INSTITUTE OF MANAGEMENT CONSULTANTS
New England Chapter

Memo from the Prez

Ethics in the Spotlight

Here in New England, as is our custom, we are leading the way once again. As IMC National prepares for its April 2003 initiative, in which programs on ethics will be presented at all of the other IMC chapters, we in the six colonies have beaten them to it. On Monday January 27, in Lexington (where else?), we kicked off the year with our own ethics forum, well ahead of the pack.

Participants on our panel included our own Phil Holberton, business advisor and executive coach extraordinaire, in an afternoon session entitled, Corporate Responsibility and You: What every consultant should know about ethics in today’s business climate.

Have you been faced with any ethical dilemmas in your practice recently? Do you wish to be better prepared to face such issues should they arise this year? Do you wrestle with how to do business in a tough clime and yet stay true to good principles? If yes to any of these questions, you’ll understand the reason for our putting the spotlight on such "ethical events"

Obviously, the decision to emphasize ethics emanates from the Enrons and Worldcoms and so many other scandals of the past year. In addition to clear damage to American business, the poison spread by corporate "evil-doers" surely hasn’t helped our always-tenuous image as consultants. You say you can’t trust your CEO anymore? Why then harbor confidence in some quick-change artist (read: "consultant") blowing his/her way in from the outside? Naturally we consultants don’t deserve to be seen this way, given the great work we do, but, to much of the business public, that’s nonetheless precisely who we are.

IMC, as the country’s leading consultants’ professional organization, can genuinely do battle with such misperceptions. We adhere after all to an ethical code of conduct, many of our members even striving the extra mile to pledge loyalty to this code by earning their CMC. IMC members also exhibit high professionalism in their client work every day, a fact their appreciative clients readily and enthusiastically acknowledge whenever asked.

So as you join us at our get-togethers in 2003, bring along your ethical questions, dilemmas, insights and hard-won advice. Our strength lies in our capacity to contribute to one another, especially in vexing times. Doing so can reverse the unethical tide.

Ken Lizotte CMC
President