COMPLIANCE
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Bridging The Gap Between The Private Sector and The Public : The Evolving Role of Compliance and Ethics
At a recent international summit on Compliance and Ethics ( C & E ) in Istanbul , Turkiye , hosted by the Center for International Private Enterprise ' s ( CIPE ) longtime partner , the Ethics and Reputation Society of Turkiye ( TEID ), the evolving role of this discipline and that of its practitioners and professionals was the focus of several presentations and panel discussions .
Author
: Babak Yektafar
The conference started with a prominent businessman discussing the many changes in the climate that are of global concern . He was followed by a highly regarded head of a Compliance and Ethics department of a global conglomerate who confessed that he dislikes the word " compliance " and would like to dispense with it in favor of " integrity ." He reasoned that using the word integrity " touches the soul " in a way that the word compliance can never do . The day continued with other C & E leaders and experts emphasizing the need for C & E officers to change a company ' s culture and prioritize the well-being of the staff and their human resources . To a casual observer , unaware of the setting , the conference had the flavor of a community gathering to discuss issues of public concern rather than a group of business-affiliated officials discussing business matters . But the occasion was not an anomaly , and the content of the discussion should not come as a surprise . The concerns of business and the public have intersected on many occasions in the past , but rarely have these common concerns resulted in a conscious effort to couple the two to tackle common challenges .
Mistrust between the public and the private sector has long been a formidable barrier to effective collaboration . Historically , the public often considered the private sector suspiciously , perceiving it as solely driven by profit , sometimes at the expense of broader societal interests . Conversely , businesses often dismiss public concerns as unrealistic and exa-