Consultants Weigh In on Thorny Ethical Problems
Are consultants ethical? If they are members of IMC USA, they must adhere to the IMC USA Code of Ethics. This blog entry summarizes the panel discussion on ethics at the closing general session at Confab, the conference for consultants by consultants, which was moderated by IMC USA’s Ethics Committee Chair and President of Business Automation Associates, Inc., Brooks Hilliard, Certified Management Consultant (CMC).
At this session, many consultants in the audience lined up at the microphone to express their opinions and agree or disagree with the panelists.
John Weathington, Treasurer of IMC USA NorCal, expresses his opinion during ethics panel.
Note that the views expressed by the panelists were rehearsed in advance and were intended to voice two opposing responses to each ethical dilemma. They are not necessarily the viewpoint of the consultants mentioned below.
The first case was commented on by Jennifer Leake, CMC and Chief Mining Officer of Consultants Gold, Inc., and Mark Haas, CMC and founder of Research and Organizational Management, Inc. The case featured a medicare practice in which physicians saw patients but also ran a medical lab that processed their patients’ lab work. A consultant went into the medicare practice to consider bidding on installing a new computer system. During the initial meeting, the medicare practice staff stressed the need for the new system to measure the lab’s profitability. Was this a conflict of interest? Was it possible that the practice’s physicians were ordering lab work to be paid by Medicare that wasn’t entirely necessary but would positively affect the practice’s profit?
Mark Haas expressed the viewpoint that the consultant was not yet engaged with the medical practice and therefore was not required to take action on the situation as an ethics issue. He cautioned against drawing conclusions without having all the facts. He did say that the IMC Code of Ethics states that consultants are obligated to tell clients or potential clients if they are doing something wrong. Jennifer Leake sited parts of the Code of Ethics that relate to consultants maintaining objectivity and integrity. Since Jennifer had some business dealings with pharmacies in the past, she felt her background could bias her. She said she would withdraw from the opportunity because of a conflict of interest.
The second case was presented by Allan Peterson, CMC, Principal Consultant of Peterson Associates, LLC, and Larry Mandelberg, founder of Growth By Design. In this situation, a consultant lost a hard drive that contained confidential client data while travelling. The consultant arrived at his destination and, when he opened his bag, the drive was missing. Allan presented the viewpoint that until the consultant should take time to investigate and get more information about the missing drive (the drive may have been left at his previous location or may be turned in by a good samaritan). Larry sited the IMC USA Code of Ethics section that says if at any time confidential data is exposed the consultant is required to make immediate disclosure.
Bob Phillips of RW & Associates and Jim Soudriette, CMC, FIMC and General Partner of The Galaxy Organization, presented the third case about a company that wished to introduce a new, low-cost treatment for late-stage AIDS patients to an underdeveloped country. In the course of setting up the deal, the company was told that the fastest way to get the product into use in the country would be to pay a large sum (a bribe) to a local distributor. Jim presented the viewpoint that the ability to serve late-state AIDS patients trumped the fact that the company was required to pay a bribe. Bob presented the opposite view: no matter what the situation, consultants must advise their clients that it is not ethical to pay bribes, no matter what the outcome.
Which side would you take on these ethical issues for consultants? Please comment.
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As a participant I will say that many people remarked later about this discussion
I vote for more but far more contraversal issues
Thanks for the great report on our session at Confab. (For those who missed this conference, you missed a great time of learning and networking!) A slight correction on my viewpoint of the case study I represented in the ethics session. As a former pharmacist, I have an insight into the billing and practices of medical care and felt the consultant in the case study (not me) showed a bias, causing me to reference the Code of Ethics section on objectivity and bias. I felt many others might share this bias (which was supported by audience comments – guilt on the part of not only this medical practice despite limited information and no evidence to support fraud, but the medical community in general) and again emphasized the Code of Ethics point on this matter. Jennifer Leake
Jennifer, thanks for your comment. As the Confab live blogger, I apologize for misstating your view about the Medicare Practice ethics case study! I learned some interesting things about live blogging during Confab, including that live bloggers should set up blog entries with session title and speaker info with links to the speakers’ web sites, etc., in advance so they can better listen to the content during the session.
I agree with Jim’s comment that we should do the panel discussion of ethics case studies again! This discussion of ethics is one of the best I’ve heard at Confab.
I thought this was an excellent session, one that was too long in coming. I am aligned with Jim on this – May I have some more please? There are beau-coup scenarios with serious ethical and financial considerations – I would like to see us explore them more deeply. The best example of this I have seen involved several people playing different roles within a fictitious company, each explaining their position and situation. They debated a bit with each others as the story unfolded, and ultimately the audience was left with the opportunity to query the ‘employees’ and come to thier own conclusions.