Leadership Imperatives in an ESG-Driven World
The growing shift in corporate governance requires organizations to break down silos and create more deliberate alignment and collaboration across critical functions, including ESG/sustainability, public affairs, risk, ethics, human resources and compliance. This necessitates a stronger focus on the “G” in ESG.
Corporate governance is increasingly important for any organization wishing to establish and execute a coherent integrity agenda that encompasses its values, regulatory obligations and voluntary commitments. collaboration across critical functions, including ESG/sustainability, public affairs, risk, ethics, human resources and compliance. This necessitates a stronger focus on the “G” in ESG.
Following interviews with leading companies and multilateral development banks (MDBs), this paper explores how organizations are rethinking their structures, culture and engagement to support the ongoing 
transformation of the role of business. Specifically, it examines the rise of the chief integrity officer (CIO) in companies and other organizations. It provides an overview of trends such as the increasing use of digital technology across all industries, resulting in ethical concerns about issues such as privacy and authenticity; and rising political and employee activism, with popular protest coalescing around themes of corruption, environmental justice, equity and equality.
It also offers instances of innovative policies that address shifting generational norms and values, whereby younger employees have radically new expectations of their employers and careers – included is the example of the global pharmaceutical company Novartis, which co-designed its code of conduct with input from thousands of employees.
These developments demonstrate increasing stakeholder expectations, as well as the central role and responsibility of business as a driver of change. The rise of transparency and stakeholder expectations of business (most notably employees) has had a dramatic effect on internal corporate decision-making processes. Companies are moving beyond risk based approaches – centred solely on corporate imperatives to drive growth and profit – to embrace more systemic approaches to integrity issues. This includes multinationals incorporating perspectives and voluntary standards from multilateral institutions and initiatives. It also includes a far more explicit consideration of the needs of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) – across supply chains and in communities where companies operate.
Over the past few years, there has been a significant global focus and spotlight on the environmental and social aspects of environmental, social and governance (ESG), taking a broad view of the complex and cross-cutting impact of negative corporate externalities on society. Conversely, current discussions on governance are often limited to board diversity and compliance infrastructure, missing the opportunity to focus on building a culture of ethics and integrity that could have a broader positive impact in addressing critical global societal challenges. The long-standing tendency to take a siloed approach to addressing legal and reputational risk is now shifting, as expectations increase that companies will adopt a holistic approach to ethical, responsible business
The above article is excerpts taken from the report to give the reader a brief
This report was first published on the World Economic Forum and is a World Economic Forum Partnering Against Corruption Initiative (PACI) and Global Future Council on Transparency and Anti-Corruption collaboration
