Over the past couple of months we have all learned a painful lesson regarding the importance of high ethical standards in business.  The names of companies once associated with success and prosperity have now become the synonymous with scandal and greed.  The actions of a few CEO’s and business leaders have tarnished the reputations of all the ethical CEO’s around the country. 

Our free enterprise system has worked to make our nation the envy of every other country around the world.  But with all the opportunities this system provides for each of us, there is a great responsibility we share to ensure this system works fairly for all.  Critical to our economic system is the trust that comes from operating in an ethical manner.

Ethics is developed early in one’s life and must be practiced without waver.  That is why Junior Achievement’s programs include lessons on ethics.  Students learn that decisions do not always have a clear yes/no, right/wrong solution.  It is how they handle these “gray-area” decisions that show what type of ethics they truly have. 

Junior Achievement has developed a Business Ethics Center on its website.  Teachers, volunteers, parents, and students can go to the center for activities which focus on ethics and making ethical decisions.  The JA Business Ethics Center can be found at http://www.ja.org/ethics.  There is also a Business Ethics Poll to evaluate the impressions of our youth about ethics.

Today’s CEOs have been entrusted not only with the future of their businesses, but also with the future of the American way of life.  Fortunately, most of them are up to the challenge.  But it is up to all of us to prepare the future business and political leaders of our country to operate at the highest levels of ethical behavior. 

At Junior Achievement, we believe our future generations of leaders will live up to this challenge.