New and emerging technologies have eased our lives considerably, but they are far from perfect- along with benefits, they often bring negative impacts and unintended consequences.
The Ethics Company guides businesses make ethically informed decisions in order to mitigate potential harm, create positive impact on users and society, build differentiation, and ultimately lead to business success.
We emphasize the practice of self-regulated ethics- approaching it from a proactive, anticipatory and human-centered perspective, rather than a reactionary, technical, compliance or governance perspective.
Why we do what we do
WHY DO WE EXIST? Technology and digital artefacts are evolving at an incredible pace. The focus of companies is mostly on tech driven innovation, user centricity, quick adoption and short terms benefits of products. New technologies are beneficial, but what we think is a great product or service can often have unintended negative impacts beyond obvious benefits. We work with you to ensure that the products you create will cause no harm |
WHAT VALUE DO WE ADD? We work with you to gauge how you make ethical decisions, and guide you to create a shared ethical vision. We help integrate the code of ethics into your work processes so that you can intentionally create products that have a positive impact on users and society. This in turn helps you create differentiation in the market, and build an ethical reputation for your business. We help you make ethically informed decisions during the process of creation |
HOW DO WE DO THAT? We help you evaluate existing products or create new ones using our proprietary ethical design toolkits. Our work is based on these principles: 1. Anticipatory ethics, not reactionary solutions 2. Being humanity-centric, not just user-centric 3. Long-term impacts over short-term benefits 4. Not high-level principles, but easy-to-apply frameworks We facilitate easy application of ethical design principles in your daily work |
Why Ethics? What's in it for your business?
Ethically designed products come at a cost, requiring intentional effort, investment of time and resources. So why should companies pursue ethical design? According to Ethisphere - the company that defines and measures corporate ethical standards - investors, employees, consumers and other stakeholders value businesses that focus on the long-term, practice integrity, and invest in people and society.
Ethically designed products come at a cost, requiring intentional effort, investment of time and resources. So why should companies pursue ethical design? According to Ethisphere - the company that defines and measures corporate ethical standards - investors, employees, consumers and other stakeholders value businesses that focus on the long-term, practice integrity, and invest in people and society.
Why good ethics is great for business
Mitigate Potential Harm
Intentional ethical design helps nullify or mitigate unintended consequences that arise from products |
Outperform Others
Corporate cultures that focus on ethical principles actually create conditions that lead to success |
Attract & Retain Talent
Employees prefer working with companies that have ethical principles and practices in place |
Make a Positive Impact
Customers want to engage with companies, brands and products that are purpose-led and responsible |
Making ethical design easy to implement
One of the goals of The Ethics Company is to make ethical design accessible and easy to implement with the use of frameworks and toolkits. Our proprietary human-centered ethical design toolkits are based on learnings and insights gathered from research to understand work processes, awareness levels, and overall approach to ethical design. The toolkits have been developed specifically for different objectives and industries, and are used for the various services we provide.
Ethics Audit Toolkit
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Ethical Conversation Design
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Ethical Design for Emerging Technologies
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Background
Meet Supriya Kulkarni- a Brand strategist, Ethics advocate, Human-centered designer, Entrepreneur, and founder of The Ethics Company
Meet Supriya Kulkarni- a Brand strategist, Ethics advocate, Human-centered designer, Entrepreneur, and founder of The Ethics Company
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Supriya holds deep interest in emerging technologies, especially in how they impact individuals and society. She tries to understand the pain-points, challenges and motivations of people in order to design artefacts using a human-centered approach.
Supriya was named a finalist for the 2021 ‘Women in Voice’ awards in the ‘DEI in Voice’ category that recognizes outstanding contributions to advance diversity, equity and inclusion in voice. |
Supriya speaks at various forums on ethics and ethical design, and is passionately involved in bringing this topic to executive education. She believes it is crucial not only for creators, but also for leaders and decision-makers to understand the systemic interplay between technology, business and society, in order to make informed and responsible choices regarding the creation and deployment of future technologies.
Watch Supriya talk at Witlingo's LingoFest 2021 about her research on the unintended consequences of usage of digital voice assistants, the development of the Ethical Conversation Design toolkit, and an example of ethical considerations for voice-first solutions for socially isolated seniors. Courtesy: Witlingo
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