Managers and Leaders Who Can: How you survive and succeed in the new economy

CHAPTER 1

VALUES AND ETHICS

Ethics and values are critical. Business can no longer get by saying one thing and doing another.

Jackie Orme, CEO, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development

Values and ethics have a vital role to play in the modern business world. Leaders and managers are faced with an increasingly complex and challenging business environment. They are battling to keep up with the pace of technological change, struggling to fend off growing competition and grappling with a difficult economic climate.

In the midst of this maelstrom, a strong set of values can serve to illuminate the way ahead. They are the foundation for strong leadership and management, the glue that sticks the organisation together and the unwritten code that helps managers make the right decisions about what they do and how they do it. Values help employees make sense of the new and constantly changing challenges they are being asked to take on and give them a clear picture of how the organisation wants them to behave.

There are some high-profile examples of organisations that have achieved outstanding results by putting values at the heart of everything they do. Virgin and Pret A Manger, for example, are both highly successful businesses with a distinctive, ethical approach. This is not just tokenism, but a deep-seated ethos that permeates both organisations. Virgin, for example, places huge emphasis across its operations on being a responsible service provider, managing its impact on the ...