The Secret Weapon that Got the Ethics Pledge Into the NY Times

https://www.nytimes.com/2005/03/30/opinion/l30ethics.html? (you may need to register)

Not that big a secret, actually: the letters column. Though the Times is notoriously fussy. With other newspapers, I have, typically, about a 90 percent success rate. With the Times, I’ve probably sent well over 100 letters in 33 years (most of them during the 1970s and 80s); this is the third success. The first was in 1972, when I was 15, and I got in a letter criticizing Dean Koontz’s support of Nixon’s Vietnam policy.

This one’s on ethics. The one between was a comment on a travel article.

Two tips:

1. Well-argued controversy seems to be something they like

2. Speed counts. I was responding to an article on page 1 of the Tuesday, March 29 edition. I submitted my letter around noon that day; it ran in the next day’s paper.

The link above is what they actually ran, somewhat abridged, but with the wonderful slug, “The writer is founder of the Business Ethics Pledge Campaign.” and yes, this little letter has drawn quite a number of responses.

–>Here’s what I originally wrote:

“On Wall Street, A Rise in Dismissals Over Ethics” chronicles, somewhat dismissively, the spate of firings over ethics violations within the financial community. The article makes a case that innocents are being shown the door in a hurry for behavior that’s perfectly legal.

The problem, though, is that big business has pretty much destroyed the culture of trust. Consumers are more suspicious of these large corporations than they’ve been in decades. Without passing judgment on the specific individuals cited in the article, I’d say that keeping a commitment to ethics means acting rapidly to prevent or deal with ethics violations as soon as they’re discovered. Whether termination was the correct response for these particular people, I couldn’t say–but the bank acted immediately, and that is better than the all-too-typical non-response we’ve seen in the last few years.

Eventually, the public will simply demand higher standards of accountability. I’m hoping to foster that with an international pledge campaign around business ethics; I hope to make future Enrons and Tycos impossible. The campaign is hosted at www.principledprofits.com/25000influencers.html

–Shel Horowitz, author, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First, columnist for Business Ethics magazine, and founder, Business Ethics Pledge Campaign

–>And this is what they actually printed:

To the Editor:

In chronicling, somewhat dismissively, the spate of firings over ethics violations within the financial community, you make a case that innocents are being shown the door for perfectly legal behavior.

The problem, though, is that big business has pretty much destroyed the culture of trust. Consumers are more suspicious of large corporations than they’ve been in decades.

Keeping a commitment to ethics means acting rapidly to prevent or deal with ethics violations as soon as they’re discovered.

Whether termination was the correct response I couldn’t say, but acting immediately is better than not responding.

The public will simply demand higher standards of accountability. I’m hoping to foster it with an international pledge campaign around business ethics.

Shel Horowitz
Hadley, Mass., March 29, 2005
The writer is founder of the Business Ethics Pledge Campaign