Civility in Business

One of miano.tv’s production partners, Dave Topping of The Topping Group, recently wrote an interesting blog post titled “Professional Courtesy.”  He makes some good points about the loss of common courtesy in the business world.

You don’t have to look much further than the evening news to hear stories of businesses acting unethically and the impact their behavior has on our society.  We often ask ourselves “How do we teach our kids to become ethical business people?”  I’d like to suggest a simple first step; teach them common courtesy.

I know the economy is slowly recovering and corporations feel like it’s a buyers market, but if a potential vendor takes hours or even days to prepare and then present a proposal, how much time does it take to send a one-sentence email or brief phone call saying “We appreciate your efforts but we’re going with someone else”?  I’m grateful that all my longterm clients do make that call, but I know other business people do not.

Be appreciative of the professionals who work hard to earn your business – they treat you with respect when listening to your production needs; be respectful in how (and when) you respond to them.