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Ethisphere will announce its newest class of World’s Most Ethical Companies® honorees on March 18. For those honoree companies, this is a significant achievement. To be considered, applicant organizations must complete the Ethics Quotient®, a questionnaire of more than 240 questions that require applicants to describe and document many different aspects of their ethics and compliance programs. This includes their overall corporate governance, their cultures of ethics, how they approach things like speak-up, ESG, anti-corruption, third-party risk management, and more.
That data is then evaluated by a team that spends thousands of staff hours reviewing each and every application. The companies selected for World’s Most Ethical Companies best demonstrate (and document) how they practice, measure, enforce, and advance organizational ethics and compliance.
The Application Is an Outcome
Applicants often speak of the World’s Most Ethical Companies applications process as an end unto itself. For them, the most robust way to benchmark the efficiency of their program is by undergoing this rigorous application process.
Whether an organization receives World’s Most Ethical Companies honors or not, it receives a scorecard that shows how well its program compares to the total benchmark of all applicants. That scorecard is, for many organizations, the proof point they need to unlock the internal support and resources necessary to further advance their ethics and compliance program. The fee that Ethisphere charges to apply to the World’s Most Ethical Companies pays for that scorecard.
No organization receives World’s Most Ethical Companies honors the first time they apply. Those that finally receive this honor often speak of having applied repeatedly over the years. Each application illustrates how to improve their program to a best-in-class state of maturity. Ask any honoree organization and they will share vivid recollections of the arduous application process and what their journey to World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition was like.
Every Company Has a History
The World’s Most Ethical Companies does not measure individual morality. It measures the long-term investment an organization makes in building the policies and practices that equip employees to make the best choices if and when their work responsibilities bring them into a place of ethical uncertainty.
Every year, when Ethisphere formally announces the World’s Most Ethical Companies honorees, those companies rightly celebrate the news. And yet, every year, there are companies within the World’s Most Ethical Companies cohort with events in their histories that might lead one to wonder: how did that organization deserve a recognition such as this? What’s so ethical about them?
Some are organizations that have undergone regulatory enforcement actions and even government monitorship. Or, have received significant fines for misconduct. Others have endured bruising lawsuits over behavior from former leaders and personnel that the current staff and leadership absolutely disavow. Some have suffered a serious reputational issue in the marketplace.
Acknowledge the Past, Embrace the Future
None of these things permanently disqualify an organization from the possibility of rehabilitation and redemption. Part of organizational ethics is acknowledging past mistakes, rectifying them, and building a culture meant to prevent them from recurring.
In fact, there are companies within this cohort whose very presence on this list begins with past misconduct. Companies that go through monitorship or suffer a significant regulatory fine or penalty often must build a robust ethics and compliance program to meet the expectations of the law, the public, their stakeholders, and their employees.
When such companies build a truly best-in-class compliance, governance, and ethical culture (as opposed to a merely satisfactory one), then they deserve recognition for it. How an organization begins its ethics journey does not disqualify where that journey takes an organization that genuinely commits to business ethics and integrity.
The Whole is Greater Than the Sum of its Parts
Sometimes, even a current honoree may find itself in a crisis of ethics. In 2025, for example, the department store retail chain (and World’s Most Ethical Companies honoree) Kohl’s experienced a high-profile conflict of interest situation that resulted in the termination of its CEO. Clearly, the CEO was in the wrong. But the most important takeaway to this incident is how well Kohl’s ethical infrastructure performed under pressure:
- When misconduct was detected, it was swiftly reported, thanks to an effective speak-up culture.
- When misconduct was reported, it was swiftly investigated and elevated to the Board, thanks to a robust ethics and compliance program.
- And when a decision had to be made, the Board acted decisively to uphold the organization’s Code of Conduct as well as its robust culture of ethics and integrity.
How Kohl’s addressed the matter of its wayward CEO matters in an era of growing indifference toward misconduct and corruption. In matters of criminal misconduct, the U.S. Department of Justice prosecutes corporate misconduct on whether the deed was the act of a particular individual or an organizational failure. An organization with a strong foundation in ethics and compliance can answer that question conclusively.
An important aspect of best-in-class organizational ethics is how well it prevents misconduct. But just as important is how well it addresses misconduct when it inevitably happens. Kohl’s earned its World’s Most Ethical Companies honors on the strength of the program it had in place—the same program that dealt so quickly and decisively with a clearly delinquent CEO who did not even last 100 days in his position. This is not a fluke, nor is it luck.
What the World’s Most Ethical Companies review team saw in Kohl’s and how Kohl’s addressed its CEO were the same thing.
Ethics and Success Aren’t Mutually Exclusive
This is the 20th year of the World’s Most Ethical Companies. In that time, Ethisphere has accumulated the data behind the Ethics Premium™, which links ethical business practice to strong financial performance. It shows that publicly listed companies with best-in-class compliance, governance, and ethical culture outperform their peers over a five-year market period.
The Ethics Premium shows Boards, investors, and top leadership that strong companies and ethical companies are not mutually exclusive outcomes. Rather, they are converging outcomes.
The Ethics Premium also shows that the rewards of highly ethical companies are not lucky, one-off results. They are the product of long-term, sustained work that yields long-term, sustained results through good times and bad.
Truly ethical companies develop a resilience that keeps them whole even when they must triage a serious ethical problem. Companies that do not put in that work do not survive these events very well. Their own financial data will prove it. The World’s Most Ethical Companies prove that they’re here to stay. And why? Because their ethics makes it possible.
That is what the World’s Most Ethical Companies look like in action.
Strong Ethics is Good Business
The World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition is bigger than any one moment of time. It is the acknowledgement and celebration of an ongoing commitment to doing the business the right way.
Publicly naming and shaming companies has never effectively whipsawed them back into good behavior. Likewise, companies often are not celebrated for doing the right thing (which inspires and incentivizes further good behavior). When organizations create highly effective ethics and compliance programs, they raise the ethical expectations of their stakeholders and third parties, creating a virtuous circle.
Despite the inherently beneficial nature of ethics and compliance work, it often goes unrecognized and underappreciated. Through the World’s Most Ethical Companies, we say to ethics and compliance teams everywhere: you are not alone. You are not taken for granted. You are making people’s lives better. And your best work is worthy of recognition.
To Boards, senior leaders, stakeholders, employees, and society at large, we say that strong ethics is good business. Companies that invest in ethics deserve recognition.
We believed that 20 years ago. We believe it now. And we will believe it going forward.
Author Bio
Bill Coffin | Editor-in-Chief, Ethisphere Magazine, Ethisphere
Bill Coffin is the Editor-in-Chief of Ethisphere Magazine and supports the larger content strategy of Ethisphere. He is an internationally recognized writer and editorial leader in the fields of ethics, compliance, insurance and risk management. His work has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, BusinessWeek, Forbes and Fortune, as well as Compliance Week, National Underwriter, Risk Management, Best’s Review and other B2B media. Previously, Bill served as Director, Senior Editor at AIG, leading content strategy for one of the world’s largest insurance companies.
