For a company to be open to the idea of transforming its business practices in line with best ideals of good governance and transparency, it must first genuinely believe in it. Since people are the company, these ideals must be embedded in the ideals of an organization. True transformation can only happen when people really believe in change.
These sentiments have been expressed in an editorial on ‘Transparency for transformation’ I Daily FT of 30 July 2010.
The Editorial says:
TO truly reach full potential, Sri Lanka must not only change, but also transform. This means that an entirely new mindset must be established to drive the country forward and break comfort zones.
To this end, the Transparency International Sri Lanka (TISL) coalition of several professional associations to fight against corruption and promote transparency and good governance in the private sector is a positive move.
The overall goal of the coalition is to be the “voice of business and professionals” in promoting collective action through private sector-led transparency, good governance, integrity, adherence to best practice business principles and anti-corruption initiatives in Sri Lanka.
The specific objectives of the coalition are to facilitate a broad based understanding of the real long-term impact and risks associated with business corruption and failures in business integrity, to serve as a platform for the exchange of knowledge, expertise, best practices and case studies with a view to creating a demand for business integrity and to build and enhance the capability and capacity for private sector-led management in advocacy and promotion of “integrity tools” within the Sri Lankan private sector.
At the moment the Private Sector Integrity Coalition comprises the Ceylon Chamber of Commerce, National Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Chambers of Commerce and Industry in Sri Lanka, Institute of Chartered Accountants of Sri Lanka, Chartered Financial Analysts, Post Graduate Institute of Management and Transparency International Sri Lanka.
TISL is planning to expand the coalition to include other chambers, civil society organisations, academic and postgraduate institutes and international funding agencies. Meanwhile, the Bar Association has already shown interest in joining the coalition.
The coalition intends to have at least 20% of the coalition chamber member entities to formally adopt, in line with international best practices, a set of business standards and to have at least three integrity pacts adopted by targeted business sectors.
TISL is also looking at getting at least two postgraduate management institutes to have embedded within their curricula transparency, good governance, business integrity and anti corruption promotion programmes targeting the young leaders of tomorrow.
These are all positive moves, because as many examples in the past have proven, the outside-in approach has limited results in any environment. For a company to be open to the idea of transforming its business practices in line with best ideals of good governance and transparency, it must first genuinely believe in it. Since people are the company, these ideals must be embedded in the employees of an organisation. True transformation can only happen when people really believe in change.
In many instances, when transparency and accountability has been enforced through media or other means, companies tend to lash out defensively without taking that criticism in good faith, admitting its shortcomings and learning from them. This level of humility is often overlooked by companies that preach best practices but forget the basics in implementation. They also lack the capacity to understand that whatever change they wish to make in the company must also result in a change of the fundamentals on which the company is based.
Without changing the DNA, one ends up with the same animal in a different shape.