Values Deliver Value – for Business and Society
Ethical Leadership as the Driver of Profit with Purpose
By Dr. Sanjay Pradhan, President, WFEB
Rising from the ashes of the 2008 global financial crisis — when unethical lending and corporate greed devastated businesses and societies alike — the World Forum for Ethics in Business (WFEB) emerged to champion a powerful conviction: business can be both ethical and profitable.
That conviction has proven true: companies ranked among the World’s Most Ethical have outperformed peers by 25%. Ethics isn’t just right — it pays. WFEB also challenges the outdated belief that businesses exist solely to maximize shareholder profit. Instead, we champion a modern paradigm that integrates profit with purpose to create value for shareholders and stakeholders alike.
Since its inception, WFEB has convened over 100,000 stakeholders — across business, government and academia from 80 countries — beginning with annual summits at the European Parliament and expanding to 15 national forums.
From Forum to Force: A New Phase for a New Era
As WFEB approaches its 20th anniversary in 2026, the world faces a perfect storm of ethical crises — a planet in peril, AI-driven disinformation, collapsing public trust. Yet, a new dawn is breaking: socially responsible businesses are proving they can tackle these challenges while delivering profits ethically.
We are being summoned — by the times and by our conscience — to reimagine the very role of business: not narrowly as a vehicle for profit alone, but as a force for economic, social, and ethical renewal. To answer this clarion call and shape a new global business ethos, WFEB is launching a bold new phase — as I take the helm as its President.
Our Vision and Strategy
Our aim is to galvanize a global movement where ethics and social responsibility drive both business success and societal good — where values deliver value for all, and business and ethics are complementary, not contradictory. Our strategy for achieving this:
- Spotlight and scale socially responsible businesses — enterprises that deliver profits ethically while addressing societal challenges such as climate change or corruption.
- Catalyze dialogue & collective action on frontier ethical challenges impacting society that demand urgent business leadership – e.g., AI & digital threats, ethics in sports.
- Convene influential leaders and cultivate a growing global community of ethical champions — through landmark forums and sustained peer exchange — to build a new epicenter for ethical leadership.
Scaling Up Socially Responsible Businesses
In this next phase, WFEB will spotlight and scale three sets of ethical business practices that define today’s profitable and socially responsible enterprise:
1. Built-in CSR: Purpose as Strategy
Today’s corporate social responsibility (CSR) must be built into core business strategy, not bolted on for public relations. For example:
- Unilever’s Sustainable Living Plan integrates environmental and social goals into its operations — demonstrating that purpose and profit can go hand in hand.
- Novartis, a WFEB awardee, expanded its reach to 80 million low-income patients and tripled sales, showing that inclusion and innovation can fuel scale.
- Aravind Eye Hospital in India, a pioneering social enterprise, cross-subsidizes eye surgeries for the poor, blending compassion with commercial viability. It exemplifies a fast-growing global force — social enterprises — that combine a social mission with financial sustainability, offering a promising pathway to tackle pressing challenges through business.
These reveal a powerful truth: CSR isn’t peripheral — it’s a driver of corporate success.
2. Stakeholder-Driven Ethics: A Competitive Advantage
Ethical practices are no longer a “nice-to-have” — they are a business imperative, increasingly demanded and rewarded by key stakeholders.
- Consumers are voting with their wallets — rewarding brands like Patagonia for environmental leadership and IKEA for sustainably sourcing FSC-certified wood, while boycotting unethical ones like Nestlé for child labor violations and exploitative marketing.
- Shareholders value ethical conduct. Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway earned investor trust through its integrity, while General Motors faced a shareholder lawsuit for concealing a deadly ignition-switch defect linked to 150 deaths. U.S. investors committed over $26 trillion to Socially Responsible Investments (SRIs) aligned with their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) goals.
- Suppliers are being held to higher ethical standards — e.g., Unilever’s sustainable agricultural code and responsible sourcing policy (RSP), and The Body Shop’s cruelty-free cosmetics and fair trade practices.
3. Ethical Leadership and Culture: The Core of Success
Ethical leadership lies at the heart of ethical business. Icons like Jamsetji Tata show how purpose-driven leadership can fuel both corporate success and lasting societal impact. Research confirms that ethical leadership correlates strongly with CSR performance — and that its absence invites scandal, as seen in Volkswagen’s 2015 emissions fraud, where top leadership orchestrated a global deception.
Employees too thrive under compassionate leadership and culture — with higher satisfaction, productivity, and retention. The “100 Best Companies to Work For” outperformed peers by 100–200%, proving that humane leadership isn’t at the expense of profits — it drives profits!
WFEB nurtures ethical leadership and corporate culture from the inside out, bridging inner transformation and outer impact. Programs like TLEX nurture a calm, centered mind as the well-spring of service, integrity, generosity and social responsibility. Meditation is no longer a luxury. It is a leadership imperative for building responsible and high-performing enterprises.
Tackling Frontier Ethical Challenges Impacting Society
Today’s global businesses wield influence that rivals — and often exceeds — that of governments. With this power comes an urgent responsibility to confront emerging ethical challenges head-on. WFEB will spearhead dialogue and collective action on two frontier challenges that demand urgent business leadership:
- Big Tech: From the rise of AI to the dominance of social media giants, Big Tech’s unchecked power demands urgent ethical guardrails — to protect privacy, stop online sextortion, and curb disinformation and algorithms that have fueled real-world violence, such as Facebook’s role in anti-Rohingya hate in Myanmar.
- Sports: The $500+ billion global sports industry must confront its own ethical reckoning — from doping and corruption to match-fixing, sexual abuse, and systemic discrimination — and rise as a role model for integrity, inclusion, and inspiration for youth and society worldwide. WFEB has been convening Ethics in Sports Summits to advance this goal.
WFEB will in time tackle other societal challenges — from climate change, as exemplified by Microsoft’s carbon-negative pledge, to corruption, as addressed through Siemens’ integrity pacts.
Building a Global Coalition through Landmark Summits
To advance this ambitious agenda, we must mobilize a collective effort. WFEB will convene leaders and champions through a multi-tier engagement strategy — national forums, regional and global summits, and a vibrant membership and peer community – to share insights, grow a global coalition, and amplify impact.
As we enter this transformative next phase, I invite leaders across business, government, academia, and civil society to join us in building a worldwide movement for ethical leadership — where purpose and profit go hand in hand. Join us in convening WFEB forums, spotlighting exemplary businesses, and growing a coalition of ethical champions that reshapes the future of business.
Together, let’s prove that ethics isn’t just right — it’s smart. It’s not a burden — it’s a competitive advantage for business. And it is a powerful, untapped force for societal good.
– Posted on 18 August 2025 –
