From Mr Paul Basson.
Sir, John Plender and Avinash Persaud ("When compliance is not enough", August 21) rightly assert that the importance of business ethics has, until now, been dangerously ignored by many corporations. But the debate now needs to move on from whether building and maintaining an ethical corporate culture is a good thing - it absolutely is - to how company managers can use that culture to positive ends.
This will demonstrate how a focus on ethics can create real value for companies, and hopefully encourage more of them to take ethics seriously.
Establishing a unified corporate culture is increasingly important in a global economy where merger and acquisition activity is frequent and often crosses borders. Following a multinational merger - Mittal-Arcelor and O2-Telefónica would be recent examples - the management faces a huge challenge in ensuring all employees understand that the new company has a single identity and, just as importantly, a single set of values to which it works.
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