Business ethics principles and practices

Ethics Policy

Our policy of ethics is designed to ensure integrity and justice on every level of our company's functioning and to reduce ambiguity in relation to our company's management, business, or personnel practices. Our ethics policy will cover the following key points: conflict of interest, gifts and entertainment; intellectual property; privacy; information technology; and hiring, discharge, and promotion.

Conflict of Interest, including Gifts and Entertainment: We urge our employees and management to avoid any activity that would in any way injure our company's reputation, or that of its management. Our company defines conflict of interest as any instance in which the desires of the individual clash with the needs of the organization. Practices that might represent conflict of interest include the offering and receiving of gifts between business partners or clients. We believe that gift-giving should be restricted to small tokens of kindness. However, gifts that may constitute a quid pro quo situation will not be tolerated. Similarly, any offer of entertainment services in exchange for favorable treatment will be considered a conflict of interest. Our ethics policy limits the offering of gifts and entertainment. We understand that individual situations might need to be judged accordingly.

Intellectual Property: Intellectual property law forbids the unauthorized duplication of copyrighted material. We would like to extend the definition of intellectual property to any and all publications circulated within our organization, including web site content, brochure and advertisement copy, newsletters, and company memos. Furthermore, employees are urged to refrain from infringing on intellectual property laws by such activities as downloading music or unauthorized copies of films over the Internet. It is our view that intellectual property is as valuable as tangible goods and we aim to protect the creative endeavors of our employees, our organization, and our clients. Finally, any company materials including but not limited to design blueprints will be considered intellectual property.

Privacy: We believe that privacy is a fundamental human right as well as a legal right. Therefore, we assure our employees that their personal information will be kept confidential and will not, except under obligation to a court of law, divulge any personal information about any of our employees. Similarly, we expect that our employees and management personnel to respect the privacy of their coworker. Employees are forbidden from divulging the personal information of any member of the organization to the media without prior written consent or legal assent. Any complaints regarding issues related to privacy can be taken up with management.