THE ETHICS ADVANTAGE
A Good Supper

by TOM BUBECK

_{WINTER 2025 | THE ETHICS ADVANTAGE}

A Good Supper

by TOM BUBECK | Chief Executive Officer, Ethisphere

For anyone who has been following the headlines recently, in the last 12 months, we have seen an awful lot of organizations falling short of what we’d consider to be ethical behavior. From companies suffering from long-term cultural decay, to leaders committing outright misconduct, to a more environmental sense that the right thing to do is just a matter of opinion…it all feels like we have somehow fallen into a world where integrity no longer matters.

Under such conditions, it’s tempting to simply hope that things will somehow turn out as we would like them to be. But as Francis Bacon famously said, “Hope is a good breakfast, but a poor supper.” Or to put it another way: we can’t just hope for things to be better. We have to do something about it. And that is where the ethics and compliance community comes in.

When integrity feels like it is in short supply is when it matters most. There is, of course, a moral component: that which is right and good should guide our actions rather than that which is dishonest, and harmful. But doing what is right also serves our own self-interest. We prohibit different kinds of misconduct because they are morally wrong, yes, but also because they are inefficient and unproductive.

To allow people to suffer wrongdoing without consequence creates bad results for everyone. The less we guarantee ourselves a certain justness and fairness of outcomes, the less we can depend on long-term planning, investment, and commitment. In short, the less we can build a sustainable future for ourselves. And nobody really wants that.

Ethical behavior, by contrast is efficient and productive. Case in point, our Five-Year Ethics Premium, which shows beyond a shadow of a doubt that organizations with strong ethics outperform their peers. Evidence like this showcases that the biggest reason why we can advance what is good is because it is good for you.

It is always difficult to predict the future, and every year, leaders everywhere try to imagine where they might be in another year’s time. With that in mind, I’d like to think that over the course of the next 12 months, the inherent value of integrity will make its value felt, regardless of what we might be feeling in the present moment. Let’s recommit to what matters and move forward, continuing to embrace the importance of integrity and cultures of ethics while caring for the least powerful groups among us, whoever they may be, whether it’s at our workplace or in our neighborhood.

The ethics and compliance community provides an important form of leadership among the many people who care about integrity and who see the inherent value that it generates. Those of us who champion integrity in all its forms must continue to focus on that and not get dragged into the kind of angst that might distract us from our work.

As Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. reminds us, “the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice.” When I think of that, and I think of the impactful work we do in ethics and compliance, that fills me with the kind of hope that would make for a very good supper, after all. ■

Hope is a good breakfast, but a poor supper.

Francis Bacon

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