The Case for the Immeasurable ROI of Morality

“Integrity is doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.” - C.S. Lewis 

We are living in a world where everyone is watching, all the time. All eyes on every post, statement, article, and ad. So what impact has that had on the ways in which businesses operate? How do they truly show up when times are hard and the chips are down? Most importantly, what will it look like when attention fades and doing what’s right is without press or prestige and is solely grounded in the intention of leading with purpose?

It has been an interesting time for businesses big and small. The Covid-19 pandemic brought many industries to a screeching halt in its early days. Safety precautions ranging from shutdowns to new protocols have shifted the way businesses operate, the capacity they can serve, and the way they interact with consumers. It’s been a telling time for businesses that were vulnerable with shaky business models or balance sheets or businesses that operate on thin margins. It’s been a particularly challenging road for industries that by their very nature are dependent on in-person experiences like travel, sports, and live events.

With the economy in triage during the quarantine phase, many companies struggled with how to proceed in keeping their business afloat while keeping their employees and consumers safe; some paused altogether closing temporarily during the shutdown, some kept going at rapid fire pace where demand was accelerating (read: the great toilet paper hoarding of 2020), and some pivoted their businesses to meet new needs and found new opportunity in the midst of bad circumstances. 

As restrictions lifted and the economy re-opened, it raised an important question, one that has uncomfortably loomed over conversations, debates, and debilitating rationalizations across the nation: what responsibility do businesses have in this new normal when it comes to balancing their bottom line with the bottom line - ensuring the health and safety of everyone in the places they do business and the communities they operate in. We’ve seen ugly debate to save the economy at all costs and we’ve seen the human cost in the loss of business with millions laid off and furloughed. It got me thinking about the conscious of the business world; the moral compass of the decision makers who lead organizations, the responsibility they have and hold in how they operate, and what it means at a time like this when financial pressure is heavy to recuperate lost revenue but we still by every account are living in a world where the virus that shut us down, is far from closed.  

It’s important in examining the response to really observe it as a timeline of events, to weigh the actions of businesses from the beginning stages of the pandemic to the present day. I say this because many companies were quick to bandwagon on the highly templatized set of email and social assets reminding all of us that “they’re here for us” and “these are unprecedented times” and “they’re here to help” and of course, the ever common end frame “we’re in this together”. But as the clock ticked and the months progressed, many of those companies who were so quick to tout their concern and care, were equally quick to open recklessly, to open and remove safer options that had quickly ramped up during quarantine, or to forget promises made altogether and negate their own modified operations (I see you, United Airlines). The hypocrisy was thinly veiled and consumers won’t forget how they were misled all so a company could play the part, when it’s hand was forced, only to revert to it’s true colors when the spotlight went dark.

Businesses that have shirked their responsibilities, that have been more focused on packing the house than keeping it safe, may find their short-term revenue recovery came at a long-term cost they can’t recuperate. Businesses that unilaterally decided “this is what we’re doing” in the opposition of guideline recommendations have written their own reputation in stone. Businesses who said “we have no choice” and made no effort to adapt and seek new opportunity and instead accepted defeat have missed the point of what it means to be nimble enough to shift with consumer demand and conditions. Those businesses will never think of morality as an element of their business: their operations, their product or service, their brand. They will continue to operate under the guise of “me before we” and business over consumers, and inevitably will dig their own grave not realizing one can't survive without the other. On the opposite end of the spectrum, we have seen brands who have been training for this moment their whole existence. Brands by their very nature that wear their values on their sleeve, not just in response to what has been unraveling of recent, but that have consistently displayed their values over time in the ways they serve, support, and invest in their consumers and communities (shout out to Lowe's for every way in which they've set an example and raised the bar).

There has been rapid, unexpected change and trauma and the expectations are higher than ever to earn business as we settle into a new normal. Even essentials and necessities are not without competition. You can have all the value in the world, but if you are making choices that put people’s health, safety, or other baseline human conditions at risk, your low price, quick delivery, or bench of inventory is irrelevant. There is always an alternative option for consumers. Consumers elect their choices with their wallet and just as powerfully, identify their choices by sharing across their community and sphere of influence. Businesses that don’t see this will find themselves losing revenue not solely because times are tough but because they are going to have to pay to acquire or re-acquire consumers lost. Businesses that are observing from the sideline, watching the cards fall are ripe with opportunity to create a competitive option that satisfies needs not being met, filling the void with those softer human qualities that got pushed to the side in favor of immediate transactions. Businesses that have always seen through the lens of consumer and community well being as the priority will be primed to accelerate as their value system was built to thrive at a time when people are looking to those brands that have consistently proven it in the past.

The right thing is to do the right thing. It really is as simple as that. Unfortunately though in many businesses and organizations, it's not so simple and declaring it can be met with debate and conflicting points of view. So how can a business measure the importance, value, and cost of doing the right thing morally when it may be cutting into their cost financially or yield short term losses?

There are several correlative metrics and sustainable qualities central to the survival of a brand and a business that are often downplayed. Not because they’re not important, but because they’re not directly tied to a singular data point or data set reflected in one concise chart or graph. While that may seem counter intuitive to the hyper-performance driven world that drives most decision making, the truth is that the satisfaction of getting it right is more about doing what’s right than showing being morally sound equates to X increase in revenue. The reality is I can’t necessarily show you that moral responsibility directly leads to better business performance. But it does lead to better business. In all cases, it does lead to a more trusted, honest, credible, and ethical brand. And where there is a legitimately respected brand, lauded for doing what is right for its employees and consumers, business results will ultimately follow.  

That may include, but is not limited to:   

• Retention: It’s significantly more cost effective to retain an existing customer than to go out and continuously acquire new customers.
• Loyalty: Beyond retention, loyalty is a deeper attachment, a fondness and likeability for a brand or business that goes beyond just repeat spends or visits. To foster loyalty is to not only reward and invest in returning consumers, it’s to show them deeper value.
• Advocacy: To be loyal is one thing, to be a brand evangelist is another layer deeper. Creating that authentic connection by showing up as a brand that cares and will do what’s right, even when it may be costly, can lead to a groundswell of organic support. That level of good, authentic earned conversation from those that celebrate and elevate a brand is priceless.
• Increased Spend: Consumers want to support companies that share an aligned set of values. Where spending in a category may have been split between two competing brands or businesses, consumers may be inclined to spend more and more often with the business that made choices that took people’s well being into consideration and just as importantly, acted in direct accordance with the promises they made in their ads or any form of communication. 
• New Customer Acquisition: Brands and businesses that have chosen to lead with their thirst for profit over their desire to do what is right may very well lose business, giving brands that lead with altruism a big opportunity to welcome new consumers into the fold. It’s not about pushing an ad or paying to acquire someone new, it is truly organic growth. Someone witnesses an action or choice that shows there are mutually aligned values and without provocation chooses to give that brand their business. 

Leading tenets to getting there include, but are not limited to: 

Compassion and Humanity 

• Empathy: Long downplayed as a "nice to have but not need to display", empathy has proven to be a highly favorable quality in businesses who have made a conscientious choice to listen, to observe, and to respond to what it believes it can do to create value for a consumer overburdened by the complications of our present world. There is a power in empathy that highlights the universal truth businesses often disregard: we are all human. As humans our emotions, our circumstances, and our life experiences are all important and all play a connected role in how we consume anything from content to products to services. Our choice to do business somewhere, to work somewhere, or to support a business is directly connected to if we believe they are treating people with authentic compassion. We want to be seen, heard, and treated as humans who are going through something real and who’s vulnerabilities are not to be used as bait for a promotional campaign. 
• Authentic and Genuine Messaging: Your brand’s voice, personality, and tone all need to remain consistent. When your brand consistently shows up in the same fashion, addressing the audience the same way, that familiarity becomes identifiable. Brands that have deviated from that to meet this moment have been the ones to face the harshest criticism because their words, their creative, their proclamations were off from the brand that they were pre-pandemic. It comes across as pandering, disingenuous, and worse as a deliberate choice to be a part of the moment for the sake of showing up. There are no shortage of ways in which a business can do it’s part to show support, the key is ensuring that the way it is done is authentic to the brand in all forms of delivery.

Promises made, promises fulfilled 

• Trust: Trust, like business, is to be earned not given freely. Without trust, you have nothing but transactions. Building trust comes with time and consistency in the experience you provide through the quality of your product or service. If your business makes a promise or a commitment, it needs to come to fruition, in the way it was presented. Misrepresenting information or twisting reality to suit a narrative will not be tolerated and is a violation of trust with consumers and employees.
• Honesty: There is no trust without honesty and if your consumers don’t trust you, why would they do business with you? That's the truth.
• Credibility: You can’t garner credibility without first earning trust, by being honest. It’s all interconnected. To be credible is to be authenticated and confirmed as a brand that does in fact deliver against its promises and can therefore be trusted.

Businesses and brands that have risen to the occasion will be recognized and not only survive but thrive having come out the other side stronger from an extraordinary showing of what it means to be a business founded on and operating with integrity. There is an intangibility to this, a nearly immeasurable quality that while tough to quantify, is easily qualified as a grounding force for any brand that genuinely cares about it’s employees, partners, consumers, and the communities it operates in. Say what you mean, mean what you say, and success will follow. To be good, is to do good.