Before discussing business in general, it is important that we understand what it means. The term business can be defined as the production, purchase and sales of goods and services in order to make a profit. For every business to still remain substantial, profit making is a necessity considering the fact that a lot takes place. First production which requires money to buy the required materials needed for the production after which these products are delivered to the market for purchase from middle men, wholesalers, retailers and final consumers. When all these have taken place, resources time and effort has been spent and at the end nothing to gain from, the main objective of the business has no point at all.
It is from the profit gained that costs of whatever that is spent during all the processes involved are recovered back and to still push the business forward. True a lot of businesses fixed outrageous prices forgetting that above the profit that is being made, it is important to maintain a healthy relationship. Sometimes what makes customers stop patronizing some vendors is because of their prices forgetting that we have what we call competitive demand where if the price of a particular goods goes up, a similar product would replace it.
Ethics in the workplace cannot be over emphasized because aside from a business making its profit, this is what will determine if the business will still be in place for the next ten years. Certain rules and regulations must be put in place and the organization sees to it that these rules must be followed. No doubt that without integrity, accountability, transparency etc, a business cannot stand the test of time. A business must be known for its integrity because this is what will bring more stakeholders into the company, the company must be accountable for the consumers including its staff and finance. A little mistake with an organization's funds can lead to a great fall leading to bankruptcy or crash in that company. And lastly transparency. There is nothing as sweet as being transparent in business. Among the three mentioned, there are so many ethics a business must portray.
In order to strike a balance, between making so much profits and still maintaining a top-notch business ethics, a fair pricing strategy should be implemented meaning that the business will not run on a loss, still making it's profit and at same time the prices fair to the consumers and also avoiding hiking prices especially in economic crisis. Also I will say the business should engage in a long term over short term gains. This means that the business focuses more on its growth than quick profits fixing unethical prices. These and many more more can help strike a balance for the business that is the business still makes it profit and at same time gain trust and loyalty from the general public.
Note: profit is essential for every business likewise business ethics these two work handy and when one is missing, be sure of a crash.