Month: December 2021

Global Ethics and Compliance Community Tops 355 Members, Including Visa, Mastercard, Hertz, Hitachi, and Lennox International Inc.

Phoenix, AZ, December 7, 2021 – Ethisphere®, a global leader in defining and advancing standards of ethical business practices, announced today a continued expansion of the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance™ (BELA), a global community of governance, ethics, and compliance leaders collaborating to drive best practices.

BELA membership grew by 18 member companies representing leading global organizations in the retail, education, transportation, logistics, finance, technology, and energy sectors. The BELA community now includes more than 355 member companies.

BELA’s newest member companies include:

• Affinity Federal Credit Union
• Clarios
• Data#3
• Dun & Bradstreet
• Farfetch
• GEODIS
• Hertz
• Hitachi, Ltd.
• HollyFrontier Corporation
• Kohler Co.
• Lennox International Inc.
• Mastercard
• Meta
• New York University
• NextEra Energy, Inc.
• NW Natural
• Victoria’s Secret & Co.
• Visa

“Following a year of pandemic-driven disruption, this year has developed into one of unparalleled engagement from our BELA members, which has really enabled this community to grow,” said Kevin McCormack, Executive Vice President, and Executive Director, BELA. “So many companies have had to change their strategy completely, and the ethics and compliance leaders have a pivotal role to play in those pursuits. Whether it is specific data that can drive their decisions, new models for enhancing ESG efforts, or better measurement on ethical culture as the workforce changes, BELA has served as a cornerstone to connect the people responsible for transformation across the integrity function and equip them with the information they need to advance their programs.”

“We are excited to join the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance, a best-in-class community that will connect us with like-minded ethical organizations to collaborate and share best practices as we evolve our global programs to protect and grow our storied brand,” said Spencer Daly, Managing Attorney, Corporate Compliance, Dun & Bradstreet.

“Joining BELA enhances Hitachi’s commitment to building a world-class business ethics program,” said David Karas, Chief Compliance Officer, Hitachi, Ltd. “BELA offers an opportunity for Hitachi to join other values-based companies that recognize the connection between ethical business behavior and strong operating performance and brand reputation.”

“Lennox International has a 125-year history of success founded on the principles of integrity, respect, and excellence. We look forward to collaborating with organizations across industries that are also committed to ‘doing the right thing’ for all stakeholders,” said Betty Ungerman, Vice President, Deputy GC, ESG Leader, and Chief Ethics & Compliance Officer at Lennox International. “BELA also offers practical guidance on best practices – from program benchmarking against peer companies to masterclasses, expert insights, and other resources.”

Latest Research and Insights

As BELA members, global teams can tap a wide range of resources, from exclusive data insights, executive roundtables, and sessions at virtual forums, to company-contributed work product, webinars, and reports from working groups on emerging topics of importance to senior leaders.

BELA’s most recent releases include a newly launched Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) working group research report, entitled Integrating ESG into your Organization: Selecting the Right Model. The report was produced by a BELA ESG Working Group with contributors from 3M, Amazon, Arthur J. Gallagher, Control Risks, DuPont, KKR, Novo Nordisk, the Coca-Cola Company, and others.

Members also gained access to insights on E&C Reporting Structures based on the practices of the World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition program.

Ethisphere also shared new resources in the BELA Member Hub, including a presentation developed by Ethisphere titled An Introduction to KPIs for Ethics & Compliance Program Reporting; and roundtable presentations on Healthcare Conflicts of Interest from Tenet Healthcare Corporation, and The Benefits of a Combined Audit and Compliance Program from Baptist Health South Florida.

BELA Member Benefits
BELA members receive enterprise-wide access to the BELA Member Hub—a premier repository of key resources featuring examples of work, presentations and research provided by BELA companies, exclusive data from Ethisphere’s unparalleled data set, program benchmarking, and expert reports, event sessions and other insights. To request guest access to the BELA Member Hub, click here.

BELA member organizations, inclusive of academic institutions, represent more than 60 industries headquartered in 15 different countries. It has become a pivotal platform of connected leadership dedicated to progressing company standards and practices across global and regional business ecosystems.

BELA chapters span the Americas, Europe, and Asia Pacific. BELA members recently joined two recent virtual Forums in South Asia, and Europe, offering insights on topics including human rights in the supply chain, ESG, whistleblowers, manager preparedness, data analytics, data privacy and ethics, human capital management, and more. Another Forum is scheduled in the Asia Pacific region on December 9^th. To register, visit https://ethisphere.com/events.

About BELA
Founded by Ethisphere, the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) is a globally recognized organization of leading companies collaborating to share best practices in governance, risk management, compliance, and ethics. BELA’s membership has since grown to a global community of companies that recognize the inherent value of promoting ethical leadership and a world-class compliance culture. Learn more about BELA by visiting http://bela.ethisphere.com.

About Ethisphere 

Ethisphere is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust, and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA), and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere also helps to advance business performance through data-driven assessments, benchmarking, and guidance. For more information, visit https://ethisphere.com

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Media Contact
Anne Walker
[email protected]

 

Small- and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs) in Health Sectors with Mature Ethics and Compliance
Programs Outperformed During the COVID-19 Pandemic in the APEC region

Phoenix, AZ – December 2, 2021 – Health-related small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) with high or medium ethics program maturity had stronger economic performance during the COVID pandemic, according to research conducted by Ethisphere, a global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices. The report can be downloaded from Ethisphere.com-APEC Report.

The study breaks new ground in measuring the positive return on ethics on the bottom line. It was done in collaboration with Professor Laura Spence of the University of London Royal Holloway and made possible through co-funding by the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum (APEC) and  the International Federation of Pharmaceutical Manufacturers and Associations (IFPMA), in the context of APEC’s new Vision 2025 roadmap.

The research indicated that surveyed companies were more likely to grow revenues locally and with international customers, add employees, increase employee wages, and also expand businesses into new markets. The research was undertaken as part of the Business Ethics for APEC SMEs Initiative, the world’s largest public-private, multi-sectoral partnership to advance business ethics in the medical device and biopharmaceutical sectors, which is overseen by the U.S. Department of Commerce.

More than two-fifths (43%) of companies surveyed reported having increased their investment in ethics and compliance resources during the pandemic, and only 6% reduced their investment. Among those who increased investment, the most common reasons cited were increased focus on compliance from the industry (52.8%), an increased focus on compliance from society (39.9%), and specific requests from domestic and international customers/partners (each at 33.7%).

“This study sends a strong message to businesses everywhere—a robust ethics and compliance program is a competitive advantage,” said Diane Farrell, Acting Under Secretary for International Trade at the U.S. Department of Commerce. “It also illustrates the importance of global companies helping to advance the practices of third parties by clearly stating expectations and also providing guidance and resources to improve program maturity.”

Rady Johnson, Executive Vice President, Chief Compliance, Quality & Risk Office at Pfizer, serves as the Chair of the Ethics and Business Integrity Committee of IFPMA. He said, “IFPMA and its members are committed to helping advance ethical business practices that serve the pharmaceutical and health-related sectors around the globe. This research reinforces the value and benefit of doing business with integrity for companies of all sizes.”

Thomas Cueni, Director General of IFPMA and Industry Co-Chair of the APEC Biopharmaceutical Working Group on Ethics, agreed and added that “This study shows that companies are putting greater attention on adopting ethics programmes, adding them into a broader environmental, social and governance framework. During COVID-19, trust has been vital to innovation and delivery of health technologies across the world: from building partnerships to scale-up production of vaccines and medicines, to working with regulators for the approval of these”.

“At Ethisphere, we are excited about the results of this novel research on SMEs. It confirms what we see with larger organizations—those with strong programs enjoy an Ethics Premium,” said Jonathan Whitacre, Executive Vice President at Ethisphere. “This research not only builds a case for small- and medium-sized businesses to focus on ethics and compliance, but also offers specific areas that larger companies can focus on with their value chain partners.”

The survey was distributed by Ethisphere in collaboration with diverse industry organizations representing health-related SMEs across the APEC region. The survey was conducted from 18 August to 20 September 2021 and received more than 220 responses from spanning 18 APEC economies. All respondents were SMEs in health-related industries with less than 1,000 employees.

About Ethisphere 

Ethisphere^® is the global leader in defining and advancing the standards of ethical business practices that fuel corporate character, marketplace trust, and business success. Ethisphere has deep expertise in measuring and defining core ethics standards using data-driven insights that help companies enhance corporate character. Ethisphere honors superior achievement through its World’s Most Ethical Companies® recognition program, provides a community of industry experts with the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA), and showcases trends and best practices in ethics with Ethisphere Magazine. Ethisphere also helps to advance business performance through data-driven assessments, benchmarking, and guidance. More information about Ethisphere can be found at https://ethisphere.com.

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Media Contact
Anne Walker
[email protected]