In Focus Consumer Credit


business. Innovation, honesty, profitability, respect, integrity, fairness are just some examples of these values. These values can be clustered in two sets.


There are business values such as profitability or innovation, which are crucial for the success of the organisation. However, these business values need to


be complemented by ethical values, which are equally important: profitability can be a value, but not if it means ripping customers off; innovation is important, but not if it implies stealing your competitor’s ideas. The list could be endless. Core ethical values are key in the definition


of business ethics and they help us to understand what business ethics is not: ethics is not compliance. Ethics is about the application of values, whilst compliance is primarily about the respect of the law. Ethics starts where the law ends. Compliance is about what you must do


to follow the rules and, generally, it is more black and white. Ethics encourages individuals to use their


own judgement to apply their organisation’s core values to the so-called grey areas that arise, where there is no clear case of right and wrong. Both of them are clearly important, but it


is also important to bear in mind that they are not the same thing. The standards of ethical behaviour that


an organisation adopts are voluntary and often go above and beyond compliance with the law.


Supporting an ethical culture In this context, business leaders have a particular role to support an ethical culture in their organisation and apply their ethical values to the way they work, so that they are not just nice words on the company’s website, but are embedded in everyday business. Leaders have the responsibility to lead


by example, demonstrating the company’s commitment with their own behaviour and setting the tone from the top. This has a great influence on the emphasis placed on ethics within the company. I like to describe the process of building


an ethical culture as a journey that starts with ethical values, which are the compass that guides the company’s culture.


They are then explained and applied to


practical situations in the code of ethics, which acts as the map, providing guidance for employees on how to live up to those values. However, just as a map alone will not


help you get to the right destination, a code is necessary but not sufficient: to be useful and effective it needs to be supported by other elements of an ethical culture. It is important to define an internal


communication strategy to inform people that the code exists and what the values are, an ethics training programme to explain to them how to use it, the proper tools to promote an open culture where employees feel free to ask questions and report their concern, and a monitoring process to check whether the programme is working properly.


Core ethical values are key in the definition of business ethics and they help us to understand what business ethics is not: ethics is not compliance. Ethics is about the application of values, whilst compliance is primarily about the respect of the law


Conclusion Why should companies be concerned with all this? Over the years, we have gathered data and anecdotal evidence in support of the business case for ethics, showing that an ethical culture minimises risks, strengthens the relationships with key stakeholders, and, ultimately, supports the long-term sustainability of an organisation. However, there is more to it. Business ethics is important because it is the


right thing to do. Doing business ethically reinforces the role of business as a positive driver in the development of society, from which it derives its licence to operate. As our motto at the IBE goes: doing business ethically makes for better business. CCR


December 2017


www.CCRMagazine.co.uk


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