Date Published: November 18th, 2014

The Problems about Ethics and Trust in Society and Worldwide In General, part 2 continues with some suggestions of corrective measures; as (Problem Solving Methods).

Here are some guidelines that would help most organizations to succeed in business operations. However, it depends on the leadership. The success and failure in any business, organization, society, and government around the world you can name it, depends on the leadership. No matter how qualified and experienced some professionals are and how many other staff members they may have, if the leader fails to realize that the higher you go the more visible your integrity or lack of it becomes, there is problem. The leader must act with integrity and to act with integrity you must first know who you are. You as a leader must know what you stand for, what you believe in and what you care most about. Leaders must clarify their values. Clarity of your values as a leader will give you the confidence to make the tough decisions, to act with determination, and take charge of your life; lead the firm or organization, people and/or society by following the rules and regulations as operational functions and to achieve the firm, or organization’s goals. The leader must set bright examples for the people he leads and expects to guide, as well the business in good faith. You can’t expect honest followers, staff or employees if you as the leader models dishonesty and unethical practice, and in the end results are mistrust and a failure in the business or organization. People, be it customers, the public or society in general won’t follow leaders that they think are dishonest. But if a leader believe in what he/she stands for and is true to his/her own values, acts in good faith with justice and fairness, and bear in mind that it is a relationship between him/her, the organization and the people that he/she leads, and he/she must be credible as being a leader is all about credibility, then he/she is prone to likely be successful including within the organization that said individual may be in charge of. 

In general, you need to have ownership structure for any organization such as Sole Proprietor, Corporation, Non-Profit Organization–varies, Limited Liability Company, and Partnership, Limited partnership, Limited Liability Partnership or Joint Venture. For any of these ownerships of organizations to survive, there must be a Business Plan. In the real world of business based on the fundamentals of marketing principles and conceptual businesses that are engaged in buying and selling in the market place, there is need for an Annual Marketing Plan. The business successful goals start with a good marketing plan. The marketing plan spells out the marketing strategy, and the plans vary widely in scope and details. However, all plans needs to be based on analysis of the product market and segment, industry and competitive structure, and the organization’s competitive advantage. A good business plan must have a strategy. Marketing strategy is a four–step process: First, a situation analysis considers market and the competitor’s analysis, market segmentation, and continuous learning about market. Second, designing a marketing strategy entails customers targeting and positioning strategies, marketing relationship strategies, and planning for new products. Third, marketing program development consists of products/services, distribution, price, and promotions strategies designed and implemented to meet the needs of the targeted buyers, (Four P’s of Marketing), Place–Distribution and channels practices. Fourth, strategy implementation and management look at organizational design and marketing strategy implementation and control. Marketing Situation Analysis: The marketing management needs the marketing situation analysis to guide the design of a new strategy or to change the existing strategy. The situation analysis is conducted on a regular basis to guide strategy changes. Note:  Analyzing markets and competition is extremely important. Markets need to be defined so that the buyers and the competitors can be analyzed. For a market to exist there must be people with particular needs and wants and one or more product that can satisfy these needs. Also the buyers must be both willing and able to purchase a product that satisfies their needs and wants. Note: A strong guide to avoiding business failure in the future is the decision to enter a new product market in critical strategic market choices. The objective is that the market manager should be able to identify and describe the buyers, understand their preferences for products, estimate the size and rate of growth of the market, and find out which companies and products are competing in the market. Evaluation of competitors’ strategies, strengths, limitations, and plans is also a key aspect of the situation analysis, and it is important to identify both existing and potential competitors. Failing to understand this marketing concept and strategy can lead the business to failure, both large and small organizations, and top management would be responsible. However, one way to take corrective measures of avoiding such situations is to conduct what is known as Strategic Audit. Strategic Audit provides a checklist of questions, by area or issue that enables a systemic analysis to be made of various corporate functions and activities. Designing Marketing Strategy: The situation analysis identifies market opportunities, defines market segments, evaluates competition, and the organization’s strengths and weaknesses. This information play(s) a key role in the designing marketing strategy, which includes market targeting and positioning analysis, building marketing relations, and developing and introducing new products. Market targeting and positioning strategy, determines the people (or organizations) that management decides to pursue with the marketing program. The target(s) typically consists of one or more market segments. The target decision sets the stage for setting objectives and developing the positioning strategy. Marketing Program Development: market targeting and positioning strategies for new and existing products set guidelines for the choice of strategies for the marketing mix components. Products, distribution, price, and promotion strategies are combined to form the positioning strategy selected for each market target. Implementing and managing a marketing strategy: is selecting the customers to target and the positioning strategy for each target to move the marketing strategy development to the final stage. In addition to a good business plan that includes strategy, the Nature of Marketing must be thoroughly understood, and how and when to use some of the strategies is extremely important. For example, many organizations engaged in aggressive advertising through the media, business magazines, television, and newspapers spending lots of money on advertising, while others spend a lot of money on marketing research that are not necessary at that point in time if only they understand the nature of marketing, and the marketing concept. The Nature of Marketing: Marketing is the process of planning and executing the conception, pricing, promotion, and distribution of ideas, goods, and services to create exchanges that satisfy individual and organizational objectives. The potential for exchange exists when there are at least two parties and each has something of potential value to the other. When the two parties can communicate and deliver the desire goods or services, exchange can take place. How do marketing managers attempt to stimulate exchange? They follow the right principle. They attempt to get the right goods or services to the right people at the right place and at the right time at the right price using the right promotion techniques. The principle tells you that the marketing managers control many factors that ultimately determine marketing success. To make the right decisions, management must have timely decision-making information. Marketing research is a primary channel for providing that information. The marketing concept: to effectively accomplish these goals, successful organizations today have adopted to the marketing concept, which requires (1) a consumer orientation, (2) a goal orientation, and (3) a system of orientation. A consumer orientation means that the organizations strive to identify the people (or firms) most likely to buy their products (the target market) and to produce a good or offer, or a service that will meet the needs to the target customers most effectively in the face of competition. The second step of the marketing concept is goal orientation; that is, a firm must be consumer oriented only to the extent that it also accomplishes corporate goals. These goals in profit – making firms usually center on financial criteria, such as a 20 percent return on investment. The third component of marketing concept is a system orientation. A system is an organized whole – or a group of diverse units that form an integrated whole-functioning or operating in union. It is one thing for a firm to say it is consumer-oriented and another actually to be consumer-oriented. System must be established first to find out what consumers want and to identify market opportunities. Identifying a target market’s needs and market opportunities are the tasks of marketing research. Without feedback from the marketplace, a firm is not truly consumer oriented. Marketing research is the planning, collection, and analysis of data relevant to marketing decision making and the communication of the results of this analysis to management. After identifying the target market, a marketing mix has to be created. A marketing mix is the unique blend of product/service, price, promotion, and distribution strategies designed to reach a specific target market. 

Putting this entire marketing concept together and properly executed by organizations, you can say that market-driven organizations are customer oriented, understanding the relationship between strategy and performance, and stress ethical market behavior, and it must be consistent with the organization’s strategic vision and mission statement, any deviation from these fundamental business practices then the organization is a failure in business and a mistrust to the customers, the public, and society in general. Market Trust is all about brand or reputation. It is about the feeling you have that makes you buy products or service or invest your money or time-and/or recommend such actions to others. This is the level where most people clearly see the relationship between trust and cost.

Ethical Marketing: Ethics and Trust are valuable aspects in life for every human, society and organizations, and they are responsibilities. For instance, ethical responsibilities of an organization including the management are to follow the general held beliefs about behavior in the society.

Economic: responsibilities of a business organization’s management are to produce goods and services of value to society so that the firm may repay its creditors and shareholders.

Legal: responsibilities are defined by governments in laws that management is expected to obey. For example, U.S. business firms are required to hire and promote people based on their credential rather than to discriminate on non-job related characteristics such as race, gender, or religion. (That’s why cases of discrimination in workplaces are highly handled by law in the U.S). Most successful firms adhere to these laws, but others neglect the law, and pay the price for it in court through lawsuits to deter them from discriminating in workplaces. 

In conclusion, one way to monitor business performances with good leadership for successful business operations is to conduct what is known as strategic audit, mainly for corporation, and can also be used to monitor other entities. The Strategic Audit provides a checklist of questions, by area or issue that enables a systematic analysis to be made of various corporate functions and activities. Evaluate current performances results in terms of (a) return on investment, profitability, and so forth, and (b) the current mission, objective, strategies, and policies. Review corporate governance – that is, the performance of the firm’s board of directories and top management. Scan and assess the external environment to determine the strategic factors that pose Opportunities and Threats. Scan and assess the internal corporate environment to determine the strategic factors that are strengths (especially core competencies) and Weaknesses. Analyze strategic (SWOT) factors to (a) pinpoint problem areas and (b) review and revise the corporate mission and objective, as necessary. Generate, evaluate, and select the best alternative strategy in light of the analysis of performance. Implement selected strategies via programs, budgets, and procedures. Evaluate implemented strategies via feedback systems and the control of activities to ensure their minimum deviation from plans. In addition to the above checklist if the firm, or organizations has an effective board of directors, who are honest, dedicated to their work, and believe in Ethics Theory; says “Do the right thing” (character) and “Get the right thing done” (competence), and as well as decision making which approach focuses on balancing the “heart” (character) with the “head” (competence), the firm, or organizations or business will survive, because of the role of the  Board in Strategic Management, which is to carry out three basic tasks.

Monitor: By acting through its committees, a board can keep abreast of developments inside and out the corporation, bringing to management’s attention developments it might have overlooked. A board should at least carry out this task.Evaluate and influence: A board can examine management’s proposal, decision, and action; agree or disagree with them; give advice and offer suggestions; and out line alternatives. More active boards perform this task in addition to monitoring.Initiate and determine: A board can delineate a corporation’s mission and specify strategic options to its management. Only the most active boards take on this task in addition to the two previous ones. 

If there is a problem of mistrust and ethics in the business, organization, and even in government and society in general and worldwide, and solving the problem is based on the immediate cause, and not based on the underlining cause  the business, or organization, and even in government is a failure. We are seeing these happenings today not only in businesses, but also in government, and society worldwide.  

Ethics and Trust are the most common things to every organization, individual, family, relationship, government, society, and economy worldwide, if ethics and trust are lacking in any of these relationships, there is a failure, and in some situations a disaster. But if there is confidence of trust and ethics, the relationship would be successful, be it in business, love, family, government you can name it.

Problem Solving: To solve any problem, not only ethics and trust, you should look at the underling cause, not the immediate cause. Look for the Cause of Action. (Why this happened?) In law, a cause of action is a matter for which an action may be brought. The ground on which an action may be sustained. The right to bring a suit. The cause of Action can be used to solve any situations and/or circumstance to solve a problem if it has sufficient evidence to support that fact. For example, if the your business failed, and the cause of the failure was due to the managing director as incompetent in managing the business, fire him/her to help correct the situation and hire a competent managing director.