Honoring ethics
ABQ’s Samaritan Counseling Center to recognize five award recipients at annual banquet
The employees at Heads Up Landscape Contractors and John Moore & Associates financial planning do very different work, but they have at least one thing in common: weekly meetings where they discuss core ethical values.
The owners of each company believe strongly that having a set of guiding principles and talking about them regularly is one of the ways they can ensure their businesses are conducted in an ethical manner.
And that is part of why they were chosen as the two for-profit company winners of this year’s 18th annual New Mexico Ethics in Business Awards. Other winners are Crossroads for Women; Chet Stewart, an owner of French Funerals & Cremations; and Thomas Broderick, managing principal of tax and accounting firm BPW&C.
The Samaritan Counseling Center of Albuquerque will honor all five recipients at an April 26 banquet at Hotel Albuquerque. New Mexico Bank & Trust, the Albuquerque
Journal and the University of New Mexico’s Anderson School of Management are sponsors of the event.
The awards program raises awareness of the importance of ethical business practices and brings in money to support Samaritan in providing professional mental health counseling, mediation, psychological testing, financial literacy, education and outreach programs in English and Spanish.
“The idea of promoting ethical practices is really important,” said Ernest Rodriguez-Naaz, Samaritan’s resource development director. “It recognizes on a deep level the connection between ethical behavior and the physical, psychological and spiritual health of our community.”
Rodriguez-Naaz said employment practices and workplace conditions also impact mental health.
This year, 28 finalists nominated from the community went through a lengthy selection process. Business ethics students from the Anderson School interviewed each of the finalists and prepared a written report, which was then reviewed by an independent selection committee made up of volunteer community leaders.
The selection committee used those reports and also met with the nominees before deciding on the winners.
“It’s a pleasure for the committee to read 28 reports from students about companies and individuals in New Mexico doing things the right way,” said Eric Weinstein, resident managing director of Aon Risk Solutions and chairman of the selection committee. “They’re all great, and they’re all doing things differently.”
Weinstein said the winners stand as examples of the kinds of practices others in the community should emulate.
For-profit category
The Jack and Donna Rust Award for Excellence in Ethical Business Practice by a for-profit business went to two longtime Albuquerque businesses this year.
Gary Mallory started Heads Up Landscaping with a partner in 1973 and has grown the company to about 300 employees who design, install, and maintain commercial and residential landscapes.
John Moore’s financial planning firm is celebrating its 20th anniversary this month and now manages about $450 million on behalf of its clients.
Mallory cites the firm’s commitment to environmental stewardship as one aspect of its ethical standards. Heads Up promotes low-water-use landscaping and separates green waste from trash for composting, diverting 13 million pounds of waste from the landfill in the past five years.
Mallory said business and financial ethics also are important. He once returned a client’s accidental $1.1 million check, even though they had an overdue balance of $100,000, makes charitable work in the community a part of doing business for the company and the employees, and submits himself to regular drug testing.
“If my guys have to, I have to,” he said.
On the personal side, Mallory recently implemented a “fundamentals of the week” program. Weekly meetings begin with a discussion of one of the firm’s 31 core values, and employees share examples of that principle in action. Fundamental No. 1 is “Do the right thing always,” and it directs people to tell the truth, own up to mistakes and make them right, and “be impeccable with your word.”
Ethical dilemmas are an opportunity to think deeply, Mallory said, because “it’s not always immediately obvious what the right thing to do is.”
Moore has a similar outlook and hopes the 10 core values his leadership team developed are helping to encourage ethical practices. Each week, an employee takes one value — say generosity or integrity and the need to be absolutely honest — and discusses how he or she practices it.
“They’re meant to be principles, not rules,” he said, adding that they can help with tough decisions. “Everyone on our team should be empowered to make decisions without having to consult me or another management