Strategic Value of Ethics and Compliance

Like most consulting and audit firms’ white papers, this report from KPMG Advisory, The evolution of risk and controls: From score-keeper to business partner is long on sales and short on specifics. There is enough meat to make it worth reading, however, and it addresses an important question: are audit, compliance and/or corporate ethics programs ever more than a cost of doing business or can they add strategic value? I think the latter can be the case, but because most businesses see compliance and ethics as constraints and not as enablers, they lack the imagination to see where ethical business practices can give them an advantage in the marketplace. Clearly, since this is close to the central question I’m looking at these days from a research standpoint, more will come on this topic.