B. Describe the situation with the greatest ethical complexity that you have faced in your professional or academic life, and how your input helped resolve it.

Waqas MunirJanuary 2016 Application

What I do…•I am a Director of two leather tanneries that process raw hides and skins for products such as bags and sofas

•As a family business, our corporate culture is based on employee empowerment with an emphasis on teamwork and social and ethical responsibility.

The Situation in 2011

▫ Unethical practices such as misdeclaration and tax evasion created a shortage of raw materials for tanneries.

▫ The industry was losing 4.5 million bovines and 14 million goats and sheep per year in potential value addition, due to exports of raw hides and skins. (Source: Mwinyihija Mwinyikione, ‘Performance Brief – Leather and Leather Products Division’, unpublished paper, using UN Commodity Trade Statistics for 2003)

▫ Kenya has long suffered from tax evasion after export duties have been raised. (M. Mwinyikione, Developing the Leather Sector in Kenya)

This led to...

The newspaper cutting shows the effect of increasing raw exports on manufacturing units in Kenya (Daily Nation,

The practices got extensive news coverage however it continued in to 2012 meaning that manufacturers such as ourselves were going through a period of decline thereby reversing our growth.

The Dilemma…

I had to lay off workers and yet I was unable to compete with traders who were benefiting from loose regulations and corrupt officials.We had to decide a way forward which would ensure the long term sustainable future of the company.

Ethical Complexity!Should we participate in the unethical business activities of our competitors or continue to shrink in just our second year of operations?

How I felt?• As the leader and the one directly responsible for procurement I felt

it was my responsibility to ensure supply regardless of market situations.

• However I felt that engaging in unethical practices would not only affect my career in the long term, but they were against our company values and therefore I had to find a better way to solve the problem

I was torn as I had to choose between growing my business by engaging in unethical practices or sacrificing growth in order to operate in a socially responsible manner.

My decisionDespite operating at 50% capacity throughout 2011, I decided that it would be against my personal values as well as that of my company to follow the practices of our competitors who were chasing short-term profits.

I chose NOT to use the easy way out by utilising my base and existing networks in Kenya to evade taxes like my competitors but instead looked for other sustainable ways of keeping my industry alive.

My efforts...• The determination to meet my

targets as well as ensuring that the tannery ran at full capacity drove me to build networks in new suppliers in countries such as Mauritania, Gambia and UAE.

• I developed alternate sources of supply for the tannery without having to test my conscience by gaining profit through immoral practices.

The Result…• We became the first

tannery in Kenya to import and process UAE origin material and created a niche market for this new product in the Turkish market.

• We managed to create a niche product from Dry hides for military boots in India and for working gloves in Pakistan

Drying of Goat skins in Ajman, UAE

Meeting a supplier in Mauritania in 2012

Loading the first shipment of UAE skins in Al Ain, 2011

The Result The tannery was able to grow and expand its workforce re-hiring some of the workers we had to let go in the first place. This was achieved without any participating in any complex ethical issues such as tax evasion or bribery and unfair competition.

We managed to enter new markets by offering a variety of origins of varying qualities thus limiting our reliance on the Chinese market and spreading our customers across different regions.

What I Learnt…• The easy way is not always the right way!

• It is better to sacrifice short term growth and profitability instead of using unethical means to achieve short term gain

• Gained valuable experience working in different countries - learning things which will be useful in the future. Handling activities such as exports in different countries exposed me to the various experiences of working in each country.

• Best of all, I got the chance to travel looking for reliable suppliers which further exposed me to different cultures and the diversity in the world .