CEO to students: Develop ethical “muscle memory”

At a time when the news is saturated with stories of corporate scandals, Nutrisystem President and CEO Dawn Zier offered a key piece of advice on how businesses can avoid falling into ethical traps: Be proactive.

“If you don’t define your culture, it will define itself. Your corporate culture will define how you’ll act in good times and bad,” Zier said at the 30th Annual Abraham J. Briloff Lecture Series on Accountability and Society. The series, sponsored by the School of Management, brings in speakers to discuss topics in business ethics.

Zier, who took the helm at Nutrisystem in 2012, has led the company through a significant turnaround. And while Nutrisystem is now experiencing quarter after quarter of growth, it wasn’t just a drive for profits that drove her earliest goals when she first came aboard. Zier made it her mission to establish a culture of accountability and responsibility at Nutrisystem.

Zier, who studied electrical engineering and computer science in college, did what an engineer would do. She broke down the issue, analyzed its components, and came up with a clear solution: She needed to implement a FACTS-based culture at Nutrisystem. Zier defines this as:

• F: Focused. Prioritize activities and act with a sense of urgency on those initiatives that will meaningfully move the business forward.
  
• A: Accountable. Take responsibility for our commitments, decisions and actions, and own the results regardless of the outcome.
  
• C: Customer-centric. Honor customers with a commitment to genuine service.
  
• T: Team-oriented. Work, win and overcome trials as one company. Be “all hands in.”
  
• S: Solution-oriented. When faced with problems, be equipped with solutions.
  

Zier says Nutrisystem ensures this with FACTS-based employee action plans, an open-door policy, CEO breakfasts with employees and constant feedback from the customer service center. She credits the corporate culture as one of the primary drivers of Nutrisystem’s recent success.

Zier stressed to students that college is the perfect time to develop ethical “muscle memory,” and that figuring out solutions to smaller problems now will make them more apt to act appropriately when it comes to the big decisions later in life.

“It’s easy to get an A on an assignment if you put in the effort, but it’s harder to get an A in ethics if you’re put in situations where it’s just easier to turn your head and look the other way,” Zier said.

Zier urged students to take a proactive approach while job-hunting and to research the corporate culture of the companies they are applying to.

“It’s great to get a high-paying job or a job in your field, but are you the right cultural fit for that place? There are bad corporate cultures out there. And while it may be lucrative, you don’t want to be there,” she said.

With technology growing at such a fast pace, Zier says we’re capable of doing things that we couldn’t even dream of 15 to 20 years ago. But with this growth comes a slew of new ethical issues we’ve never had to consider, and students will have to be prepared to make tough decisions regarding morality and emerging technology.

Another result of this growth is the availability of more data now than ever before. This doesn’t change the fundamental process to finding solutions though, Zier says.

“Don’t drown in the data,” she cautions. “There are times when people will give me a data dump with no story. Instead, look at it and find the pertinent info. Use the data to tell a story.”

And with today’s students being capable of new skills that earlier generations may not have a grasp on, Zier encourages students to be “hand-raisers” in whatever setting they end up in.

“Be engaged and passionate about what you do. So many times people wait to be told what to do, and sometimes leaders don’t even know how to tap into your potential. If there’s an area you think you can be a help in, raise your hand and don’t wait to be asked,” she said.

Zier, whose son graduated from Binghamton University, says School of Management students are at an advantage, as the school keeps business ethics and accountability at the forefront of their education. She says this sets students up for success in life after college.

“This is what will separate the real winners from the losers in the corporate world.”