BASIC RULES TO FOLLOW IN OUR JOB, IN
THE MANAGEMENT CONSULTING JOB,
AND PERHAPS IN ALL JOBS...
What follows is Targon-GEAN's Code of Business & Professional Ethics. Read it, if you want to decide whether you would like to retain us, work with us or for us.
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Do what you said you would do. Do it even if nobody reminds you to do it and it seems out of date or forgotten.
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If you see that you won't be able to do it, pull the alarm signal on time. Never say: "I couldn't do it." Say at worst: "I see now why I won't be able to do it so what should we do about it now?"
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Do it now, rather than later.
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Do it right.
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Do it right the first time, don't look for excuses, "trial and error," all that jazz.
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Criticize your own work before "the client" (the others) do it.
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Use some kind of logbook to keep track of your work every day. Be able to state and document: "on Oct. 26, 1990 I was working on a report to client X."
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Keep track of how time was spent every day, then every week, then every month.
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Be aware of fees, monies or billings charged for your work versus time/cost spent in your work.
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Keep track of what you must do later: you will be forgiven for being late if it shows that you did not forget.
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Never lie when answering a question, never volunteer a lie. Your only right to mislead is by not answering what wasn't asked; and never mislead in a harmful way. And never, NEVER mislead your client or your employer.
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Always be able to do yourself what you are requesting others to do. You will be lost the day when your employees will be performing mysterious tasks that do not make sense to you.
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Show your client that you have worked, how you have worked, and with what results for his benefit.
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Never put the blame on someone else. If it went wrong, it is always your fault.
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Decide yourself how you spend your time, but never, never be late on deadlines.
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Instead of arguing, go find out the facts and figures: what is a matter of opinion means that someone didn't do his homework. In 1400, whether the earth was round or flat was a matter of opinion until Christopher Columbus did the homework.
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Check your assumptions and premises before building a castle in Spain on them. Don't be afraid to be inaccurate, as long as nothing you could find came to contradict your guestimate.
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Reading good authors will get you farther than playing golf. Unless you really like golf. In that case read about golf too, and from good authors.
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Always be a professional, never an amateur. An amateur works for his own pleasure. A professional works for the satisfaction of others. A great professional finds that being best at meeting others' toughest standards brings the greatest self-satisfaction.
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Competitors are friends with whom you play poker. Or bridge. (When cards are slanted, the market is called "regulated".) Don't show your cards, but stay friends.
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Be generally on time. When in doubt, come 15 minutes too soon, and look around...
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You'll learn something, and
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You'll have a moral advantage on the late comer.
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Be a good writer. Check your grammar, and your spelling. Spell names, titles, functions, name of firms, of divisions, without missing a hyphen or a comma.
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When interviewing someone else, repeat what the other party said, and reword it in a simpler way.
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That way, you will show him that you listened that you understood that he is intelligent that you are, too that you both agree that it should be great to work together.
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That's a lot to achieve by simply repeating what you heard... and it will teach you to listen.
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Never, never, never interrupt the person whom you are interviewing.
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If you are interrupted, forget it and go to 28.
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Anyone who is foolish and naive enough to pay your fees deserves a lot of respect and attention. A client is a miracle. The least he deserves is an impeccable job.
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When you discover that someone has a problem, before analyzing the problem head on, ask yourself how many other parties have the same problem; and how it has been solved so far. Maybe there are 6, or 50, or even there is a club of those who have this problem. Go and ask them. Become a member.
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When in doubt, go and ask. Ask now, don't wait.
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Think on your feet and do it now.
If you said: "I'll do it," it means that you have committed yourself to do it. Here is what it means:
Business organization has functioned: an instruction was submitted, perhaps discussed, and accepted. The business is now counting on your doing it, whatever the importance. You are paid, basically, to help the business function. But this is not the main reason why you should "deliver."
By helping the organization, some would say that you are really helping yourself. It may even be true: if the business succeeds, it should benefit you and reflect on you positively in some way.
On the other hand, it may not. This doesn't matter because, by doing what you said you would do, you are testifying to yourself first, to the others only in second, that you are behaving as a professional (See rule 18). That's all.