'Ethics', is a kaliedoscope of multiple inputs.

What is ethics vary from person to person, culture to culture. There is no specific common ethical system across humans, even if it looks as if there is a common ethical system outwardly. The interpretations vary. Hence one cannot judge another on a ethical scale. One can only say if a person is flexible or adamant. Even that at times becomes function of circumstances.

Hence, businesses can be defined as legal or illegal. They cannot be bound by ethics, which is ether like and undefined. Most of the business practices, which we term un-ethical could be illegal or could hurt the cause of business itself and not be sustainable, which is a negative feedback mechanism that exists in nature.

After all, business is simply a way of serving the society. Serving the society is the only way in which we can make our living, as humans have a societal system like bees, ants and other primitive societal beings.

In other words business is a way of living. In today's world business allows people to accumulate wealth from the society, encouraging more people to serve the society. The in-equal distribution of wealth is a good negative feedback mechanism forcing people to innovate and do business.

Businesses often violate laws in big and small ways, hurt interests of competition in what is deemed to be fair and unfair practices at different points of time. Such violations and practices are not good for businesses to grow and sustain in the long run. Though at one point unfair practices may look like yielding good business results, it makes the business unsustainable in the long run.

Hence when one does business, ethics is not what is needed to keep in mind. One has to keep the cause of business and its sustainability in mind. It is true that an imperfect human mind cannot be made to think of sustainability at every point. Human mind is capable of self-destruction.

Hence there needs to be some kind of regulation to ensure that businesses are sustainable and growing.

But that, I would say, has nothing to do with business ethics.

-TBT