The Ethical Executive

How do unethical business decisions happen? A friend of mine Dr. Robert Hoyk, along with his co-author Paul Hersey have written a book to help business executives and everyone else make ethical business decisions when under pressure. The Ethical Executive describes 45 traps that people can fall into that can lead to making the wrong decision. The work of these two authors show that even if we have good ethical values to begin with we can all get into a situation where the unethical choice can seem like the appropriate choice. I've had a chance to read some excerpts of this book and it is fascinating to see how the slow progression into unethical behavior happens as our beliefs and attitudes morph so that what once seemed very wrong seems more acceptable. The book comes out this fall from Stanford University Press and I think it's a good read for anyone and perhaps especially those interested in authentic luxury. Authentic luxury is often about making the ethical choice and this book focuses on that issues.