Ross Gittins has an interesting article about the importance or requirement for moral values for a market to function properly. What struck me as interesting was the idea that markets function better when participants are able to judge the actions of other participants against social standards. This jives with what Umair Haque has written about numerous times around the DNA of businesses and the edge economy.
In previous posts, I've talked about the use of transparency of businesses to improve the DNA or the behaviour of businesses. The concept of being able to judge participants against social standards for honesty, trustworthiness etc. provide a strong foundation for judging what information participants need to provide about themselves.
By focusing on the information that allows judgments to be made about a company's behaviour meeting moral standards, we can avoid being inundated with information that is irrelevant and frankly unhelpful in creating better businesses and markets. Businesses are only as amoral as we allow them to be and there is no reason why a business has to amoral.
Tags: Transparency, Finance, Ross Gittins, Policy
