Friday, January 13, 2012

The federal election in the US is provoking strong thoughts about truth (rather than 'truthiness' as described by Stephen Colbert so usefully) and ethical behaviour.  The leading Republican candidates seem quite willing to dispense with truth in the fight to win power, but few commentators are calling them on it.  It makes me wonder if we have become so sensitized to the need to call a spade an earth-moving implement that we are hesitant to identify and name lying as such -- that we have become inured to bushwah.

So does this extend to the business as well as politics?  As an investor-relations consultant, I have a responsibility to ensure that my clients' stories are told clearly and honestly.  Otherwise it is impossible to manage investors' perceptions and expectations (it's hard enough when you're dealing with fact let alone adding fiction).  If you are in investor, is it your sense that more businesses are falling prey to a tendency to stretch, paint, mould, embroider, or alter fact to entice you to buy stock?