Corporate governance and ethics (1)
Hmm, feedback! The most authentic approach to obtaining an appraisal that you may have requested (provision of email address) but did not plan for the barrage of response, be it pinching or flattering, may prickle thy consciousness against performance in all activities, striking the ego comparable to a raging weather hazard without warning or calming thy confidence like a herbal tea for treating anything from allergies to fever.
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Two extremes (polar opposites) but a necessary pair (vital couple).
The bit with a natural occurrence like the weather is that forecasting can help thee prepare for floods, high temperatures or seasonal drought, especially since modern prediction could be dead-end accurate, except when "feedback" from readers strikes - the self-interested rescue trade route must lead to the editor, whose only reminder is that “it pushes you to read widely and conduct extensive research in order to become an authority on your own beat and better serve your audience because you cannot feed them what they do not have to ingest - indeed, Mr Editor!
The hope is that the editor shall serve or function as a herbal tea - be it chamomile, ginger or peppermint - that will relieve the “feedback” bruises. However, the internal hit rather pours a tincture of iodine on the fresh tender skin that has suffered from the “feedback”. But most times, with a chuckle, he offers a “sage” tea that entreats you to “Keep Calm and Carry On”, as the never published United Kingdom Ministry of Information WW2 poster says.
Regardless - from the same “feedback”, Man luxuriated in the praise of a group of readers who most likely noticed the errors but chose not to relegate the spirit since their assumption foretells an opportunity for the author to jog dial until latched on to the preferred dial position.
It is amazing how a few printings could warrant such diagnostic feedback - significantly, the above account is not one about moaning but expressing concern for your time and letting the writer in on your observations, which has provided a prescription worth purchasing and using to heal the column we own together.
Correlation
As far back as 2018, Andrew J. Hoffman recognised that the act of “actively transforming the market to make it more sustainable” had beaten the period for corporations to integrate sustainable practises, and current statistics back up his position, with majority of businesses developing and incorporating sustainability practises and standards such as investing in green projects, initiating recycling programmes, reassessing supply chain practises, and using biodegradable materials, by adhering to international voluntary consensus involving the International Standards Organisation (ISO) for Business (9001; 31010; ISO Guide 73), Environmental (14001), and Social sustainability (26000;OHSAS 18001), or private standards developed out of social movements, NGO initiatives, or stakeholder concerns such as Common Code for Coffee Community (4C), Fairtrade or UTZ to realise the market change that has come upon businesses, and, elsewhere, more CEOs and business entities understand that sustainability is imperative to the very continuation of their organisation, and business education has been adjusted to reflect students’ concern about social and environmental issues.
Critically, the desire for firms to become sustainable was long overdue due to inappropriate corporate behaviour overseas, such as directorship flaws, a lack of core controls, dishonesty to stakeholders or simply the absence of ethical behaviour and practises.
The iniquities of the industrial revolution became apparent in the 1960s when the consequence of increased production and population progression highlighted the correlation between business, nature and people.
Nature, like readers, delivers “feedback,” but in the form of inescapable warnings about climate change, natural disasters, ocean acidification and public health calamities.
Agenda
While many the international companies in Ghana are being “forced” by their parent companies into thinking sustainability, a vast majority of organisations do not still have a clear sense of how absolutely critical this subject is; and rightly so if an entire nation is ball-watching while “opponents” further destroy the environmental, economic and socio-cultural sustainability of this country through over-extraction and over dumping, combined with a near terrible national psyche of disengaged and disgruntled citizens who have no authority to safeguard their communities because they are terrified of a “Big Man”, be it MMCE, DCE, MP or Minister or even a known political party associate.
The listed national activities plainly make a mockery of even the most rudimentary sustainability initiatives:
• unauthorised mining operations (remember the “accusation” levelled against custodians?)
• economic bailouts (17 times and most likely counting)
• over 150-year-old trees are being cut down to make place for concrete constructions
(Animal Kingdom now has more subscribers than Grand Designs/Mentality based on development theory)
• resource depletion (Lithium is on its way)
• land degradation (desertification threat, e.g., Upper East)
• public office for profit “scheme” (Adjenim Boateng Adjei, Charles Bissue)
• climate challenges (Every year, around 45,000 people are affected by flooding/NADMO and Presidential Visit).
Goodness, the column is only for a page!
The argument is that Ghana is heavily reliant on the extractive industry and hence cannot afford to punch above its weight; yet, how are policy or organisational principles (sustainable development) used if the nation has no agenda for the core notion (sustainability)?
Clearly, the intention was to provide commentary on how corporate governance difficulties forced the establishment of ethics. But for the sake of continuity, the next edition will address it.
• The writer is journalist whose primary interest are minimalism, sustainable business, photography, society and culture, sports and tourism.
email: amaesonmensah@gmail.com