Public scandals, such as Enron, Societe Generale and Global Crossing, the sub-prime mortgage problem, and the ensuing global credit crunch have led to dwindling confidence in the business world. A study published in the International Journal of Business Excellence suggests that relearning the ancient notion of virtue could create better harmony between business and society.
Businesses that excel in the services and products they offer their customers are usually the ones that succeed and post a healthy profit for their shareholders, but Alistair Anderson of the Aberdeen Business School at The Robert Gordon University, Aberdeen, and Carter Crockett of the Department of Economics & Business at Westmont College in Santa Barbara suggest that conventional models of excellence are too narrow and too functional for today's global economy.
A new approach based on the ancient principle of virtue, dating back to Aristotle, could, they say, allow underachieving businesses to excel without moral compromise.