the company’s legal department. Is it fair? Is it rational, as opposed to emotional, and balanced, so that there are no big winners and big losers? Is it fair to all: to both sides, to the consumer, to the salesperson, to the advertiser, to the various communities, and to the company? If the company had an open-book policy, would all of its customers think everyone got a fair shake? Are all customers getting fair rates, placements, rotations, and make-goods? To test for fairness, ask yourself the question, everybody “Suppose did this?” What does my conscience say? Salespeople should ask themselves, would I feel if “How what I am doing appeared in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times? How would it make me feel about myself? According to my personal moral standards, is what I am doing OK?” A company’s and a salesperson’s most valuable assets are their reputations and their relationships with their customers. Reputations and relationships are built by consistently doing ethics checks on the way you do business, by taking a long-term view and not doing anything that would put you or your company in jeopardy, even a hundred years from today. Transparency Transparency is closely related to ethics because both concepts depend on being honest and having integrity. Transparency is being completely open about how you do business, in other words, being openly honest. The concept of transparency in the made headlines in the summer of 2016 with the release of the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) Media Transparency Initiative: K2 Report. From October 20, 2015, through May 31, 2016, K2 Intelligence, on behalf of the ANA, conducted an independent study of media transparency issues in the U.S. advertising industry. K2
the company’s legal department. Is it fair? Is it rational, as opposed to emotional, and balanced, so that there are no big winners and big losers? Is it fair to all: to both sides, to the consumer, to the salesperson, to the advertiser, to the various communities, and to the company? If the company had an open-book policy, would all of its customers think everyone got a fair shake? Are all customers getting fair rates, placements, rotations, and make-goods? To test for fairness, ask yourself the question, “Suppose everybody did this?” What does my conscience say? Salespeople should ask themselves, “How would I feel if what I am doing appeared in the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times? How would it make me feel about myself? According to my personal moral standards, is what I am doing OK?” A company’s and a salesperson’s most valuable assets are their reputations and their relationships with their customers. Reputations and relationships are built by consistently doing ethics checks on the way you do business, by taking a long-term view and not doing anything that would put you or your company in jeopardy, even a hundred years from today. Transparency Transparency is closely related to ethics because both concepts depend on being honest and having integrity. Transparency is being completely open about how you do business, in other words, being openly honest. The concept of transparency in the made headlines in the summer of 2016 with the release of the Association of National Advertisers’ (ANA) Media Transparency Initiative: K2 Report. From October 20, 2015, through May 31, 2016, K2 Intelligence, on behalf of the ANA, conducted an independent study of media transparency issues in the U.S. advertising industry. K2