Academicians have spent lifetimes pontificating such subjects and they don't seem to have resolved anything. What makes us think we can reach any meaningful conclusions? It's not that we are trying to find absolutes for anyone else, but rather to find some common ground for ourselves. So, in order to establish a baseline for my views, why am I the way I am? What things have shaped me and helped to form the opinions I have. This epistle will try to establish some fundamentals on which I will base my comments. How far I will get before my mind begins to numb, I do not know. When that happens, I'll just sign off this chapter and continue at another time. I was lucky, when after W.W.II, the
competition for medical school was so great that without straight 4.0's you didn't stand a
chance of getting accepted. I was not a 4.0 student, but that could be another
story. But circumstances led me to California and the pharmaceutical industry.
My scientific academic background was perfect for what was then required of I don't think I had been in the field more than a month when I was a consultant to a physician who had a 1 year old infant with a severe gastrointestinal problem. We had a medication for adults that might be of help IF we could interpolate a suitable dosage. I served as the moderator between the doctor and our medical department, but it impressed on me the importance of accurate and honest communication. I don't think I realized until this very writing, how important that was to establishing my personal sense of ethical behavior. HealthyLife was a relatively small company devoted to research in the development of product for the diseases of aging. This was before there was even a formal topic of "geriatrics." Gerald Davis, Sr., the grandson of the founder had the vision that the future of medicine was in the treatment of the degenerative diseases of aging, and back in 1932 had the foresight to plan for the future. That also had an impression on me. Furthermore, he believed in delegating both responsibility and authority. There were only 5 men who ran the entire company. One in charge of medical issues; one in charge of chemical and technical research; one in charge of production; one in charge of sales and marketing; one in charge of finance matters. The old man gave each total responsibility and held each totally accountable for their department. No second guessing; no politics; it was lean and strong. No wasted effort; clean and efficient. Back then, when the industry averaged 12% profit to sales, the profit percentage for HealthyLife was consistently 22 to 24%. If the profit percentage dropped near 20%, the old man wanted to know what was wrong and who was not doing their job. He expected people to work hard and to be rewarded for performance. When a new rep started and ventured back to the laboratories in Claremont for training, one feature was a personal interview with Mr. Davis himself. I remember his secretary ushering me into his most impressive office to sit with this stern yet cordial man who was almost a legend. He new virtually everything about me. His opening remark to me was, how could I forget, "Arthur, how is everything in San Diego? That is such a nice college town. Your brother lives there too, doesn't he?" He knew my background my education, my military experience, my college background. I'll never forget the bond he established. Oh, he was never anything but "Mr. Davis," There was no buddy-buddy, one-of-the-guys kind of bond. You knew what was expected and you were expected to deliver without question. I liked that. Oh, it was not all sweetness and light. He had a policy that we thought was pretty tightwad. When you earned a promotion, it was with the attitude that "we think you can do this new job, but of course we can't be sure until you do perform. Your salary will be increased a modest amount, but a year from now, when you have proven yourself, you will be eligible for the full salary of the position." Clever ol' bastard. He got a years worth of work out of you without paying for it. Yet HealthyLife was the second company, behind Sears, to establish a real profit sharing program for employees. He was concerned that the average person did not have the knowledge or means to manage a long term financial program all the way to retirement, and he wanted to provide that for those who performed. He preferred to give a bigger share of the profits to the employees that to give it in taxes to a wasteful government. The success of our small company and the amount of profits returned to the employees was one of the reasons the government put a ceiling on how much profit could be given to employees in benefits. That made the Old Man furious. We were expected to work hard and rest hard. He was against having employees split vacations. "I pay you to take vacations because I expect you to work hard and I want you to take a full restful vacation so that when you come back you will be refreshed and you will work that much harder. He was known to walk through the offices on a Saturday morning to see who was working on the "6th day." He noted who was in and on Monday called in the respective supervisor to find out why John Jones was working on a Saturday - can't he get his job done during the regular work week?" "Not efficient at his job, or an inefficient distribution of the work load?" Why all this detail? Is it really important? I think it is important to understand the foundation of my business experience. I started out expecting to spend my entire career with one company, a business family into which I had been accepted. I knew that if I worked hard at this job I dearly loved, I would be taken care of better than I could by myself. Ah, but here, there becomes a separation of individuals into different cells, and that is important. I fell into a group to whom ascending to "the corner office" or a salary goal and the material benefits that went with it, were not the important things in life. The job and doing it well were the most important goals and achievements. That may be too shortsighted. The "driven" usually achieve more in financial and material gains. Which is best? There is no best, only best for you. Too often society, or at least the society of today, looks down on anything but the material measurements. OK, but not for me. Can one really find real happiness without the modern standards of achievement, or is that just sour grapes? These are basic questions each of us must face, fight, and answer honestly for ourselves. I think the important thing is to take the time and wrestle with the issues and find the answers. Then, real peace can be had. My expectations of working and retiring for and from one company did not last. Gerald Sr. retired and turned over the company to his two sons, neither of whom had the vision and discipline of the father. The tight operation began to weaken. Where all top positions had been held by those who came up from the ranks, "outsiders" began to find their way into an ever growing management staff. In retrospect, the beginning of the end -- the end of an era -- which forced one to look again at the company we thought would never change and again look at our own motives and face decisions we really did not want to make, but of which we had no choice. Some of those issues involved merely "changes" -- different economical times, changes in medicine itself, changes in product lines, and the like. But then corporate behavior and ethical issues began to be inserted into the equation and could not be ignored. "Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, and I took
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Part 1 A business fable for modern times, based on a true story. Names of companies, locations and individuals have been changed. Hopefully, this will be enlightening for the reader wrestling with business and ethics Posted with permission of the author. |
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How do you start a discussion of business and ethics? 