I was listening to Radio 4 on the way home on Friday evening. (I am still in my 30s, honest, I know the middle aged spread, grey hair and Radio 4 listening suggest otherwise) Anyway I was listening to the Friday night comedy and a funny sketch ridiculing Barclays Bank for their alleged decision to lend £750M to members of Robert Mugabe's government in Zimbabwe.
Now little old me doesn't claim to understand politics at that level, but if it was true, Barclays would find it very difficult to justify such a decision on anything other than money making grounds. And without such justification this would offend most people's morals.
This got me thinking about my own moral integrity. Let us assume for one moment that the above allegation were true (I can't imagine the BBCs lawyers allowing Friday nights programme to be aired if it were complete fiction), I started to think about the theoretical possibility that Barclays were a prospect of mine and I had an opportunity to close a deal with them, would my moral compass allow me to go ahead with this deal?
The idealist in me would like to think not, but the realist in my is slightly embarressed to suggest that I might. My love for a conspiracy theory leads me to ask, if I dig hard enough would I find similarly morally questionable deals done by many multi-national corporates?
The truth is I don't know the answer to the above question. We all have a moral compass that guides us in life but difficult decisions are rarely a case of black and white and navigating the grey is one of the challenges we face, understanding that in these days of Web 2.0, where everybody has a voice, the wrong decision can have far reaching consequences.
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