Business Ethics

Ethics in Financial Reporting

Integrity is of utmost importance for a successful career in business and finance in the long run. Some believe that the world of finance lacks ethical considerations. Whereas the truth is that such issues are prevalent in all areas of business.

The business environment in much of the world is reeling from the revelation of several financial scandals in the past few years. The optimism of the turn of the century has been replaced by scepticism and distrust. It will be discussed as to how we landed ourselves in this situation, what is being done to correct it, and what the future holds for us.… Read the rest

Abey Francis

What is Servant Leadership?

In many situations we are able to draw associations or determine one situation resembles another. When individuals in leadership roles give of themselves so that others may have it is often associated with a negative connotation. Although giving and serving is not viewed in the political or religious aspect, leaders tend to develop their own views and formulate ideas that have been tampered with by politician or religious leaders. Many of the political and religious leaders have a major influence of the day-to-day operation and views of society.

We first have to know what leadership is. Leadership is the ability to get other to follow you willingly.… Read the rest

Abey Francis

Examples of Unethical Behavior by Organizations

Unethical Behavior by Organizations

Anything that a businessman can do in the best interest of society is to be a good businessman. It means that they should try to maximize the profit which is the ultimate target of any business. Here is the point when businessmen think that instead of wasting time and resources with ethics they should focus on finance, marketing and business operations. As long as a business is operating within the rules, the only social responsibility of business is to increase its profit with the use of business resources. Concisely it can be said that remain in open and free competition without being involved in fraud or deception.… Read the rest

Abey Francis

Social Entrepreneurship in India

Social entrepreneurship as the concept was coined long ago but has been in the corporate parlance in just the recent past. Traditionally, entrepreneurship has been associated with profit making individuals who aim high and achieve a lot for themselves in the world of tough competition. And the success of enterprise was and is being judged on parameter like return on investment and net income margins. But, with the empowerment and awareness of the citizens of the developing world, a new revolution has started, particularly among the youth of the world. This revolution is the growth of Social Entrepreneurship – the form of entrepreneurship where profits are not the end result, but just the means to achieve the end result of social upliftment and further empowerment.… Read the rest

Abey Francis

The Lessons from Enron: The Importance of Proper Internal Controls

The events were finally resulting the filing for bankruptcy in December 2001, started way much before fraud at Enron could be even suspected.  Andersen played a major role in the collapse of Enron.  Andersen failed two times regarding audit issues just a few years short time before the collapse of Enron, at Waste Management in 1996 and at Sunbeam in 1997. The two audit failures mentioned above should have been huge warning signs for Andersen to protect itself against another client failure but what they had to face regarding Enron was worse than they ever had.  Some internal memos at Andersen made it clear that several conflicts existed between the auditors and the audit committee of Enron.  … Read the rest

Abey Francis

Case Study: British Petroleum and Corporate Social Responsibility

British Petroleum known today as BP Amoco is a petroleum industry based in London. It is recognized as one of the top four oil and petroleum companies throughout the world. The company started in 1901 when William Knox D’Arcy was given the permission by the Shah of Persia to explore the land for oil and founded one in May 1908. Because of this discovery, the Anglo-Persian Oil Company was established so as to expose these findings. The company has grown gradually because of this as World War I is happening; the British Government shows intense interest to the company which became the source of fuel oil of Royal Navy during WWI.… Read the rest

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