Is there such a thing as an honest business?

Getting a 3/4 mug of coffee when I paid for a mug, less than a scoop of ice cream when I ask for a scoop, charged a full minute by the phone company when I only spoke for 30 seconds. Getting shortchanged is a fact of life. My colleague complains about how some pubs take half a jug of beer, top it up with tap water and sell it for the price of a full jug. My Australian associate complains about getting ripped off by taxis. Me – I try not to sweat the small stuff unless its hundreds or thousands of dollars we’re talking about.

Consulting companies have their creative ways too. I’ve seen outrageous expense claims (called out-of-pocket expenses) charged to clients including a purchase of a bottle of whiskey disguised as a taxi claim. Consultants routinely claim phone calls, meals and taxi fares against project budgets. Some are reasonable. Some make you see stars.

Some consultants blame expense padding on the extra work caused by project scope deviations. Yes scopes can deviate but it could also point to a more deep seated problem. When a client engages you to build a house and halfway through starts asking you to build extra rooms and toilets, one has to ask – is it because they like changing their minds or because you never really understood what they wanted in the first place.

When consultants suffer from the ‘promise first think later’ disease, they can be forced into dishonesty to recoup losses. In the end they’re not much different from the pubs that sell diluted beer.

IMO when we are careless in doing business, honesty is often the first casualty. We then grow to become “shrewd” businessmen. I know its never easy when survival is at stake but it begs the question – if you owned a business, how far would you allow ethics to be sacrificed before it becomes unacceptable? Is it naive to run a business on honest principles and expect to stay afloat at a time when people would easily sell out their principles for money? Is there such a thing as a middle path?