Niccolo Machiavelli's The Prince

In modern day, businesses measure prosperity by their ability to earn profit and revenues; however, there are limits to how a business should run for their personal gain. This is where ethics comes in the matter. Ethics are an important requirement for human life because they establish an individual’s moral judgements between right and wrong. Humans are guided to organize their goals and values to the degree of their importance through ethics. With that said, ethics are just as necessary in business practices. The fifteenth-century author Niccolò Machiavelli wrote The Prince during the Renaissance period as a guide, offering proper advice on how to rule, as some rulers at the time simply lack the capability to do so. Machiavelli provides advantages

To this day, his concepts still hold virtue and merit, as they can be applied in society and business practices and appear apparent in many companies. Take Adidas for example, which has been around since 1949. Adidas is a German sportswear and apparel company that also owns Reebok and Taylor Made. As the largest sportswear company in Europe, and second largest sportswear company in the world following Nike, Adidas promotes the importance of sports culture in everyday human life. Adidas has been able to grow and achieve their acquired success through the guidance of Machiavelli, as he discusses his enlightening ideas and procedures in The Prince, adapting them to business

In order for a ruler to maintain his power, he must have a strong sense of ethics. For a ruler to be ethical, Machiavelli states “[s]o a prince needn’t have all the good qualities I have listed, but he does need to appear to have them. And I go this far: to have those qualities and always act by them is injurious, and to appear to have them is useful—to appear to be merciful, trustworthy, friendly, straightforward, devout, and to be so, while being mentally prepared to switch any virtue off if that will serve your purposes” (Machiavelli 18.6). In other words, Machiavelli stresses rulers to appear ethical to the eyes of his citizens. A ruler must be “merciful, trustworthy, friendly, straightforward, devout…” These characteristics gives a Prince the impression of a proper ruler, resulting in his citizens to willingly submit to him. As a business concept, the Prince would represent a company, while the citizens are a metaphor for workers and employees. A business must be ethical in order to maintain power and order within the company. Adidas is an example of a well organized company with a strong sense of ethics to please