MANZANO, JADE P.

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Managerial Ethics Dean Andres Ignacio “Chito” C. San Mateo Jr.

Networking: Is it ethical or unethical?

Networking per se is ethical. As defined by Francisco J. Colayco, networking is a marketing

system and not by itself a business. And as such, according to him, it has proven to be quite effective for
selling certain types of products and services directly to the consumer though it bypasses media
advertising as it is usually conducted through word of mouth. Likewise, as intelligibly discussed by him, a
good legitimate networking business can give us either active or passive income. Active income is
earned through actual physical effort of selling products and services while Passive income or “unearned
income” came from the recruiter’s “downlines” or from his own business center. Thus, networking as a
marketing tool is definitely interesting as people can establish business relationship while, at the same
time, generating possible lucrative earnings.

However, as years passed by, Networking or Multi-level marketing (MLM) became a

controversial marketing strategy as people tend to take the bait once they heard the "kitaan" or
"compensation plan" and then they misleadingly inspired prospects to the 'million-income-potential' out
of this business tactic. With that, networking became a “devil’s advocate” to make other people become
greedy, dishonest and exploitative. For me, this is an absolute form of moral deception which is
undoubtedly reprehensible. While at the onset, the main purpose is to encourage someone to invest
and become business-minded but, if subsequently, the one recruited was deceptively enticed not just to
gain income by selling products and services but, more so, to attract and exploit vulnerable people - the
desperate, the unemployed and the ignorant by making them believed that they will quickly earn by
simply establishing massive downlines.

Having said my unsolicited opinion above, networkers might say that I “overreacted” by
indicting them of giving “false hopes” as there are in fact real and legitimate products and services. Now,
my simple question is, granting that the products and services are real and commensurate to the
amount invested, is there really a need to give emphasis on “possible millions of income” once you
massively recruited than direct selling those legitimate commodities? To my mind, not anymore
because, by doing so, you could maliciously entice and mislead others to invest not just to do primarily
the selling, but rather, to create his own “sales force” from where he could easily get commissions.

Though initially, networking, as a legitimate business strategy in commerce, is proven to be

effective and less costly in developing sales opportunities as networkers introduce and offer their
products either face-to-face, in a meeting or gatherings, social networking websites, etc., it resembles
into “pyramiding scam” once the recruiter was primarily motivated to bring and recruit his “downlines”
so as persuade the latter to do the same. In crafting such motivations, the essence of our genuine desire
in influencing our prospective business partners the attitudes of hard work, determination and
perseverance is now at stake. Likewise, it develops the wrong notion of “hard-selling” in transacting
business.
 To reiterate, networking is not unethical and not even illegal per se as long as the company
conducting such marketing strategy is registered perhaps with the Securities and Exchange Commission
or the Department of Trade and Industry as the case may be and the products/services being offered as
well are likewise registered with the aforementioned government agencies, to the Bureau of Internal
Revenue, Food and Drug Administration, etc. On the contrary and unfortunately, majority of the
networkers were gravely induced in planting “false hopes” while some are trying to intentionally deceive
investors and consumers with regards to the products they are trying to advertise, offer or sell.
Henceforth, fraudulent statements are obviously a form of moral deception.

Furthermore, networking became even more dubious if there is no product at all. As a

marketing person, I would definitely suggest that any company who wanted to consider networking as a
marketing strategy should perhaps consider it as a mere supplement or just a secondary tool in
business. Precisely, if networking would be the primary marketing strategy of any company, most often
than not, majority of the recruiters’ minds could be easily corrupted by the millions of potential income
and they could be easily motivated to recruit in exchange of “easy money” out of unethical business
persuasions.

In parting, in the attainment of financial success in business, we must strictly adhere in

upholding genuine effort with selfless motives coupled ands insurmountable hardwork that is free from
any fraudulent means and untainted goodwill. We must neither create nor offer unsubstantiated
thoughts for others to gamble, take a risk or financially invest into something he is incapable of
generating profits. Moreso, in establishing long-term business rapport, we must inculcate to our
prospective business partners the virtues of genuine hard work, grueling determination, discipline,
perseverance, enormous preparations and massive planning. Therefore, we must set aside
misrepresentations that develop outward theft, scams and corruptions in business. Finally, in every
forming our decisions, be it in investing precious time, effort or limited financial resources, we must
cautiously take into consideration the possible losses, risks and implications for us not to be persuaded
and misled by deceiving returns of easy money.