"Relativity applies to physics not ethics," opined the prescient Albert Einstein and today as we survey a tottering corporate world collapsing due to compromised ethical foundations his words ring especially, if painfully, true.

For over the course of the past two decades the convenience of "relativism" was applied to ethical behavior -- "Our competitors are doing it so should we"; "It's established market practice so let's flout norms like the others"; "The law is an Ass, let's take it for a ride"; "The regulators are asleep at the switch so let's make opportunistic hay while the sun shines"; "The consumer is ignorant, let's fleece her while we can"; "Bonus as the main performance driver" and other such misplaced priorities.

Greed became the opiate of the corporate masses and it came disguised in subtle alluring forms and mantras of the heady 80s and irrationally exuberant 90s -- maximizing shareholder value, quarterly result linked remuneration, super sizing of corporations, quest for domination not just competition, race for the billionaires club, the CEO as a celebrity, the leverage game and so on.

Fueled by the gang of usual suspects -- greedy CEOs, sycophantic senior management, pliable supervisory boards, conniving auditors, clueless ratings agencies, gullible investors and an undiscerning business media -- greed and its ensuing acts of commission and omission have produced a litany of costly scandals and collapsed enterprises.

From Daewoo Corporation that collapsed under the weight of US$70 billion in debt in 1999 to Enron's $17 billion collapse in 2001 triggered by bogus book keeping and fictitious activities. From WorldCom's $11 billion accounting scam led collapse in 2002 to Italian dairy company Parmalat's $18 billion collapse in 2003 in which a $5 billion cash hole was discovered. From Japanese company Livedoor's scandals in 2006 to the Wall Street mayhem in 2008 in which self-serving greed drove once reputed firms into the seemingly bottomless abyss of subprime lending that has triggered the second great depression. And at the start of 2009 the depressing Wall Street Journal headline that Satyam means "Sanskrit for Enron", a reference to the $1.5 billion fraud in one of India's largest IT companies.

Of course, satyam means truth in Sanskrit but such is the damaging impact of corporate greed today that even the sanctity of this great word has been sullied. So when greed has become the overpowering corporate religion what should our response be?

A fitting one would be that of unequivocal rejection. To quote the words of the visionary Indian philosopher, Swami Vivekananda, "morals, ethics and religion are convertible terms. A moral life without religion is like a house built on sand; a religion divorced from morality is like a sounding brass gong only for making noise and breaking heads. I reject any religious doctrine that does not appeal to reason and is in conflict with morality."

The practice of business using business ethics as a moral compass must similarly start with a clear denunciation of greed as the guiding corporate religion. This denunciation must in practical terms reject "temptations" that result in misguided behaviors -- focus on narrow shareholders over wider stakeholders, the obsession with short over long term, unjustified remuneration models that are number driven, manipulation of professional codes of conduct and the panic to exceed analyst expectations. How about a passion to instead exceed customer or employee or community expectations?

"In matters of style swim with the current, in matters of principle stand like a rock," said Thomas Jefferson. Business ethics require a similar steadfast approach. Responsibility and compliance should be non-negotiable irrespective of business cycles, competitor tactics, the frustrations of the operating environment or the distraction of quick bucks. And their must be robust checks and balances to see that these principles are not compromised with early admission of mistakes rather than prolonged cover-ups that only end up in disaster. For without ethics the business model is truly "built on sand".

Those who naively believe that the big bad world of the corporate rat race is only about numbers need to study the enduring business successes of our time and realize how successful corporations while clearly mindful of growth and profits, ensure their operations are not hitched to these alone. Take Toyota for example. According to David Magee, author of How Toyota became No 1, the company's famous Toyota Production System is a collection of manufacturing methods that incorporates three key philosophies "customer first, employee satisfaction and company stability". This ethic supersedes financial ambitions and not the other way around. This is a far cry from the crazy roulette world of Bernie Madoff and his ilk which beneath their respectable social faces were conducting an "I first, my satisfaction, mine only" version of Ponzi or rip off schemes.

"Ethics and values transcend the legal framework. They form the protocol for conduct and behavior in a community for each of its members. So that it enhances the confidence, the enthusiasm, the energy and joy of everyone else in the community" are the words of NR Narayana Murthy one of the pioneers of Indian IT. Murthy alludes to an important point regarding business ethics -- ultimately companies must strive to be self regulating. The instruments and conduct of modern business is too complex for poorly resourced and ill equipped regulators to comprehensively govern.

Companies must also revisit their HR policies and overhaul practices that have thrown up the crop of many mediocre and compromised leaders over the past decades. Men and women of integrity, intellectual depth, conscience and diligence are the need of the hour. Look closely and you will find some suitable candidates within your own workforce perhaps sidelined by the hyper aggressive and political types.

"What you cannot enforce, do not command" said the Greek playwright Sophocles. Without consistent enforcement business ethics are but nice sounding PR. To stop the corporate hemorrhage, greed driven spinners need to be shown the door and courageous enforcers brought back to revive forgotten business ethics.

The columnist is the CEO of IndonesiaWISE, an international strategic and management consulting company. Insight appears on the second Wednesday of each month.

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