We grew up with the stories in
which “right” fought with “wrong” and triumphed at the end. Our stories had
evils torturing people and angels rising to finish the evil to restore peace.
Our films had a villain who did bad things but our hero would set things right.
That’s how all our stories were… and that’s what they are…stories. As we grew
up and understood the reality behind the myth of tooth fairy, Santa Clause,
rabbit on the moon, one more myth was busted wide open. Myth of right &
wrong; we were told to speak truth and never lie. But no one told us about this
third animal-“perspective”. Now our movies no longer have hero and villains.
Stories are not Ramayana but Game of Thrones. No battle is fought with good and
bad on two sides of the line. No battle ends with clear win. You don’t know
which side to take, what you can take is only perspective. As we grew up, world
was no longer white and black. It is colorful indeed, but all colors emerge and
submerge into only one single shade- Shade of grey.
We have known this all along.
Much has been written and said about this “grey shade”, then why this epiphany
today? Lets just say today I
decided to wonder on the most philosophical yet practical question- what are we
doing to our world? And most importantly, what the hell am I doing with my
life?
So we study about ethics and
morals in management classes and it is expected from us to save the world from
future Enrons and Satyams. But the moment we enter in this corporate world,
these ethics are redefined, rewritten and presented before us under the grey
cover. I guess Marketers have now successfully earned the crown, of “most hated
& criticized” species. They say we sell lies and broken hopes, we
manipulate people for our business. We marketers (not sure if I am proud to include
myself in that “we”) claim that everything is fair in the business. We don’t
hold people at gunpoint and ask them to buy, people need these products and we
give them. This is how business works, this is how economy works and we all are
part of it. We tell boys that they need some awesome deodorant to win hearts. Everyday
we uncover some new insecurity of women & offer them “solutions”; Our
products make them strong & independent women of today and not their own
will and talent. We sponsor biased clinical research, play with legal loopholes
and launch the products which will cause more harm than good but we promote
them playing on your emotions. But what do you do? You discuss these cheap
tricks under the fancy name of “insights”, effective communication strategies
and positioning. You praise us, applaud us, make case studies out of us, and
buy our products. And the moment you feel cheated you blame us.
And why am I taking the side of
these “marketers”? Because I am about to become one of them; because our companies
swear by “their top and bottom lines” that they are concerned about society and
they follow ethical practices. But my question here is whose ethics? How do you
really define these ethics? You paint it in capitalists’ colors and you really
can’t show any black or white here. At the end of the day you find yourself
standing in that grey area. But as a management student being exposed to ethics
and values day in day out, as a youth with aspiring dreams to make this world a
better place, do I really want to stand in this grey area? Or most importantly,
do I really have an option?
The debate over ethics is never
ending. But I am sure there are many souls like me who are chasing their
corporate dreams and are struggling to get the right perspective, struggling to
decide at which side of the line they want to stand. For all those who advise
the souls like us not to think too much or not to get into corporate world at
all; well, avoiding the conflict or running away from it is definitely not an
answer. This is one color, which is so integrated with every aspect of our lives,
there is really no getting away from it.
Till the time I find my rationale,
logical, universal code of values to follow and find my line of ethics, I claim
in the words used by the author of Virtue of Selfishness:
“ I refuse to be wholly good and
please do not regard me as complete evil.”
