A Message from Our Leaders

Individuals and organisations are ultimately judged by what they do rather than what they say. Nevertheless, saying what you intend to do and crucially how you will do it, is important. It is a statement of intent. Corporate boards are increasingly being encouraged – through the Corporate Governance Code and elsewhere - to define the desired culture of their organisation and also then to check regularly that there is alignment between desired and actual culture. I believe this is also good practice for the boards of charities and for public sector boards too. Certainly, it is what the board of the IBE intends to do. 

This updated IBE Code of Ethics, including our updated Purpose and Values, in combination, represents the desired culture of the IBE. The way we want our dedicated staff team and volunteers and trustees and advisers to behave. The way we want all of our stakeholders to experience the IBE. 

We are in a unique position. Unlike the organisations we advise about their Codes of Ethics, for the IBE, Codes of Ethics are part of our core product and service. Inevitably, therefore, this IBE Code is both our expression of our own culture but also something of a sales document to encourage others to work with us to develop or refresh their own Codes. We look forward to that challenge.

 

The Institute of Business Ethics’ purpose is “to champion the highest standards of ethical behaviour in business”. It is a purpose we can all get behind and believe in; it matters.

But it would be too easy to believe that’s it, and that we will naturally develop an appropriate ethical culture. In practice though, like most things in life, we have to work at it. That’s why we have developed our Code of Ethics, to guide us as we endeavour to live up to our purpose and practice what we preach. It has been developed by employees and trustees in partnership. It defines us and what we believe in and sets out our values. It is therefore essential to creating an ethical culture. 

At the IBE, we believe firmly in the importance of ethical values and an open culture. We commit to living up to the standards we set out in our Code of Ethics. As the IBE’s Director, I am personally committed to this, and to ensure that all colleagues, regardless of role or employment status make the same commitment. It is important that we all read, understand and live the Code. And as part of our mission to disseminate the highest standards of business ethics, we will seek only to work with organisations and third parties who demonstrate similar high standards of business ethics.

At the IBE, we want to promote diversity and inclusion and a key part of that is listening to the views of all our stakeholders, both internal and external. Listen up means encouraging speak up and I would encourage everyone to feel free to speak up if you see something that you feel is inconsistent with our Code or our values. 

We want to hear from you if you have a concern, and you have my assurance that if you do need to speak up, it will be dealt with according to our agreed processes, and retaliation will not be tolerated.

Finally, it is important that we keep our Code up to date and therefore we commit to reviewing the Code at least every three years.

So let’s take pride in adopting our Code of Ethics and be proud to work for the IBE.