How firms must show they're not cheating

Jim Sloan of Hill & Knowlton makes some good remarks in an article on communicating on ethical standards, stating the public has grown cynical about corporations, and it is convinced that it's impossible to succeed without cheating. Day-to-day life reinforces this theory on many levels. Simply brandishing an ethics manual and stating proudly that all your employees must read it and sign it won't do, nor will putting an emphasis on teaching values and enforcing them - essental though that is. So convincing the public that you are not cheating today requires an extra dimension of persuasiveness about the business itself - conveying, in a believable way, just how you are going to succeed in an admittedly dog-eat-dog climate. Article