President: Good leadership is good business
1 Jul 08
More work can be done to help CAs promote ethical behaviour in business
by Glenn Allison
How far down your list of business objectives is being “good”? It’s probably below developing your client relationship management systems. It’s probably below creating your new marketing strategy. It’s almost certainly below growing your profits.
By being “good”, of course, I mean behaving ethically – and demonstrating a commitment to ethics seems to me to be moving rapidly up the business agenda.
That’s not just because of high-profile cases such as the allegations of unethical behaviour which surfaced recently in relation to business practices in the defence industry. It seems to me to be something more profound and lasting.
Let’s look at investment. There have been “ethical” funds now for some time which will not invest in businesses such as the arms trade. These funds are growing and more and more new “ethical” funds are starting up, suggesting a big appetite and growing market for this investment approach.
At a challenging time for attracting lending, we should all pay heed to the example of the Co-operative Bank, which recently disclosed the number of loans that it has refused on ethical grounds.
This was not a new development for the bank, but the media profile which the decision attracted was telling. There can be few greater prompts to examine and improve the ethical behaviour of a business than when the issue begins to affect the ability to attract funding.
Expectations have also changed. A recent ICAS project tested the views of recently qualified CAs – what was most important to them about ICAS and their career.
It is clear that, while salary and personal development are still very important factors in choosing which employer to plump for, corporate behaviour is a major consideration for the business leaders of the future.
They do not want to work for companies that are perceived as greedy, secretive or acting against the best interests of society. So, if business wants the best talent, it has to be “good”.
ICAS, of course, continues to demonstrate its commitment to ethical behaviour. Business ethics is a core part of CA training and our influential research on the topic has been well received by the profession and by regulators. CAs are guided in their careers by a code of ethics designed to help them to make the right decisions.
However, what we learn about ethics as students and discover through research tends to be more focused on the practice environment. As a member in business, I believe that all CAs have a responsibility to promote the ethical knowledge that we have picked up, in whatever organisation we work – practice, business or the voluntary sector. One of the best ways that our understanding of ethics can grow is by sharing experiences. As many of you will know, What do you do now?, a superb ICAS publication which features 28 ethical dilemmas faced by chartered accountants in their work, was launched in May.
The author, David Molyneaux, a practitioner for many years, is keen to create a similar publication which concentrates on the dilemmas that are more likely to be faced by members in business.
David would like to hear from any members who have been confronted or confounded by an ethical quandary and are willing to share its key issues in a non-judgmental and anonymised form. Initial contact can be through d.molyneaux@abdn.ac.uk
I hope some of you will take the time to do this. As CAs, we can work together to ensure a “good” business environment becomes even better.