The Two Headed Coin

CHAPTER 9Risk Culture and Ethics: Can You Have Excellence and Consistency at the Same Time?

In the competitive landscape of today's financial institutions and many other service industries the articulated value propositions are depressingly similar. Yet, some organizations succeed in the battle for customers and others fall by the wayside. Why is this so? The answer lies in the successful execution of the strategy, which in turn is the result of the nurturing of the appropriate organizational culture.¹ On the positive side, there is plenty of evidence that although a toxic culture destroys value, a strong and resilient culture fully championed and embodied by the very top of the organization (read: CEOs and directors) can and will add long-term sustainable value to the company's reputation and financial bottom line.² Although many have focused on the role of culture for the successful execution of strategies, fewer have focused on the links between ethics and integrated, enterprise risk management, which must fit with the appropriate culture. To understand this, we must focus on the term value in value proposition.

Strategies succeed when they produce superior value for customers with a cost structure that ensures appropriate returns.³ We argue that for service industries the role of the provider, or advisor, at the moment of truth makes the organizational culture especially critical in the successful delivery of customer value.⁴ We are certain that many serious readers will ...