Ethical ways will help build better brands

Your article “Moral Contest” (MW February 24) highlighted an issue that is becoming ever more prominent – the role of ethics in commerce.

The question has often been asked whether this is a contradiction in terms. It goes back to asking yourself what role you want your business to play in the world and what values you wish to achieve this by.

The fact that “corporate citizenship” has moved up on the corporate agenda underlines the importance of strong principles in managing a business. This is nothing new – it’s what most great brands are founded on. Ethics in commerce takes this further as increasingly discerning consumers are looking for brands they can believe in and trust.

Commerce should proactively mirror and build on the ethics of the community in which it operates. This is an opportunity for businesses to redefine themselves beyond the usual themes, and to look at the bigger picture of what they are contributing as a whole. After all, it’s not money that makes the world go round, but the intentions behind it. I call it corporate idealism.

Menno Kuijper

Consultant

Brandsmiths

London WC2