Blog 1 – This I believe… by Zhuang Song
“Zhuang, don’t be a liar. Did you steal the test?” When I was in elementary school, this question became the turning point of my life. When the teacher distributed the exam results of a standard test, she discovered that my test had been lost. She locked me in a classroom after school and searched my bag thoroughly. Every faculty member linked grades to morality and chose not to believe me. At last, the teacher gave me an opportunity to make up the test, but after this event, everyone treated me as a liar who stole the test from office to hide bad scores.
I believe in doing business with humanity in mind. After this experience, I concern that humanity meant respect. No matter what your occupation, you need to respect others and listen to their words with the ability to distinguish right and wrong. Just as grades are important for students, so profit is crucial for a company to attain economic growth. Grades can lead students to academic achievement, but however, they cannot be the only criterion that determines students’ potential. Similarly, to secure long-term growth, businesspeople have to understand that profit is not the only pursuit. Sustainability and ethics form the base of each company.
After taking communication courses in the past in which we discussed human values and business administration classes in addition to socially responsible, sustainable, and ethical business practices, I realized that people position humanity as an essential part of a business, the first thing they need to do is think about human experience instead of a compelling slogan.
I was honored to spend a month interning at E&Y in 2017. When I audited for Sinopharm Medicine, I found that that company funds charity events. The Procurement Department regularly went to hospitals to visit and help people who were suffering from illness caused by health-care fraud. Sinopharm Medicine uses these opportunities to let employees experience the real world and understand the importance of ethics in the medical industry. I conducted short interviews with department directors. They found that after this company held such activities not only do profits improve, but employees pay more attention to their daily medicine management. When employees select suppliers of medicine, they focus more on the credibility of these sources.
Therefore, as a multibackground and multicultural person, I hope to build a better business world in which people emphasize doing business with humanity in mind. An individual might not influence the environment of business, but an individual could influence more and more businesspeople. I believe that every businessperson will see how sustainability and ethics could benefit his/her corporation. Over the next five years, I will participate in more charity work and use my abilities to influence more businesspeople to follow a righteous path.