Building ethical organisations involves sacrifice, painstaking but rewarding - Udeme
In a challenging environment, managers are usually under pressure to meet business targets and this often leads to desperate short-term measures that compromise ethics and values of individuals and organisations.
However organisations that resist such temptation to compromise but maintain ethical standards and values, under any circumstance, are building strong future organisations by giving customers hope and confidence on their products and services.
Underscoring the importance of ethics, defined as maintaining high standards and meeting legal and moral obligations, to sustainability of businesses, Udeme Ufot, the Group Managing Director of SO&U Limited, advised that commitment to ethical conduct by organisations must be seen as part of a holistic business strategy and an extension of the company’s corporate social responsibility programme.
Udeme who spoke on ‘Ethics and sustainability in marketing’ at the Investiture of Tony Agenmonmen as the President of National Insti
tute of Marketing of Nigeria, NIMN recently in Lagos however warned that building ethical organisation can be painstaking. “It requires consensus building, sacrifice, focus and determination. It requires long term commitment to stay on course no matter the seductions for short term benefits”
He also cautioned that being ethical organisation without capacity to create value where it matters for clients will not take such organisation very far. “Being ethical is not a replacement for capacity and effectiveness”, he warned.
Citing some Nigerian companies that have maintained ethical behaviours, Udeme who established SO&U in 1990 and had served as chairman of Association of Advertising Agencies of Nigeria, and chairman of APCON said that many Nigerian companies have established a set of shared values and principles that can serve as moral compass in navigating the unpredictable waters of Nigerian business environment.
These principles are in the form of Code of Conduct or Table of Values that define conduct in the organisation; what must be done and what must not be done and this is clearly communicated and understood by all staff.
Also speaking at the forum used to induct new fellows in NIMN, Agenmonmen who took the mantle of leadership of the institute in 2016 and was re-elected in 2019 said he has been encouraged to lift the institute from the stage he met it initially.
He said since then, with the support of his council members and other stakeholders, the leadership has made some strides in re-repositioning the institute. He commended NIMN members for the peace in the institute which has enabled some progress. Among those inducted Fellows are Ayeni Adekunle, CEO of Black House Media (BHM); Charles Aigbe, Divisional Head, Brand and Communication Fidelity; Sampson Oloche, Business Development manager for low and no Alcohol category for AMEA and Pacific at Nigerian Breweries; and among other, Adenusi Omotunde, a marketing expert.