HONESTY
The soul of a business
Anoji de Silva
A Dutch proverb states that honesty is the soul of a business. In line with this sentiment, Anoji de Silva expresses her belief that “honesty and integrity in business dealings are core values.”
She explains: “They are the values that guide you in doing what is right, thereby building a reputation of trustworthiness for your business and long-term relationships, which are important to scale and grow business in an ethical manner.”
“When you build a reputation for being honest, you also attract investors, buyers and even employees who share these values,” she adds. A company with a reputation for dishonesty will fall as fast as it rises – a phenomenon that has been witnessed both globally and here in Sri Lanka.
De Silva believes that honesty is more important when companies are doing well financially as there is more scrutiny and focus on them.
She says: “You also become a company that others look up to. The reputational risk for a business doing well is much higher than for others. Allegations of dishonesty will undermine your ability to attract ethical investors and customers, and even ethical employees.”
Over the last decade or so, Sri Lanka seems to have built a culture of dishonesty and it is considered more the norm than an exception, she notes. Therefore, it’s very hard for honest companies to continue to grow and scale up in this country.
“This is a sad situation. During the 26 year civil war, the private sector kept the country going. At that time, we did not see such cutthroat behaviour; but following the end of the war, many businesses did well financially and a culture of greed took over,” she asserts.
De Silva adds that “in dishonest organisations, it is the senior management that engages in such behaviour. Over the course of several investigations with evidence of dishonest dealings, these people tend to get away due to our extremely poor legal environment.”
“In Sri Lanka, when a company comes across a dishonest person in senior management, he or she is usually offered a generous package to leave quietly as it doesn’t want the corporate world to know about the situation,” she states.
She continues: “However, this leads to the same person joining another company and engaging in the same behaviour. This is how the virus spreads. By not naming and shaming dishonest senior management, we do more harm than good.”
Commenting on intellectual property (IP) rights in the country, de Silva says that Sri Lanka can improve much more as it is presently ranked 71st of 129 countries globally, and 14th of 19 countries in the Asia Oceania region, in the International Property Rights Index (IPRI).
With regard to the perception of IP protection, its score was less than five on a scale of 10.
She avers that “we need a lot more education in this area, and a more efficient and effective system to register IP rights in Sri Lanka.”
As for de Silva’s wish list for Sri Lanka, she hopes that “a conducive environment whereby ethical businesses have access to legal recourse – including an independent and ethical judiciary free from political interference – will unfold.”
Furthermore, she recommends that regulators take strict action against dishonest companies and prevent any senior official who is found guilty of dishonest behaviour from joining organisations in similar industries.
De Silva maintains that “Sri Lanka needs civic-minded judges and lawyers. The aragalaya saw judges and lawyers stepping up to protect the legal rights of the citizens of this country. An organisation is a corporate citizen too. If we don’t protect the legal rights of our corporate citizens with the support of ethical judges, lawyers and judicial systems, there is no point in tightening regulations.”
