Last January 12, 2023, the Financial Executives Institute of the Philippines (FINEX) through its Ethics Committee made the first batch of donations of the Volume 2 of Ethics Book “ ETHICS: EVOLVING OR ENDURING” to students in the different schools and universities in the province of Negros.
This is just the start since we are planning to distribute more books in other colleges and universities in the Philippines. Why are we making students as our beneficiaries for these book donations?
First of all let me explain first why there is a Volume II of FINEX Ethics Book. So many significant unprecedented global events had taken place since we released the Volume 1 of the Ethics Book such as the pandemic and with it the rise of online usage such as online purchases, virtual conferences and meetings, employees working from home further complicated the disruption with the rise of digitalization. However, with the rise came the worsening of cyber scams such as fake information, fake products, social engineering attacks, etc.
We came out with this book to address the evolving ethical issues that came with the disruptive events. This could serve as a guide when ethical issues in business confronts the businessman or executive.
As an advocacy of FINEX through Past President Michael Guarin and presently the newly-inducted FINEX President Wilson Tan with the support and with the help of our Liaison Director Ms. Florencia Tarriela, the Ethics Book Volume II as with the Volume I aims to prepare the students through this Ethics Book, how to handle ethical issues that confronts businesses today.
We have a myriad of writers who are successful in their own right and came from different industry sectors, contributed their time and talent to share their thoughts in this book. With this varied experiences, the students will get to read and learn from these writers the ethical challenges they faced and how they were able to handle it.
During the book donation, as one of the authors of the Book, I shared how our world is turning into a world of deception. By warning students of the ethical standards being rampantly violated in online activities such as not to believe everything they read in social media, recognizing some social engineering attacks in order not to be victims of it and related topics. There is a huge area of ethical challenges with technological advancements but due to limited time I have to limit my discussion in certain areas only.
As early as possible, this Book aims to help students learn not necessarily the mistakes from others but hopefully will open their eyes to the different problems and challenges besetting our different industries with the aim of preparing them as they join the workforce or entrepreneurship or whatever industry they will embark in the future.
Eleonor Roosevelt once said “ “Learn from the mistakes of others. You can't live long enough to make them all yourself.”
(Wilma Miranda is a Managing Partner of Inventor, Miranda & Associates, CPAs, Chair of the Ethics Committee of FINEX, BOD Member of Negros Outsourcing Services, Inc., and BOD member of KPS Outsourcing, Inc. The views expressed herein do not necessarily reflect the opinion of these institutions.)