Articles

Instant ethics
Knightshift - 6th June 2001

Can you buy integrity? A new start-up in the UK thinks so and wants to sell you some. The GoodCorporation.com is the idea of management consultants who have left the sanctity of their partnership and formed a company to commercialise goodness.

Their proposition is this: sign up to our manifesto, employ verifiers to check that you're sticking to the contract and then we will, for a reasonable fee, grant you the use of the GoodCorporation logo. You can use this on your corporate branding (correspondence, website etc) and then others will know that you've been good little boys and girls while playing the business game.

Now there's nothing wrong with that and I wish the founders joy, peace and big bank balances. But the offering does raise the question about integrity: is it a purchasable commodity or do you have to earn it from those who bestow it for free on the deserving?

People have been buying some of the trappings of integrity for centuries: from corrupt popes, hard-up royalty and desperate politicians, all have dispensed titles and favours that have improved the social standing of the receiver.

Trade associations, especially those who represent trades that have a bad reputation, double-glazing companies and emergency plumbers among them, have devised programmes to improve the trade's reputation by devising a standard mark for members. Success has been marginal, mainly because the trade associations have failed to eject bad operators and the mark has become devalued.

The best example of this is the Responsible Care programme in the global chemicals business. This was brought in to lift the chemical industry from the ghastly reputational depths it had sunk after a litany of horrors, from Love Canal to Seveso and Bhopal. The problem is that the various national trade associations who control membership don't want to eject the free riders. They prefer positive inclusions - and there's a lot to be said for that - but the credibility of the programme suffers as a consequence.

Integrity is a bit like a fine red wine, you can't speed up the maturation process with money. Brands that inspire confidence in consumers are those that have matured over time. The detergent that cares for your clothes, the gasoline that propels your car and the bank that protects your money are usually brands that have earned a good reputation by delivering dependable quality over many years.

The trust that consumers put in a brand is based on their experience of the name and the approval of leaders whose opinions they value. You might be able to boost sales through special offers, but in the end a trustworthy brand is one that matures into integrity and then continues to emit warm, positive messages to consumers.

Companies earn their reputations through careful management and, more important, doing the right thing over a number of years. Anyone can buy and wear a priest's dog collar or a nun's habit, and indeed you might win the seat on the crowded train that way, but it won't take long before someone sees through the pretence.

In the end you have to earn your gold star. Buying goodness is just not good enough.