Misrepresentation - Through Silence!

We're back to the subject of ethics, more specifically, business ethics.

But unlike ethical dilemmas we've discussed in the past -when people are confronted with bizarre, freak circumstancesthey had never planned for, and then face agonizing choicesregarding how to react - I'm now talking about cases wherepeople willfully and proactively steer events in a certaindirection.

Take the case of the owner of a $32 million business whosedaring entry into entrepreneurship was recounted in a leading business magazine.

Just over a decade ago, Kathy Taggares was itching to ditchher employer, frozen-food maker Chef Ready Foods, to starther own business.

She decided to approach Marriott International about buying one of its salad dressingfactories. Not that she was overly optimistic("As a youngsingle woman, I'd already had so many doors slammed in myface"), but what was there to lose?

But surprisingly, her overtures met with a particularly warmreception. Marriott even offered to help her finance the $5million purchase over several years.

It seemed almost too good to be true. Actually, it was.

Slowly it dawned on Kathy that the Marriott people believedshe was representing her employer, Chef Ready, as a soloentrepreneur. Had they realized that she was, in reality,representing herself, there was no way they would havetaken her so seriously.

If she had owned up to the truth, the game would been up,for sure. Yet another door would have been slammed in herface. So what did Kathy do now? Simple.

"They never directly asked me," she confesses,"so I letthem believe what they wanted to believe."

Sure, they found out at the end - and they weren't at allcharmed by the deception - but by then, the deal had all butgone through. Twelve years and one more acquisition later,Kathy Taggeres' company, K.T's Kitchens, now employs 350people.

Effective communication? Havingpainted herself into a rather tight corner, our would-beentrepreneur yet managed to come up trumps by simply NOTcommunicating, and doing it very effectively at that.

Itremains to answer our question: Was it straight?

Well, now, can we accuse Kathy Taggares of lying?No, it seems she didn't - at least, not with words. "I justleft some of the blanks empty", as she expresses it. But doyou have to SAY something in order to lie?

Personally, I don't think so. I'd go along with Robert LouisStevenson's definition of honesty: "not just to state thetrue facts, but to convey a true impression." If so, noobjective person can sincerely deny that Taggeres lied.

That being the case, we're forced to ask ourselves anotherpertinent question: Is it ever legitimate to lie inbusiness?

Omitting cases of outright fraud where the law clearly saysit's not, the author of the article I cited (Jeremy Useem:"Should You Lie?") writes that his magazine "putthatquestion to dozens of entrepreneurs and ethicists. And whilethe answers that came back are neither black nor white, onething is clear: Those who say that lying has no place inbusiness aren't telling the truth."

Mark well what is being said here, and let it sink in. Sure,we weren't born yesterday. We know too much about the sharksthat abound in the business world. Who is there amongst uswho has not been bitten by them?

But that's not what our author is saying here. He's sayingthat, in the eyes of the great masses of business people outthere -including some of the most respectable among them -lies and deception have a LEGITIMATE place in the world ofbusiness.

This does not necessarily mean that some respectableentrepreneurs condone cheating and deceiving as a generalpractice. (Hopefully, they don't, and probably, theywouldn't remain "respectable" too long if they did.)What itdoes mean it means many of them believe there's a time andplace for everything. In other words, an occasional subtledeception,if not outright lie,is in order and appropriatewhen circumstances demand it.

And to prove the point, the essay in Fortune Small Businesspresents a whole host of real life examples. Business personafter business person is depicted as bending the truth in themost ingenious ways - whether through speech, deeds, oruntimely silence - to mislead potential or existing clients,suppliers or investors.

Why do they do it? Sometimes, they feel they have nochoice.

One professor of business education says company foundersoften mislead people because they find themselves in an"expectations trap": No one will do business with themuntil they appear successful, yet they can't be successful untilpeople do business with them.

One way to escape this "Catch 22" is to create theimpression that they're bigger and more established thanthey are. Some might achieve this by playing officebackground noise in their home office or bringing in alltheir relatives to pose as staff members when a client comesto visit.

Others don't hesitate to puff up theircapabilities (Sure, we've built an aircraft hangar before,")or to describe their vision of their company's future as ifit were happening already.

Other academics point out that people tend to live with twoindependent sets of ethical standards - one for theirpersonal lives (what you might call "religious ethics"),andone for their business or professional lives. In ourculture, moreover, it might seem natural to model the latterset on the prevailing ethics of the world of sport, whereshady practices are often seen as acceptable provided youdon't break the Eleventh Commandment: "Thou Shalt Not GetCaught" (by the referee or umpire, that is).

For my part, I'm not impressed. Not at all.

Well, what do YOU say? Drop me a note and let me know!

Azriel Winnett is creator of Hodu.com - Your Communication Skills Portal. This popular free website helps you improve your communication and relationship skills in your business or professional life, in the family unit and on the social scene. New articles added almost daily.