A conference held in London last October revolved around a concept that in Malta is gradually gaining ground – we need to cultivate a strong ethical culture in business.

The theme of the conference was ‘Business success through serving society’.

It also links strongly with the social teaching of the Catholic Church, which highlights, among other things, that creation of wealth cannot be an end in itself as wealth needs to be used for the common good.

Entrepreneurship is a necessary tool for human development and wealth needs to be invested in productive activities for the benefit of the common good.

One needs to keep in mind that certain facets of the economic and financial crisis (which seems to be never-ending) concerned the unethical way the banking sector went about its business.

We have also had companies that, through unfaithful reporting, have misled investors. There are scandals which have come to the surface in the last few weeks.

So it cannot be taken for granted that ethics underpin the way we do business. One interesting consideration was made by the Archbishop of Westminster, Vincent Nichols, who is being appointed cardinal next month.

He said that it is not credible on the part of the business sector to focus solely on maximising profit and then seek to make amends to society afterwards.

In fact, this consideration makes it quite clear that even concepts such as corporate social responsibility need to be questioned in the way they have been implemented.

The business sector cannot expect to fulfil its ethical obligations simply by giving away some money for a philanthropic purpose, while for the rest of the year it just focuses on maximising profits. The idea of business serving society has to be the way of doing business every day and not just one day in the year.

Another consideration that was made by one of the speakers at the London conference was that companies are likely to be more successful, even from the narrow focus of profitability, if they pursue broader objectives.

This implies that companies cannot be short term in their view but need to look at the longer term. Thus, issues such as investment in product innovation as the development and empowerment of the employees are not to be seen as optional costs but necessary good business practices.

It also implies that companies need to recognise that a better society is better for their business.

The business sector cannot expect to fulfil its ethical obligations simply by giving away some money for a philanthropic purpose, while for the rest of the year it just focuses on maximising profits

This contradicts heavily with the attitude taken by some companies who seem to judge their success or otherwise simply by looking at their share price (which is an important consideration, but cannot be the only one).

It takes us to a recent statement made by Pope Francis that it is indeed shocking that more importance is given to the fact that the stock market would have fallen by a couple of points than to the fact that someone would have died of hunger.

A very poignant comment made at the conference was that the purpose of business was not to do good but that it is a good business.

We have grown accustomed over the years that business and the common good cannot really co-exist.

In fact, the bonus payments made to individuals in the financial sector in countries like the UK would prove that the individual executive is even more important than the shareholder, let alone the customers or the suppliers.

Society would not even feature in such thinking. It may even be considered a paradox to claim that companies can achieve success by serving society.

It is now becoming evident that this culture needs to be eradicated. We need to have a better understanding of what the social purpose of business is.

The business sector needs to be the creator and guardian of a culture that seeks to promote the common good because, by doing so, it will also work out better for itself.