Ethics and tomorrow's company

The belief that the pursuit of business self‐interest through wealth creation can lead to community well‐being need not be a contradiction in terms. However, it requires greater visibility in the form of effective management systems to communicate and reinforce corporate values both inside and outside the business. This paper argues that where businesses find themselves the subject of criticism or attack it is because they have not, or are perceived not to have, taken significant account of the interests and well‐being of others in the pursuit of their own self‐interest. To meet the challenges that this poses for managers is to ensure that there are principles of business policy to fall back on as a guide to practice and that these are ignored at an organisation's peril.