Doing business

The ways of doing business in developed and under-developed countries may be different depending on the transparency and the bureaucracy. Extra care must be taken when deal with the local government and also the business counterpart especially in the countries where corruption is rife and bribe paying is the norms. It is not something new that some huge multinational companies paid bribes to officials and local agents to win multimillion contracts through non-transparent tenders and under-table transactions. The more shocking things are that many of the companies are well-known ethical companies with proper internal controls, anti-bribery compliance programs and zero tolerance policies towards corruption. The existence of the policies and rules seems insufficient to deter companies from engaging in corrupt practices. Normally, such companies abhor corruption to certain extant, but in pursing of more profit and stresses from both management board and shareholders, there is a tendency that the companies eventually succumb to the “request” on the rationalization that "everybody is doing it", including their competitors. To stay competitive, they have no choice but capitulate to the inappropriate and unlawful requests. People that involved would devise ways to circumvent their own controls, by disguising corrupt transactions, for example, using a shell company in tax heaven to route the payment quietly.

The problem itself is a pitfall for all companies that are doing business local or overseas. If everything is under control, the under-table transactions would be like a stone that sank into the sea without creating any ripple; all the parties enjoy the benefits obtained and in future, the same collaboration could be continued since they now know the ways to get the works done. However, if there is a leakage of confidential information, the impacts would be enormous. All parties involved in the transactions would be charged and the reputation of those involved would be severely tainted. It doesn’t worth as time is needed to rebuild the company that suffered severe reputational damage in any industry.

Hopefully, what happened recently would serve as a cautionary lesson and for the companies affected, in addition to all the preventive measures and programs, they must go the extra mile in countering this problem and make ethics part of their DNA.

(368 Words)