Just about every business person says they want to run a responsible, even ethical business. The reality of course is rather different.
The price of organisations acting unethically rises almost exponentially, seemingly daily. Ask Jamie Dimon at J.P. Morgan for example, where the bank’s fines and penalties for wrong doing have now escalated to be almost double the amount facing poor old BP!
Or try HSBC, where they’ve had to hire several thousand new compliance staff to try and re-establish a battered reputation for responsible banking, following the money laundering fiasco in their Mexico offices.
And don’t even bother to call Barclays’ CEO for an opinion as he’s far too busy trying to change the culture and sees it as an uphill struggle at least five years. Let’s hope his shareholders give him that long.
Into this heady atmosphere riddled with the endless rules of compliance and enforcement staff comes my hopeful new book Ethical Leadership: Creating and Sustaining an ethical business culture (launched this week by Kogan Page). Will anyone care?
Maybe not. Far too many business leaders are still struggling with what it means to run a responsible business. Most though, will also confess it’s not that high on their agenda and their shareholders are not exactly pressing them hard on the issue.
What I have tried to do in this new book is to synthesise the vast amount of advice and material out there on business ethics into a coherent account of how you might go about actually becoming an ethical leader.
I’ve stuffed it full of practical strategies, case studies, and action points to help leaders improve and manage an ethical culture. Will anyone actually read it? Will you?
While I have yet to read the book, topic is thought provoking. Being an Ethics Counsellor in my company, I have been asking myself: Is implementing ethical practices in the organization enough? What about the society in which we operate? There is so much of pressure on the corporates from the rapidly getting corrupted ecosystem, that corporates need to struggle hard in retaining their Ethical standpoint.
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Thanks for your comment to my short rant! It would be interesting to know more about what it means to be an Ethics Counsellor in your company, what impact you have and your current successes and frustrations.
Although we both agree that "corporates need to struggle hard in retaining their Ethical standpoint" I would say that most are not even at the starting gate of arriving first at an Ethical Standpoint, " fondly believing it's enough to pursue the mechanics of compliance.
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Ethics Counsellor in corporates are also called Ethics Officer. Role of Ethics Officer is to manage business ethics related issues and also generate awareness on company's Code of Conduct.
My suggestion was mainly driven from my belief that corporates play key role in the society and therefore, they need to be supported well by the ecosystem so that they not only maintain compliance within but also enforce in all their dealings.
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Interesting thanks. How does this role differ from a conventional Compliance Officer or is it the same in all but name?
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IT IS SO INTERESTING TO KNOW THAT MANAGEMENT IN MOST ORGANISATION SEE NO NEED TO INSTITUTE POLICIES AND CHECKS ON ETHICAL COMPLIANCE WHICH WILL SERVE US GUIDE AND INSTRUMENT IN MONITORING,UNTIL SOMETHING BIG ERUPTS THROUGH NON COMPLIANCE TO THE ORGANISATIONS ETHICS BEFORE THEY START RUNNING WILD.
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Yes, it is interesting but unfortunate. Because, when an unethical act is unveiled the reputation of the organization gets damaged. What one can repair is the product or process but not the reputation. It takes hell a lot of time and money to regain the reputation. Those organizations who realize this fact are the ultimate winner of the race. Organizations with the sound principles and strong business values do have process & practices to manage business ethics.
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