He channeled his interest in figuring out why things work to figuring out why people misbehave and decided to dedicate his career to finding ways to accomplish the goals of business without compromising ethics. For the last 30 years, Robin has done just that as a business professor focusing on marketing and ethics at schools including the University of Southern Mississippi, Louisiana Tech University and Mississippi State University. We can and must work together. I believe that if that happens, businesses with ethics can be more profitable in the long run. With the movement toward a knowledge-based economy, companies that operate on the idea that the law of the jungle rules will ultimately fail, Robin says.
Assets now are less plants and machinery and more between the ears of the employees.
No company can escape hard business decisions, Robin says, but it's the way they carry out those decisions that makes the difference. With TQM, for example, it's a formula for disaster if you give employees more freedom and they don't like you. Businesses have got to treat their employees, consumers and suppliers ethically and fairly. Robin seeks to show his students how to think about and solve ethical problems. But I can catch students who want to be ethical and show them how to do it.