but docile” and “totally harmless unless you start messing with their hive.”

Martin’s problems arose when several homeowners reported being swarmed by bees.  “If that actually happened, which I’m pretty sure it did not, they’re not my bees if they were in a swarm,” said Martin.  Sounds a lot like “my dog doesn’t bite.”

And how does Martin propose to resolve this stinging saga?  “I’ll probably move them because it is in violation of the covenant, but I’ll do it on my own terms.”

When I read Martin’s plight of the honey bees, I at first thought what’s the big deal.  One hive, a few thousand bees, jars of honey for the neighbors…and an overly regulated hobby.  But the more I thought about it the more I realized that the issue is not honey bees any more than it is about keeping pythons as pets or raising chickens in urban areas or keeping dogs fenced or leashed.  

The key issue is playing by the rules—rules established under due process with civic involvement.  Rules established for the common good not necessarily for a particular individual or even a group of individuals.  

This principle of playing by the rules was made painfully clear to Sally and me recently when she was bitten by an unleashed, unfenced basset hound.  Of course basset hounds are always friendly, make great pets and are just too fat and lazy to hurt anyone, right?  Wrong!  

And playing by the rules doesn’t mean that I can “do it on my own terms.”  We’ve seen all too often how that rationalization fares for the rest of society.  One man’s beekeeping is another man’s Enron, WorldCom or Madoff.

Dan Ariely’s recently published book, The (Honest) Truth About Dishonesty:  How We Lie to Everyone—Especially Ourselves, makes the uncomfortable point that rationalized small-scale cheating and lying (which he posits all of us do) in the aggregate is more corrosive to society than a 20 billion dollar Madoff scandal.  And to make matters worse for society, cheating and lying even in small ways are contagious and infectious.

We are human and imperfect and will, perhaps inadvertently or unwittingly, cheat or lie at times (e.g. rounding up and never rounding down on an expense report).  So what’s the big buzz here?  The issue is one of intentional disregard for the rules so that I benefit in some way from noncompliance.  “It’s always about me” is the problem and that mindset is the root of ethics and integrity lapses leading to broken trust.  And whether it’s investments, a used car or honey bees, if I’m stung it matters little to me that you gave someone else a jar of honey! 

David A. Costello

Ad astra

Per aspera