A View from the Top

The consultancy helping brands to carve out a more responsible role in society

Good Business wants to break down the belief that it costs companies more money to be ethical – and harness the influence they might not realise they have, Giles Gibbons tells Martin Friel

Saturday 11 January 2020 17:17 GMT
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Gibbons co-founded Good Business in 1996, while he was working for Saatchi & Saatchi
Gibbons co-founded Good Business in 1996, while he was working for Saatchi & Saatchi

The demand for a more ethical approach to business, one that does not place the importance of profit above all else, has been building for some time, and businesses are being forced to rethink their place in society.

A report published last year by consultancy firm Accenture found that six in 10 consumers under 30 give close consideration to a company’s ethical values before buying its products. In the past, this could have been ignored or papered over with a veneer of ethics, but in a digital, information-rich age where hiding places are hard to come by, the impetus to be genuine is stronger than ever.

And it seems that the corporate world is taking note. In August this year, the Business Roundtable, made up of CEOs from about 200 of the world’s biggest brands, including Apple, Pepsi and JP Morgan Chase, announced that shareholder value is no longer the be-all and end-all. It appears to have dawned on them that the purpose of a corporation must also include employees, environmental impact and ethics.

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