Ethicast

Year after year, Ethisphere's Five-Year Ethics Premium shows how much the publicly listed honorees of the World's Most Ethical Companies® outperform their peers. This year, that overage is 7.8%, which is no small number. But what if you actually invested in these companies? How much would you make simply by putting your money with companies that exemplified best practices in business integrity? A lot, it turns out.

Ethisphere's Bill Coffin breaks down a hypothetical investing experiment that clearly shows strong ethics really is good business. He takes $100,000 in imaginary money, puts into the 49 companies from the 2025 World's Most Ethical Companies that received honors 10 or more times, and crunches the numbers. Watch to see how much this hypothetical investment would have made.

One of the best benefits of the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) concierge service, in which members of the BELA community can submit any question regarding ethics & compliance, and our internal experts will provide an answer, plus helpful resources with more information. Since there is no competition in compliance, we respond thematically to high-level concierge questions for the benefit of E&C teams everywhere. And in this episode, BELA Chair Erica Salmon Byrne addresses an extremely important issue: how to prepare managers to respond appropriately when they receive a report of employee misconduct.

Learn more about BELA, request guest access to the Member Resource Hub, and to speak with a BELA Engagement Director at: www.ethisphere.com/bela

Between federal regulatory shifts and Executive orders, the ways in which companies can expect to be held accountable for misconduct are undergoing substantial change—or at the very least, significant clarification.

Baker McKenzie partner and former SEC assistant regional director Peter Chan recently spoke with Kate Zoladz, Deputy Director (West) of the Enforcement Division of the SEC, and shares his valuable insights from that conversation around the SEC's current enforcement priorities.

Learn more from Peter: www.bakermckenzie.com

Ethisphere Resource Center at www.ethisphere.com/resources

Join the Ethicast: www.ethisphere.com/ethicast

For many executives, a natural part of their professional progression is to serve on boards of directors outside of their primary place of employment, be it at another company in a different industry, or an organization that connects to something in their personal life. In all such cases, however, there's an ethics and compliance component to how that kind of relationship should be handled. And in this episode of BELA Asks, Erica Salmon Byrne provides helpful guidance for how serving on an outside board doesn't have to be a major compliance headache.

Learn more about BELA: https://www.ethisphere.com/bela

Ethisphere Resource Center: https://www.ethisphere.com/resources

In this episode, we speak with Guido Palazzo, professor of business ethics at the University of Lausanne and his book, The Dark Pattern: The Hidden Dynamics of Corporate Scandals, which identifies nine toxic elements—a so-called “dark pattern”—that lead to corporate scandals. And, it offers nine actionable lessons—or a “bright pattern”—for building morally resilient organizations.

2:04: Identifying the "dark pattern" that unites the worst corporate scandals

4:41: Addressing the systemic cultural issues that get companies in trouble

7:06: Handling the psychological impact that scandals have on employees

10:05: Rejecting the dark pattern for a bright pattern of integrity

The Dark Pattern: The Hidden Dynamics of Corporate Scandals is available now wherever fine books are sold.

To learn more about Guido, please visit www.guidopalazzo.com.

For a wide range of free reports, articles, and videos on business integrity, speak-up culture, manager training, and more, visit the Ethisphere Resource Center at www.ethisphere.com/resources.

To appear on the Ethicast, drop us a line at www.ethisphere.com/ethicast.

Thanks for joining us! Until next time, remember: Strong ethics is good business.

In today's episode, we sit down with Andrew Jacobs, Chief Compliance Officer of Avangrid Networks. Andrew recently published a paper entitled, "Why Compliance Training Fails," and in it he outlines the major pitfalls that compliance programs are facing with their training. He looks into studies on human behavior and real life studies that parallel some of the issues organizations face with the failure to comply. He also gives great guidance on ways compliance practicioners can evolve their compliance training to greater effectivness. It was a wonderful, inspiring conversation, and we hope you enjoy it!

1:45 - The groundwork for this paper
2:53 - Guidance for practitioners as they work to make their compliance training more effective
5:42 - A look into some of the current research
11:48 - How we can create a "cultural norm" within our organizations
16:45 - Encouragement for compliance professionals

For more resources on effective compliance training, ethical culture, and more, visit www.ethisphere.com/resources

To read Andrew's paper, click here

You've got questions, we've got answers! In this episode, Erica Salmon Byrne answers another question from the membership of the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance about the global trends shaping ABAC regulation: How should companies prepare for the new UK/France/Swiss ABAC alliance? 

In this episode, BELA Chair Erica Salmon Byrne answers another question from the membership of the Business Ethics Leadership Alliance (BELA) to the benefit of E&C practitioners everywhere. And this time, it's about regulation: What does a good antitrust program look like?

Ethisphere's Ethics Quotient (EQ) questionnaire is a comprehensive evaluation of an applicant’s ethics and compliance program, culture, and governance practices, and it forms the core of the applications process for the World’s Most Ethical Companies recognition. On June 30, Ethisphere will release the revised EQ, giving prospective applicants a month to review its changes and prepare for the applications process. In this episode Ethisphere Director, Data & Services, Neal Thurston explains the updating process and what it means for you.