Alacrity Housing - Ethics First

In a decade, Alacrity had revolutionized the approach to urban housing and, inspite of difficulties, it seemed to have succeeded in bringing about a sense of organization, discipline and stability in the housing sector. By 1997, Alacrity Housing had emerged as the single largest builder of residential apartments in Chennai, Tamilnadu (Refer Table I, Exhbit III, and Exhibit IV). In the process, it had proved that ethics and economics were not mutually exclusive.

However, one question was uppermost in the minds of critics: Will Alacrity last? An article⁷ asked, "How can a company, especially one in an industry as cut-throat as housing construction, survive without underhand payments, bribes and black money dealings?"

However, the founder and the core members of the group were confident that they could continue to follow their corporate philosophy (Refer Table II). They also believed that they could deal with any downturn in the industry. This optimism was reflected in the pledge taken by 31 senior executives of the Alacrity group on its seventeenth anniversary (Refer Exhibit V).