CPA Tom Walpole discussed what defines an ethical business and the effort to recognize Rochester’s best Monday during News 8 at Sunrise.

Walpole explained ethics breaches can come on a mass scale, like Enron or the Madoff ponzi scheme, or a smaller scale. “You’re going to see the small ones that people don’t really think about as an ethics violation, like at the water cooler talking about somebody’s problem with a boyfriend or girlfriend, or things like that, plus people changing golf scores, or managers unfairly taking action against one employee for something and not another. Those types of things are small business ethics violations, but they tend to go on everyday.”

Prioritizing ethics in business can have a ripple effect. “It’s going to carry-on forward,” said Walpole. “It’s going to be in your business life, and hopefully it’s going to carry-on into your private life as well. It’s going to make people trust business more. People have not trusted businesses for a long time, but there are so many good businesses out there, they just don’t make the headlines.”