There should today be the core concern of the administrator and manager

Invest in a policy on ethics in times of economic crisis is a great naivety. "This note, sometimes heard in the anteroom of certain boards or steering committees, we appear to testify of a guilty inconsistency. This has be paradoxically recalled in a report prepared by the Committee under the chairmanship of lord Wolf, former Minister of Justice British, at the request of BAE Systems, whose image is seriously affected by suspicions of corruption in certain major markets. "The implementation of high ethical standards business and demonstrate that these standards are indeed respected became a requirement for any business that wishes to succeed globally, regardless of its sector of activity." In our globalized economy, reputation has become an essential element of the value of a company and an effective risk management for ethical and réputationnels is now a critical component of corporate governance. "Whatever the circumstances accompanying the release of this report, it seems to us mark a new type of managerial commitment that goes well beyond simple display policies ("greenwashing").

So, we must be aware of what the serious economic difficulties of the moment, coupled with the emergence of new little conscious actors of the international regulations constitute the maximum threat for ethics in business. To deal with, the only compliance with the rules and standards, technical, legal or tax is no longer a sufficient response. Tragically reflected in the current financial cataclysm: is there indeed sector that is more regulated than that of finance

Course, the establishment of formal procedures which determine the conduct of the business remains necessary to enable businesses to ensure compliance with laws and regulations. From this point of view, the most widespread presence of "compliance officers" to ensure compliance with these procedures remains indispensable. However, it is more sufficient evidence and that "rules-based" approach, to protect the business through the enactment of a multiplicity of rules to respect, is today outdated. Designed to protect the moral person and social agents by demonstrating that all necessary has been done, the concept of the "rules-based management" of American origin is not only inappropriate to some legal frameworks, but especially is no longer capable of addressing to him only the increasing complexity of the business environment. From Enron or WorldCom, the economic news abounds with examples of companies that had all the formal processes of management for safe and yet have experienced or know the turmoil and for some the fall.

This lack of "compliance" is now compounded by the inconsistency resulting from the combination, in the globalized economic space, rules laid down by international organizations and normative requirements enacted by new parties less assured legitimacy (NGO, collective, "stakeholders"...). In the absence of a global governance, it follows a complexity which helps increase the normative inconsistency in which companies must conduct their business. As these new requirements, this "soft law", can be found in offset and even in contradiction with the national legal systems.

In this context, the national parliaments, which have the monopoly of the "hard law", see inevitably shrink their field: in the business world, an act of "hard" is indeed never permanently in line with economic realities. Also the legislator limited more to state legislative principles lapidary and insufficient, and it is up to the business of defining what should be the conduct of its business, by its own codes, its repositories, its standards. And that is why it can be said that the ethics and the responsibility of the company include and exceed the different regulatory frameworks in which the company must naturally register its activity.

The consequences of this global development are that a growing responsibility is transferred to the company, with a direct impact on the management and the way it conducts its affairs and that a new approach, called "value-based", imposed on it. To meet targets, often contradictory, management must constantly make tradeoffs between the different standards appropriate to him and his ethical choices are increasingly a vital part of its responsibilities. That is why the implementation of the "value-based" approach is difficult but indispensable, there where the practice "rules-based" is now insufficient.

To do this, especially at this time of economic crisis which threatens our values, remember the crucial importance of the commitment of the Board of Directors, who must fully participate and support the approach developed by the management (when initiates it not). As a recent study by the French Institute of directors stated, the ethical policy of the company is as much the responsibility of the directors of the managers. It should indeed allow for a true corporate culture, because the company can permanently succeed in harmony with the expectations of society and the requirements of its collaborators. There should today be the core concern of the administrator and manager. "If that way of being, this habit of life should be established, the last thing to do is to order that we comply. Do you want to be obeyed "Do not want that will be: to do that we want", already prophesied Jean-Baptiste Say in 1800.