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Lahore - Can you remain ethical when a devious rival is promoted ahead of you? Can you stay civil when a cursing driver cuts you off the road? Modern life means constant competition. We struggle at school for grades and admissions, battle at work for markets and money, and everywhere strive for status and recognition. In this pressure-cooker environment, obsessed by out-of-reach goals and hemmed in by potential adversaries, how can we expect high moral values, let alone courteous behavior, to survive? Is it even realistic to expect ethics to play a key role in everything we do? The deterioration of morals and the erosion of respect in the contemporary urban world impoverish us all. But can we fairly place the blame only on the frantic pace and ferocity of our day-to-day existence?

TKFR assembled a few experts from our industry to talk about ethics. We asked them a fairly simple question - Do we really need ethics in our business? Or is the issue even relevant? Especially when the spot light is on us to behave ethically collectively as an industry? We are all familiar with the work National Labor Committee (NLC) continues to do by highlighting sweatshop conditions in Asia and South America by keeping up the pressure and taking on large corporate Giants of our industry like Kohl's more recently to Wal-Mart, Nike and Gap in the past by staging more store protests and by leasing billboards to illustrate the economic disparity between their executives and their vendor's workers. They are best known for their campaign against U.S. entertainer Kathie Lee Gifford and Wal-Mart four years ago, NLC has also taken on casual apparel retailer Gap Inc., and athletic shoemaker Nike Inc. Kohl's corporation is their most recent target. Vendors are feeling the heat too, especially since the pressure is on them to comply ethically with the international standard terms of engagement if they want to continue working with their long time customers like Nike, Gap, Levi's…

Omar Dar (Merchandising Manager at Klass Textiles) feels "it's a good thing if it's implemented in the true spirit. A lot of progress has been made already - things were never bad to begin with but it wasn't a priority in the past. I think it started back in 1993. Levi's was the first customer who started paying attention to the Terms of engagement (TOE) issues. I guess because the spotlight was on them to behave more ethically by the US media. Things have improved considerably since more attention is now being paid to the workers issues. The TOE movement should have started from inside, not through external pressure. However, the fact is, ultimately the workers are benefiting no matter where the pressure is coming from. They are getting cold water to drink in the summer heat, they have better working conditions and pay benefits, they are getting medical attention on the spot and safer working environment to work in. On ground these things have improved. There is a need to bring it to a minimally acceptable level by the whole industry."

"I know in the perfect world, everyone would behave ethically, however, in the real world if it's a clash between ethics and the bottom line, most people would choose the bottom line - money," asserts Omar. "It would not even be a second priority. It usually comes last in most people's list of priorities. I am not saying money is the most important issue. Ethics do play a role too and given a chance most people would like to behave ethically. However, on a scale, I would give ethics thirty percent - money would win each time if it ever comes to a choice between the two. After all, we are running a business, not a charity and earning profit is the name of the game. It's a judgment call. Every situation is unique and brings it's own sets of solutions. Sometimes it's a question of ethics and sometimes, it's a question of money. Personally I go for the minimum cost factor (in cases of money versus ethics)."

Moiz Farooq (Marketing manager at Ammar Textiles) does not agree with this view. " Ethics is necessary. It's a way of life. It's not a commodity. Either you are ethical or you are not. Lapses do occur. However, as long as you achieve an acceptable level of professional, legal and ethical behavior in daily operations consistently, you are ethical. For example, I think Levi's is an ethical company. It's not mere lip service. They mean it and it shows. They do not work in Middle East precisely because of clear violations in international TOE. If you want to earn money, taking the ethical way is more profitable in the long run. We sincerely believe that at Ammar. Our mission statement is all about ethics - integrity, continuous learning, leadership, teamwork and social responsibility. I personally and professionally believe in behaving ethically. I don't need to convince or justify this attitude…it's our corporate direction and it's crystal clear. It's also our short term and long-term strategy in crisis management. It pays to be ethical. No body is perfect. But as a policy, ethics play a key role in our systems and labor management policies. Intensive education at all levels gives us strength to implement our mission statement in routine matters and daily operations. I can't stress enough ethics starts from the top."

TKFR was also curious to know if ethics play any role in crisis management and in communicating bad news to the customer? The responses we got were quite mixed.

Camille Pearson-Walz (Room and Board) is not a stranger to Pakistan. Through out her diverse career, (she used to be a product manager for Munsingwear's Golf lines - Grand Slam® and Munsingwear®, before the brands were acquired by Supreme International - she has been a leather accessory buyer & manufacturing specialist for men's & ladies leather outerwear, and before that she used to buy leather apparel, now she buys furniture), one thing has remained constant, the rules of buying have not changed. "In the business that I am in now (furniture) - HONESTY - INTEGRITY - TRUST are key to a solid partnership", says Camille. " I work for a unique company that truly values the vendor. I work with my vendors' daily and in partnership along side with our merchandising team to make sure we are communicating and understanding clearly what the bottom line is. I rarely need to ask for a discount. I have never asked for freight to be prepaid due to a delay…charge backs are rare and because of this we are not cheated or overcharged on the real cost for developing and producing new lines."

" Sometimes, it's difficult to be honest with the customer and their local agents," says Omar. "Nobody wants to hear bad news, especially the buyer's agents. They are not very receptive - the normal reaction is to shoot the messenger. The customer's people are not very technically sound and do not understand the manufacturing issues. It makes it tough to communicate bad news and stay honest. Sometimes, the agents do not provide vital pieces of information received from the customer that could help improve the situation. Communication plays a very important role in developing customer/vendor relationship. Timing is also an issue. It's not only 'how' you communicate the bad news, 'when' is also important. It also depends on the working relationship with that customer. It' more of a judgment call - there is a certain degree of manipulation involved since customer's agents need to be handled with the care and tact when communicating bad news. It's never certain if the complete story is actually communicated to the customer or truth gets bent out of shape in the telling by the agent so it's a very sensitive issue and needs to be handled with extreme care."

Camille, on the other hand, is not unsympathetic to the manufacturer's issues, however, she feels the bottom line is achieving effective results and it can only be achieved if communications between customer and vendor are handled more honestly - " Buyer's (if their company will allow the time & $$$) need more education as to what goes into manufacturing: finding workers, competition, engineering, supply problems from fabric & print sources. This needs to be done up front so a buyer understands the expectations of each resource. Buyers usually don't want to hear excuses. They want what the vendor 'promised' up front. Buyers need vendors to provide realistic costing and delivery date information up front and then be as proactive as possible to advise delays so they can realign promotions/ advertising. The buyer pays their agents to

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