In the age of modern
communications, lighting fast news, social media and exposure to world events,
an ethical company image is vital.
This article recommends several key actions in the small business contracting venue that
you can take to favorably maintain your company ethics image.
SERIOUSLY AVOID ORGANIZATION
CONFLICT OF INTEREST (OCI)
OCI can lay waste to the best
planned marketing strategies. Careful screening of new hires, procurement types
and the business environment is necessary to preclude wasted time, expense and
legal implications in the event such conflicts occur.
OCI clauses in solicitations and contracts require that
companies certify their organizations and personnel as not having a procurement
integrity issue with regard to a pending contract award or disclose what may be
deemed an issue and provide mitigating factors to still be considered. For more on this matter please see the
following article:
UNDERSTAND
DEFECTIVE PRICING (DP)
A
reputation for defective pricing leads to accusations of waste fraud and abuse
in government contracting. DP is mostly
about what a contractor knew regarding company prices at the time a bid was
submitted and what the contractor did not disclose in the supporting data regarding the
likely cost outcome of the contract.
Actions
taken by the government and litigation resulting from defective pricing become
part of the contractor past performance record and must be disclosed during
competition for other programs. Read more about defective pricing at:
USE PROTESTS SPARINGLY
There are occasions when protests
are warranted. However, in recent years
they have become a culture within federal contracting and a costly disruption
to procurement.
Reduce the likelihood of a protest
being filed against your winning proposal effort at award by carefully
scrutinizing conflict of interest, ethics and small business qualification
credentials. Do not maintain you are what you are not. You will be audited and
discovered.
Do not develop a reputation within
the contracting community for filing protests.
It may work against you indirectly during source selection and directly
in terms of companies not wishing to team with you. No one likes a sore loser.
COMPLY WITH NON-DISCLOSURE
AND TEAMING COMMITMENTS
Companies seek industry partners
who know the rules and who keep their commitments.
In addition to technical,
management and product synergism, astute and valuable teaming partners respect
and understand your intellectual property rights. They expect the same knowledge
and respect from you.
Negotiate thorough and well
understood non-disclosure agreements and teaming arrangements. Perform in accordance with your obligations;
your reputation for doing so will follow your small business.
CONDUCT EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER
RELATIONS AND SURVEYS
Stay attuned to your customer's
perception of your business. Insure your
top management visits and stays in contact with your most important customers, accompanied by your project managers and marketing personnel.
Process a survey to your key
clients requesting feedback and constructive suggestions. Review your past performance data base
information regularly and take corrective action where you have been rated low
or received negative marks. Demonstrate
improvement and broadcast the achievement to the functional heads of the agencies
you serve. Please see the below articles
for more details in this vital area:
PRACTICE CORPORATE
SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY (CSR)
Your management and employees are
your emissaries to the public. Convey
your behavioral expectations and, to the extent you can budget for them,
encourage participation in community charitable events to increase
company visibility.
If you can technically support
social services organizations, do so and seek contracts where your technical
expertise may be brought to bear on their challenges. You company will be
recognized for it.
CONTROL PRESS RELEASES
AND SOCIAL NETWORKING
Establish policies and focal point
control for review and approval of announcements on the Internet of a public relations
nature. Never release a press announcement
regarding a contract award until you have signed the deal.
Insure employees in the social
networking, marketing/sales and customer relations venue understand the line
between regular communications in their jobs and making an enterprise business commitment or formal announcement. Errors in this area are hard to retrieve.
CONDUCT ETHICS TRAINING
Company ethics go beyond decrees to
personnel regarding professional conduct and honest business practices. Business ethics must be tailored to the
company service or product venue, relationships with clients, industry partners
and suppliers.
Training in company ethics is vital. It is a form of
communication. It is not an academic pursuit, although elements of it may
include learning new information. Still, it is not schooling in the sense of
personal improvement as much as it is communication of company policy and
expectations on the topics discussed here and others like them.
The best organizations make sure everyone from the chairman of the board to the
janitor understands that training is a privilege, a right and a requirement and
that it will be conducted as a matter of record for everyone.
Some training will be global, such as policy, corporate ethics and human
relations. Other training will be specialized, such as changes in law, company
policy or technology implications by functional areas.
Training must be sophisticated, interactive, and responsive to changing times
and contain feedback mechanisms to gauge effectiveness.
SUMMARY
A small business ethics image is
different than a product or service "Brand Identity". The latter
focuses on that which the customer receives from you in the way of products
and/or services.
A company ethics image is how the
organization is viewed in general from a public perception as positive or
negative. That view is held by
customers, your industry partners or prospective partners, regulators and the
average citizen.
If carefully sculpted your public
ethics image can be a vital element in business success; if neglected it can
pose a high risk to your enterprise.