The Ultimate Deal: A Code of Ethics

The Ultimate Deal has a formal code of ethics that expresses the expectations and application of business ethics toward all stakeholders. The topics include legal ethics – the need to act honestly and ethically faced to legal matters including regulations, inspections, taxes, etc.; ethics in dealings toward investors, keeping them informed and involved; ethics toward customers, ensuring responsibility, reliability and coherence, providing what has been committed to; ethics toward the press in terms of advertising and press releases; ethics toward employees including rights and duties and ethics toward the executive officers, both in terms of how they should be treated and what their duties are. The code of ethics is distributed to all shareholders. Each category of shareholder (executive, employee, investor, customer…) receives a verbal explanation of the ethics that apply to them, and have the opportunity to voice any concerns or questions. Ethics applied to customers are also posted in the appropriate customer service and sales areas for public viewing. Decisions, in terms of whether or not to proceed with an initiative or project are made based on the code of ethics. Rewards are also determined based on ethics: financial raises, and awards such as employee of the month/year take the code of ethics into consideration as a major determining factor.

The code is reviewed in employee evaluations and in the weekly managerial meetings (application of the code) and yearly or twice yearly evaluations of the mission statement (effectiveness and appropriateness of the code). Ethics are emphasized to recruits and trainees, who are required to thoroughly read the code of ethics prior to the second employment interview, and also receive specific training about ethics and its application during their orientation.

Monitoring the