Giving or receiving a bribe could land a person in jail in many countries, but it seems to be standard business in other countries. #000109

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Bribes

By Gary Shotton

          Hello my name is Gary Shotton and I enjoy being with you and talking about business, and Inspiring Better Business. Hopefully these are helpful, today we’re going to talk about bribes, and payoffs by the fact that I’m now speaking to people around the world through these videos and these audio teachings. I’m starting to get some feedback from different people from other parts of the world and I’m really enjoying it. I’m accessible at this point and I try to respond to every correspondence that comes and over time, I actually build up some friendship that the correspondence is meaningful and helpful in both parts and so this happened it doesn’t matter the country doesn’t matter the person. But it’s a matter of consistent problems that people face all around the world even in America now.

I will say in the USA that bribes and payoffs are probably not as common as they are in many other countries that’s probably true. Because if I offered a bribe or a payoff especially to a police officer or somebody in a government official or they probably would turn around especially a police offer would charge me with a crime, and we know that I know that the in the in the business world. If it was a government contract you know that’s going to lead up and probably find out it could be a crime. If it’s just business to business at some point that’s probably not the prevailing culture, we have here in the United States. But it happens so we’re not innocent but this is in a basically a developing nation, and it was a very legitimate question. Here’s a situation they have a company and they have been approached with a significant contract that would meet an equal about 30 or one third of their annual sales revenue.

And this is a great opportunity they’ve been supplying some parts to them. Whatever it was parts or service this came on the condition that, the one person that was in contact representing this customer to my friend. The supplier was requiring some form of a bribe or payoff to get the business, and so that put the manager the leader the part owner of this company. My friend in an awkward position because, first of all the other people that own the company would well maybe have jumped right on it. And paid the bride so he was not only fighting his own personal convictions but he knew that the harmony of the rest of his peers might not agree with him so that added a little pressure. The pressure of barely making budget the pressure very making barely making sales revenue that they needed there’s other pressures, and so they really needed thirty-five percent of their business to come from this company.

Now we talked never verbally always by just email or text and I presented some challenge to the problem of being tempted to follow that path of bribe. My friend had already determined that he wouldn’t do that, he had already determined that. This was not his normal standard but this was getting so close it was so needed, he asked my opinion. I have to share this openly I say you know; this is a trap this is not something that you can count on there’s multiple reasons not just Christian reasons not. Because it’s immoral or imperfect from us from our religious standpoint not just because it’s illegal in most cases. But because it will create a ventrally downfall of your company if once you start down that path. I’m firmly convinced of that and so as the scenario went on the dilemma was presented and I have to say that once you start down that path ever.

It’s like going on a trip to any city in your country in your area the farther that you’re going in the wrong direction. And when you choose to turn around you’ve got a backtrack that entire distance back to where you were, we sometimes call it taking a trip on the mountain. Because you come back to the same spot you wore going to have to retreat back and as you follow that path of bribe or pay off. You’re going down to a path that I will guarantee some time that company is going to have to retract and come back to the point it’s like putting a band aid on a very bad cancer. The Band-Aid is that immediate need for sales in cash the cancer, is that it will bring and eat away at your company to the point of destruction or near destruction. Because there’s not it is not logical to have one person an abnormal amount of personal income for their personal use and starve the rest of this system both the company buying the product or service and us making the product and service.

There’s not that kind of margins normally so the path is taking you in the wrong direction, and the farther you go down that path the hot lawyer is going to take to return to retreat. And come back and not only that once you start there this little bribe is not going to stop there’s going to be the next contract with that same company and they’re going to say hey it worked last time. Why don’t we just get a little bit more this time I’ve known a cases in developing nations where there was a need for a major hotel to be built in a major capital of one country. And they said that many people wanted to build a hotel there it was very obvious they needed a hotel by a major franchise that would build that hotel but the layers and series of payoffs to get a staff made to get anything done any action all thing everybody that they not everybody. But most people that were on some form of an inspector chain-of-command somewhere up the ladder.

It just multiplied until these companies had to just quit they couldn’t function it’s not fair it’s not going to work. It could work for a few people for a little while but it’s the start of the downfall to that company that succumbs to that the opposite is true and it’s not always evident immediately. But once you being pain and old firm that you’re not going to succumb to that temptation then you’re going to be able to stand hi and there’s going to be the customers that you really want will be coming to you. And the customer that you succumb to the bribe eventually will jump to somebody else so the question came what is acceptable in a sales arrangement to benefit or bless somebody because of our sales and business relationship but I’ll just go over a couple here that we deal with we have customers and we would never approach them with a bribe or a payoff a pretty good standard that I have seen in writing is that.

I as a supplier to my customer have the right and freedom to buy lunch buy a meal that’s about the extent, I can’t go buy a whole Deep Freeze full of meat. I can’t go buy something that couldn’t be consumed in less than 24 hours we work for a very large oil company and I will mention them it’s called Halliburton. They’re known all around the world that’s one of our three major customers and they went to the extent on this subject to send us a very clear clarification that they and none of their employees were ever to receive a bribe or a payoff. It was all in one page well it wouldn’t shut what I saw it is like 16 pages but the English version was in one page and those other 15 of those 16 pages. Were all of the other languages Hebrew I’m sorry a Spanish German French you’re all the languages so that anybody that dealt with Halliburton knew in their own language that Halliburton would not tolerate payoffs and brightest hope this is helpful thank you for being a part of this please share these with other people let us know make comments on our website please it does help us thank you.