Your brand is your whole company...get real about business ethics

At what point do corporations get real about all the Happy Smiley stuff , and where does the responsibility lie for corporate ethics ? I certainly don't mean simply having a beautifully crafted tab about corporate social responsibility or similar "Feelgood of the day" on the corporate website .

Is there any joined up, corporate level evaluation of this stuff , should there need to be an Ethics Director on the board, or should everyone in positions of power be able to flag and stop " bad behaviour"?

Recently we all saw the video rant of the Boss of Uber;this week I read an article on the BBC about foreign Truckers working in the UK for months at a time away from home and on low wages based on pay rates in their home countries, which are insufficient for them to live decently on in the UK ...and it made me think of the behaviours of the companies using this type of working arrangements ,and that somewhere this has been sanctioned by bosses with apparently little or no regard for the welfare of their workers or sub contractors. Conditions for workers in developing economies is of course a similar issue,as are issues of animal welfare in countries with different standards....

I worked more than thirty years ago for a firm where every year,starting as a junior manager I had to sign an ethics policy document which meant that not only was I not allowed to do anything illegal or unethical or indeed ask anyone else to do similar , but that there was an anonymous phone number in Head Office to report any such attempts for any employees to use if necessary.

Let me just put a few contemporary Buzz words out there:

Purpose, Corporate social responsibility, inclusion/ diversity in the workplace,
Environmentally friendly( energy, bio environment ,emissions, recycling and waste reduction),the Gig economy, zero hours contracts...

What do they mean overall if your business behaves unethically in just one area ?

I'm not for instance suggesting closing down all factories in emerging economies as a panacea , but people up and down the supply chain need to be treated with fairness and dignity....and fairly rewarded.

I recently heard the UK managing director of a large fmcg firm complain for instance that standards of health and safety , quality assurance and employee conditions expected by UK retail customers from their private label suppliers simply didn't exist where his product raw materials came from,and that the cost of applying UK standards to his business model was culturally as well as economically unviable....with potential job losses in several countries.

Finally ,here's my "Brandbuilder" point....your brand is your whole company, your whole supply chain, how you treat your workers, your animals, your suppliers, local tax authorities...not just the shiny end product. Make sure this subject is on the agenda of every board meeting.....and on the objectives of every functional team.

The responsibility for good corporate governance should lie with each and every one of us, as employees,bosses and as consumers. It ultimately risks damaging not just people but also profits if businesses fail to properly address the wellbeing of their employees.

And just maybe for some it should be keeping them awake at night ...