THE collapse of the energy giant Enron in the United States of America has ensured that business ethics is now an important part of the curriculum of business schools around the world, says general manager of Jamaica National Building Society (JNBS) Earl Jarrett.

The bankruptcy of the fraud-saddled Texan multinational in 2001, pointed to the fact that businesses need to focus more on the customer by growing ‘stakeholder value’ rather than ‘shareholder value’, he said.

Caribbean economist Sir Courtney Blackman has pointed out that the stakeholder perspective, which focuses on corporate social responsibility, was superceded in the 1990’s by the shareholder value perspective, which emphasises profitability and of which Enron was one of the worst examples.

“Businesses are not simply there just to make money for the owner or shareholders,” Jarrett said. He was addressing participants in the Annual District Conference of Rotary District 7020 at the Jamaica Pegasus Hotel in Kingston recently.

“There is great value in operating at high ethical standards, which can help to build customers and relationships,” he said. As such, Jarrett suggested that the Rotary Club, “should consider adopting and sponsoring business ethics courses in our business schools and universities.”

The aim would be to, “shape and frame the minds and thinking of our young people who will become the national and business leaders of tomorrow,” Jarrett pointed out, adding that “Today, it is the values of entertainers and persons with greater access to media which seem to prevail.”

The Rotary meeting was part of a conference attended by more than 700 Club members in District 7020, which includes Jamaica, the Cayman Islands, the Bahamas, Turks and Caicos Islands, St Martin, St Maarten, St Barthelemy, Anguilla, the British and US Virgin Islands as well as from Georgia, Virginia, North and South Carolina, and Florida in the USA.