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Article by Greg Schmidt

If you really think about it, there are only 2 groups of people that earn money in the world. We’re simply talking about entrepreneurs vs employees. Now I understand that employees and entrepreneurs are both needed to make our economy strong. But here’s some observations I have noticed in the last few years.

Let’s look at some very interesting characteristics between the two.

Entrepreneurs vs. Employees

1. Entrepreneurs will chase their passion and their goals! They know exactly what they want to do in life! They will stop at nothing to achieve their passion and their goals. The employee has little passion and little drive to achieve their goals. They may have dreams, but often will side with the “nay sayers” that tell them they’re “crazy” to start their own business!

2. Entrepreneurs will set their own financial thermostat! The self employed know exactly what they should be getting paid and will pay themselves first! If they want to make a million dollars, they will do it! Employees have to settle for what their boss thinks their worth. Ask any employee if they are getting paid what their worth. You won’t get too many that say they are. How many employees do you know that are millionaires?

3. Entrepreneurs are already “at the top”! There’s no one else calling the shots but the self employed person! Employees are “climbing” and “scratching” their way up the corporate ladder. Very, very few will ever make it.

4. Entrepreneurs do something that is rewarding! We usually see the self employed doing something good in the community by making positive impact on others. Employees will usually take what they get even if it’s something they don’t want to do. The only thing that may be rewarding to them is the company Christmas party! Yeah!

5. Entrepreneurs get to spend more time with loves ones like family! Since they are in charge they set the time for family. Employees have to wait for that little window between dinner and bed time and weekends to spend time with the ones they want to. Right now, many employees are spending more time with their co-workers!

6. Entrepreneurs take risk! This is a really good thing, because without some risk, there is no movement in business and in life. Yes risk can go both ways. The entrepreneur knows that risk is a MUST for success. Employees think this is just another “4 letter word” and creates discomfort within themselves. This allows the employee to have the “play it safe” and the “fear of loss” mentality.

7. Entrepreneurs make rules! Like I said, they’re in charge. They set rules, hours, and their own schedule. Employees follow rules. They are told what to do, when to do it, and how to do it by their employer.

8 Entrepreneurs make themselves better! They help people change the world. They will discover new things about themselves in their entrepreneurial journeys. Every entrepreneur has something to give to society and the economy to make it better. Employees tend to look out for themselves and never learn or discover new things about themselves.

9. Entrepreneurs challenge the status quo! They know in order to become very prosperous they must do things that most other people aren’t willing to do. This is why most people think people who start their own business are crazy! Employees will follow everyone else. They will “go with the flow”, even if the “flow” is headed for a cliff!

10. Entrepreneurs ALWAYS have a reason WHY they do what they do! Ask anyone that is self employed. They know their reason WHY. Why is built on emotion and passion. WHY is an idea! This is where the entrepreneur gets his/her inspiration! Employees will only know WHAT they do and HOW they do it. Rarely will you find an employee that has a REAL reason WHY they do what they do!

Now it may seem I am “bashing” the employee a little bit. My goal is not to put anyone down. I have just been on both sides of this being an employee and an entrepreneur. These are simply realizations that have been brought to my attention once I really thought about the differences between entrepreneurs and employees.

These differences have definitely opened my eyes to new things and new discoveries that have been very fulfilling to my life!

What about you?

Thankful to serve you,

Greg Schmidt

About the Author

Greg Schmidt is an internet marketing entrepreneur who has discovered that anyone can make the money they want to! Over 18 months ago, Greg realized that a 6 and even a 7 figure income can be attained by anyone regardless of skill set. Read the report by logging in at http://www.AtHomeWealthCreation.com/?t=GoArtEntvsEmp

Article by Ismael D. Tabije

Business ethics is a form of applied ethics that examines just rules and principles within a commercial context; the various moral or ethical problems that can arise in a business setting; and any special duties or obligations that apply to persons who are engaged in commerce. Generally speaking, business ethics is a normative discipline, whereby particular ethical standards are advocated and then applied.

It makes specific judgments about what is right or wrong, which is to say, it makes claims about what ought to be done or what ought not to be done. While there are some exceptions, business ethicists are usually less concerned with the foundations of ethics (meta-ethics), or with justifying the most basic ethical principles, and are more concerned with practical problems and applications, and any specific duties that might apply to business relationships.

Business ethics can be examined from various perspectives, including the perspective of the employee, the commercial enterprise, and society as a whole. Very often, situations arise in which there is conflict between one and more of the parties, such that serving the interest of one party is a detriment to the other(s). For example, a particular outcome might be good for the employee, whereas, it would be bad for the company, society, or vice versa. Some ethicists see the principal role of ethics as the harmonization and reconciliation of conflicting interests.

Ethical issues can arise when companies must comply with multiple and sometimes conflicting legal or cultural standards, as in the case of multinational companies that operate in countries with varying practices. The question arises, for example, ought a company obey the laws of its home country, or should it follow the less stringent laws of the developing country in which it does business?

To illustrate, United States law forbids companies from paying bribes either domestically or overseas; however, in other parts of the world, bribery is a customary, “accepted” way of doing business. Similar problems can occur with regard to child labor, employee safety, work hours, wages, discrimination, and environmental protection laws.

Business ethics should be distinguished from the philosophy of business, the branch of philosophy that deals with the philosophical, political, and ethical underpinnings of business and economics. Business ethics operates on the premise, for example, that the ethical operation of a private business is possible — those who dispute that premise, such as libertarian socialists, (who contend that “business ethics” is an oxymoron) do so by definition outside of the domain of business ethics proper.

The philosophy of business also deals with questions such as what, if any, are the social responsibilities of a business; business management theory; theories of individualism vs. collectivism; free will among participants in the marketplace; the role of self interest; invisible hand theories; the requirements of social justice; and natural rights, especially property rights, in relation to the business enterprise.

Business ethics is also related to political economy, which is economic analysis from political and historical perspectives. Political economy deals with the distributive consequences of economic actions. It asks who gains and who loses from economic activity, and is the resultant distribution fair or just, which are central ethical issues.

About the Author

Ismael D. Tabije is the Publisher-Editor of http://www.BestManagementArticles.com, a unique niche-topic article directory that features exclusively business and management topics. For a large dose of business ethics and social responsibility tips, ideas and strategies, see http://business-ethics.bestmanagementarticles.com.

More Business Ethics Articles

Most organizations conduct employee surveys of various types either annually, every two years or sporadically. Some organizations use the data from the employee survey to affect real change that contributes to their ongoing success. There are organizations who like to focus on comparing their survey scores to the scores of other organizations and there are the organizations that do little with their survey results. The focus of this article is to discuss the middle group: those organizations that like to focus on and compare their employee survey scores against the average scores of all the organizations that are in a third party database.

Many surveying companies sell their services on the basis that they will be able to compare the scores of the one company against the average score of all of the organizations in their database. Comparing yourself to someone else is enticing. We have been exposed to comparative data from the first day we stepped inside a school. Throughout our primary and secondary education we were compared to the rest and typically this comparison was against the “class average”. We knew who the smartest and the dumbest kids were but it was the average that counted. Was I above or below the class average? That was important in terms of dealing with our own self esteem and dealing with our parents. This was not the case for all students. The parents of some students demanded top marks and that is exactly what those few students worked towards. They had to be the best. They had to have the top marks.

This was all very interesting but in the end it was irrelevant. When it came time to apply to university a new standard had to be reached. University entrance requirements varied but one thing was clear. Average marks were not good enough. In fact being above average in many instances was not good enough. University entrance requirements were demanding and one had to strive for a new and much higher standard than “average”. The profile or status of a university that you were interested in attending, determined the level of academic excellence you had to achieve.

It is puzzling to see how many organizations fall into the trap of placing a great deal of emphasis on comparing their surveys scores to a database that represents the average of a number of companies. These comparisons are sought not only for the overall scores of the employee survey, but for every question in the survey.

It would appear that a fundamental question needs to be asked by every organization-why are we conducting an employee survey in the first place and what are we going to do with the results.

From a strategic perspective it would seem reasonable to think that an organization would wish at the very least, to demonstrate that the survey is helping the organization to achieve their strategic goals. In other words, they are conducting the employee survey as a way of obtaining employee information that can be used to improve for example, workplace practices in order to lift their employees’ working experience. In turn this will lift the customer experience and profits.

However, if this or some other strategic purpose is not being fulfilled by the employee survey than the value of conducting the survey is questionable. One could argue that comparing oneself to other organizations is in fact a legitimate strategic objective. It is worth knowing how you compare to the best. How does your stock performance compare to the best in your business sector-not the average of all the companies in your business sector but only the best? How do your employee survey scores compare to the best in your business sector-not the average of all the businesses in the database but only the best?

Comparing oneself to the very best is legitimate especially if the best sets a benchmark that you adopt as your own. But to compare oneself to the average serves no useful purpose. If a senior management group knows that their scores are better than the average of all the companies in a database, strategically of what use is this information. Perhaps it may give them a sense of pride knowing that they are better than the average. But it may also lull them into a false sense of confidence. The question that should be top of mind is “are we really as good as we can be and are we really achieving a level of excellence that will sustain us over the long term.”

For example, employee turnover in the retail sector is fairly high. Most retailers take it for granted. Entec Corporation has been working with Gap Inc. Canada for several years. Gap offers excellent training programs especially for their associate managers and store managers. In 1999, Gap was routinely being raided by other retailers and their annual turnover rate for store managers was 39% and for associate managers it was 48%. This was costing Gap hundreds of thousands of dollars each year in recruiting and training. With over 200 stores and 10,000 employees across Canada, these costs were unacceptable. Entec Corporation was engaged by Gap to conduct an Organizational Health Survey. Gap acted upon the recommendations in the survey and was able to reduce manager turnover rates to 13% in one year.

But these lower turnover rates were accompanied by real business gains. For example, secret shopper scores increased by 5% after only eight months and sales in Canada over the last few years have improved to a level where the Canadian operation moved from being about in the middle to becoming one of the most profitable divisions in the world. The survey results were linked directly to the bottom line.

If Gap accepted “the trap of comparing themselves to the average” and accepted the conventional wisdom that “this is the average turnover rate in retail so we are OK”, they would not have saved thousands of dollars each year in training and recruiting. More importantly they would not have experienced the benefits that reduced turnover brought them; namely preserving human capital of highly trained managers that helped to grow Gap’s business. This last point is typically overlooked. The impact of a reduction in turnover of well trained employees to the bottom line of a company is considerably higher than the cost savings achieved from reducing recruiting and training.

Several points need to be considered when embarking on an employee survey:
1. Develop clear strategic objectives
2. Measure towards those objectives
3. Inform your employees of the survey scores
4. Follow up with positive implementation
5. If you must compare yourself to others, compare yourself only to the best

If this process is not followed the organization can expect:

1. Employee participation rates in the survey to be low (30% or lower)
2. Rising employee cynicism with the organization (why bother if the activity of completing an employee survey does not make a difference)
3. Employees become disengaged from the organization
4. The organization loses an opportunity to make significant strides in performance

Conclusion

The trap an organization falls into when they become focused on benchmarking themselves against others is that they lose sight of what is really important-what is it that we are doing well and where do we need to improve in order to create an even better organization than the one we already have. If you must compare yourself to others, compare yourself only to the best and do not get side tracked. Focus