Paul Myers, president, World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO), believes ethics is the fulcrum of all business practices.

At a time when the global economy is in a state of flux and the role of leadership is changing, Paul Myers feels that ethics is absolutely essential in business practices. As president of World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) — the global representative body of more than 350 organisations with a commitment towards offering a fair deal to marginalised producers — he should know.

Referring to the crisis around us, he says, it is because of lack of ethics that we are in this kind of a situation today. What concerns Myers is the depletion mentality, where one takes something but doesn’t feel obliged to replace anything. There has to be a balance somewhere, he points out.

The need of the time, Myers feels, is to incorporate ethics in a major way into the management education curriculum. He recalls, “I spoke to a good friend of mine a few years ago. At that point, I was importing and selling handicrafts. I asked him, what was the key point that I needed to make sure that people in the organisation understood? He promptly said that it was business ethics.” But with profitability the only target, it’s becoming harder and harder to follow the maxim. Myers points out that the time has come when the price should reflect the real cost.

As to whether ethics and profitability go hand in hand, Myers says that there is tension, but a healthy tension. Practically speaking, he says, a business can’t survive without profit and there’s nothing wrong with profit. But it becomes a problem when it is excess profit or when profit is the only goal. So there are two issues. First, is it excess profit? And secondly, what is one doing with all that profit? Profit can certainly be a good thing, he says, if one uses it to help solve the social needs of one’s community.

Considering the recession, one thing that educators across the globe can instil in their students is a sense of balance, of moderation. That doesn’t mean being conservative and cautious, explains Myers, but understanding something very basic — if you spend more than what you have, you will be in trouble.

For future management students and entrepreneurs, Myers has a message. “The critical ingredient in any institution or organisation is people. And you have to treat them as your most valuable resource,” he says. Also, he adds, an entrepreneur shouldn’t be afraid of taking a risk, and learn to treat one’s personal integrity as the most valuable capital.

Myers was in Delhi to announce the National level World Fair Trade Day celebrations.