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Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Profit Through Ethics

Dear Mark, Profit Through Ethics was started in January 2011.   Working with companies, NGOs and campaign groups - of all shapes and sizes - we have been able to develop a unique means to champion businesses striving to be as fair, open and responsible as possible.

We will unveil the new brand and website in the coming weeks.   A formal launch is planned for April.

As such, 2013 will be the third and final year of the Profit Through Ethics project.   NO MORE 'BUSINESS AS USUAL' Business is failing to balance its pursuit of profit with the interests of wider society and has lost public trust.   In recent decades, business has increasingly shaped our world.   And one dominant objective has shaped business:  to generate as much profit as soon as possible.   In taking the fastest route to profit,  businesses have offloaded costs onto society and the environment and taken advantage of consumers,  employees,  suppliers and others.   Individual businesses which have sought a more ethical approach have risked ceding advantage to less scrupulous competitors.   Self-serving, profit-above-all-else behaviours have become ingrained.


OUR PHILOSOPHY:   THE ONLY WAY IS ETHICS


Business has never been easy.   Indeed, delivering the goods and services people need at prices they can afford is enormously challenging.   However, this is not an excuse for exploiting people or planet.   Resources are finite,  the environment is in peril,  prosperity is faltering and the gap between the winners and the losers is widening.   In our increasingly interconnected world,  attitudes and expectations are changing.   Businesses which evade tax,  violate human rights or clear rainforests are ever more visible and challengeable.   While unethical and exploitative behaviours may be understood in terms of short term profit maximisation,  they now erode a business's reputation,  brand and licence to operate like never before.   To adapt,  businesses must stop talking about being good corporate citizens or about being fair,  responsible,  sustainable or ethical.   They must now unequivocally prove it.

Those who fail to do so risk the permanent loss of public trust and the destruction of the very shareholder value they seek to protect.   Profit Through Ethics has created a powerful tool.   It is for businesses which believe that,  by proving their commitment to responsible,  sustainable behaviour across their organisations and by demonstrating a purpose to serve,  both now and long into the future,  they will achieve the greatest success.

NEXT STEPS The new brand and website will be made public in the coming weeks.   If you would like a preview,  please get in touch.   Otherwise,  watch this space.

With best wishes for 2013,

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