Page 226 - (DK) The Business Book

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IN CONTEXT
MAKE IT EASIER FOCUS
Business ethics
TO DO THE RIGHT KEY DATES
44 BCE Roman lawyer Marcus
Tullius Cicero writes De
THING AND MUCH Officiis, discussing ideals
of public behavior.
HARDER TO DO 1200s Italian philosopher and
theologian Thomas Aquinas
argues that price has a strong
THE WRONG THING moral aspect.
Early 1900s US president
CREATING AN ETHICAL CULTURE Theodore Roosevelt declares
that businesses should “act for
the interests of the community
as a whole.”
1987 “Ethical Managers Make
Their Own Rules,” a Harvard
Business Review article by
Adrian Cadbury, highlights the
conflict between ethical and
commercial considerations,
and the increasingly close
scrutiny of corporate decisions.

he fundamental assertion of
business is that it exists to
T make a profit. However, the
way that companies make a profit
has come under intense scrutiny,
particularly in the global economy.
The first recorded reference to
moral principles was Cicero’s De
Officiis, written in 44 BCE, which
stated that “right is based, not upon
men’s opinions, but upon Nature.”
In the 13th century, the philosopher
and theologian Thomas Aquinas
defined the principle of natural law,
saying that as a reflection of God’s
rational plan, our idea of what is
naturally right is also rational: an
action is ethical if it is judged to be
rational, or reasonable. This is still