Ethical behaviour isn’t a surface choice for a product or service. It isn’t something that’s just on a website, in a corporate press release or promoted in pitch videos for show. Ethics should be designed into the very core of a product. Into the fabric. Into the air that employees and leaders breathe. Into the business model itself.

A while ago, I came upon a case study that I think proves this point painfully. It’s an example of a product that seems so corrupt, it’s incredible it stood up to any scrutiny before falling apart.

I have to give a little context, but I want to keep it abstract. Partially because I don’t want to point fingers at a situation I don’t fully understand. And mostly because I don’t think the specific details of the people or organisation are important. This might even help the case study be applied more widely to any organisation seeking to support a product or service that matters.

The situation is as follows… A while ago I came across a business that seems to have excelled at providing a ‘shiny’ and exciting marketing-driven front-end, while failing in nearly every one of its service, support, financial and administrative responsibilities in the backend. The proposition was a business to customer offering, managing significant assets on behalf of the ultimate owners.

The business appeared, did a bunch of work and then collapsed in on itself, to the loud recrimination of those who’d lost money, time, energy and value. It seems that corporate regulators, the tax department and even the police were involved. I’m not exaggerating for effect. All of this is public record and visible on the internet. The story is laid bare in insolvency reports, regulator investigations, newspaper articles and in the complaints of angry and betrayed customers on forums.

The behind-the-scenes behaviours appear … extensive. The business apparently took money for services it didn’t render. When it did deliver services, they were partially done or completed badly. Money was transferred out of the business to directors under unusual circumstances. Mysterious loans were granted to the directors and paid off by the business. Assets were mismanaged or taken. It was a complete mess of untidy, harmful and unethical behaviour. As far as I could see, no charges were ever laid, but the company was wound up. Following the trail, it appears that those involved have headed off to new ventures, seemingly unscathed by the devastation left behind them.

So, what does this say about ethics?

Well, any marketing about this specific business’s commitment to value and serving its customers seemed clearly to be a ruse, whether by intention, or through sheer mismanagement. It reinforces for me that ethics can’t just be something you sign against in a corporate charter. Ethical behaviour, ethical choices, have to be baked into the very operating model of an organisation down at the bedrock. Then, a series of checks and balances have to be in operation to ensure these ethics are adhered to.

Typical views of service design might consider it stops with a light review of the back-of-house operations of the employees serving the product.

I disagree.

Good service design doesn’t stop until it covers every facet of the operating model, deep structures, culture and behaviours of the entire organisation. Bad actors probably set out from the beginning to do wrong, to mislead and to fraudulently gain benefit for themselves. But we can learn from their actions to design structures that keep the rest of us operating at the highest standard of ethical behaviour.

The people we serve deserve nothing less.

Eliason, K. (2017, September 30). Wrong Way (Image, Unsplash Licence). Unsplash. https://unsplash.com/photos/-Cmz06-0btw