Ethics play a vital role in running any business. There comes a time in every businessman’s life when he has the option of choosing values or money. The decision people take during such times differentiates popular business icons from normal ones. In the initial days, Jack Ma the founder of Alibaba group was facing a dilemma over 2 salesmen of the company who contributed more than 60 percent in sales.
Why would anyone fire employees who are responsible for the most number of sales in the company? This happened because Jack Ma had made a policy that they will never offer bribes for increasing sales. Jack told everyone that the company will shut the operations happily if they don’t succeed but bribe will not be accepted. Alibaba achieved the target business earlier than expected but at the end of the 1st financial year came to know about 2 salespersons who were getting most business for the company but were offering bribes.
A meeting was arranged to discuss this and finally, Jack took the difficult decision of firing them. From the starting days, he believes in clear vision and integrity among workers. He believes that workers should have one goal and that is to provide quality services to customers that too with complete transparency of work.
Jack doesn’t even allow employees to take gifts from anyone. Once in an interview, he said “Our employees are not allowed to accept free car rides or meals. Small gifts, even a piece of candy, are sent back. If not, the employee’s value score will be very low, and he or she could even be subject to penalties.”
Ma believes that successful leaders make decisions based on values, not money. According to him, decisions based on money are not strategic. Talking about fake products he said that it is a problem for big companies because a lot of times fake products are similar in looks and quality and are made with the same technology. Original brands need to find out the ways of making products at minimum prices.
Jack Ma is successful due to his approach towards business and we hope that this article will help you to learn tips about running a business.
