Social responsibility is an ethical theory, in which individuals are accountable for fulfilling their civic duty; the actions of an individual must benefit the whole of society. Because sales has been based on getting products sold and using product data as the main vehicle (Tell me who among you has never assumed that because your product is terrific that buyers will know how to buy it…. once you explain it, present it, advertise it, and pitch it brilliantly??), ethics have often been ignored.
Some distinction is to be made between the customer of a business (the individual who tenders payment in exchange for a good) and the consumer of the product (the individual who consumes or uses the product purchased) – especially since the contract exists between the business and the customer, but not between the business and the consumer.
Milton Friedman’s 1970’s article in The New York Times Magazine stated that there is one and only one social responsibility of business-to use its resources and engage in activities designed to increase its profits so long as it stays within the rules of the game, which is to say, engages in open and free competition without deception or fraud.” Many people disagree with this approach since it really does not take into account the broader impact of a business or industries operations.
Some people might mistake moral values for ethical values and vice versa, although they sound very similar there is some difference in them the morals are external things, and are a set of imposed rules while ethics are based on principles which a person follows from the very start, its an individual thinking of each person.
Accenture’s commitment to doing business ethically and legally is the foundation for the company’s culture, which is shaped by our six core values—Client Value Creation, One Global Network, Respect for the Individual, Best People, Integrity and Stewardship.