Winning the Devil’s bargain from strategy+business highlights the ways in which employees are having to cope with balancing their personal values, organizational expectations and the “desire to succeed”

To use the words of the author, Elizabeth Doty, Are “ethical bumps in the road a part of the game of business”

She talks to 38 business people to understand how they reconcile the differences and what strategies do they adopt to succeed? The five strategies to cope fall under the following broad categories:

“I have my own principles, which I am unwilling to abandon. I dislike falsehood and deceit. A building should be truthful” Laurie Baker

Laurie Baker, architect and humanist passed away recently. Today, when everybody is waking up to the effects of ‘global warming’, Laurie Baker lived and practised ‘eco-conservation’, recycling, using locally available resources and eschewing wastage through the buildings he created.

Some of the principles he lived by are worth reflecting as consultants and practising professionals.

Understanding your client / customer

“First, of course, is that I want to get to know my client and what is in his mind. If he merely wants to show off or flaunt his wealth, I don’t take him on. Otherwise, I enjoy getting to know him (or her, a family, an institution or even a Government department).

And I have to always keep in mind that it is they who are going to use the building and not me.”

The entire interview can be read
here

Some of his other principles he lived by included:

More on his work can be found at this tribute

• Deepa