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What is a "Formal Statement of Ethics" TM?
Premisses, strategic concept, project structure and definition of results


Certification is based on universally valid standards and aims to guarantee minimum behavioural levels. AssoEtica does not share this approach.
Every person, every social group, and every organization interprets ethics differently. Therefore when ethics are 'put into practice' in a customer/supplier relationship they have to stem from the result of different viewpoints coming together. Ethics are linked to history, culture and strategies. Therefore business ethics - unless they are interpreted narrowly as a form of certification - cannot be the same for every company.

This means that, in order to turn ethics into a competitive advantage, it is essential to go beyond certification, and use existing, or gradually built, diversity and distinctive characteristics through suitable policies. When called upon to provide a model for ethical behaviour, AssoEtica replies with the advice that this model must emerge naturally from the history, culture and strategies of the company itself.

AssoEtica is therefore committed to helping bring out this necessarily unique corporate 'ethical model', which must be shared by all the stakeholders involved in the business: the owners (the shareholders), the management and staff, the customers, the suppliers and freelance professionals, the trade unions, the local administration, and - from a wider point of view - the society where the organization works.

This model must be oriented towards day-by-day optimization through a continuous improvement process, thanks to everyone's contribution. Sharing and continuous improvement are founded on compliance with the aims and interests of all stakeholders, and on reciprocal understanding, which is made possible by transparent communication and information handling. Therefore, when AssoEtica is called upon to provide a guarantee, it proposes a line of action able to create a basis upon which the points of view and interests in play may come together constructively. Ethics are part of a virtuous circle which improves the quality of relationships progressively and brings about benefits for all those involved.

They therefore lead - for example - to transparent information exchange, progressive adaption of products and services to the needs of customers, recovery of efficiency, establishment of a relationship based on mutual trust with customers that gradually becomes ingrained into the social fabric, and alignment of the organization with international value, governance and corporate citizenship guidelines. From this viewpoint, AssoEtica is committed to providing the tools and methods needed to spark off this virtuous circle and ensure continuous improvement in customer/supplier relations.

This commitment cannot take the form of certification, since 'certificates' refer to the idea of 'examining', 'sifting' and grading, and distinguishing what is 'right' from what is 'wrong'. It must instead come in the form of a formal statement, i.e. solemn testimony. In fact witnesses, who give testimony, play the role of third parties, that is to say 'umpires' who try to promote the coming together of different points of view, since there are different interests on the field: besides those of the business (seen as an organization), there are those of all the stakeholders and the environment itself. All these parties have growing expectations, legitimate interests and legitimate rights. The benefits of our Formal Statement of Ethics TM project should be seen in this light. Only an ongoing process of daily commitment may legitimately "certify" the actual social responsibility of a business.

ASSOETICA'S REFERENCE ETHICAL CRITERIA

A Formal Statement of Ethics may be made concerning the supply of products/services if the following requirements are met:

1) Sustainability
The product/service must be sound from the point of view of cost/revenue balance. Marketing reasons must not be allowed to affect this balance.

2) Assumption of individual responsibility
Anyone (whether they be an errand boy or manager) who receives a request from a customer (both for information and services) is personally in charge of making sure that request is met. The commitment essentially consists of giving your name and surname and contact information to the customer and saying 'I'll deal with it personally'

3) Process uniqueness and clarification
For each product/service there must be only one process. It must be possible to trace all tasks back to the process they belong to. Each part has the same value as the whole and the whole has the same value as each part. Every part of a process must be monitorable and recorded.

4) Sincerity towards the customer
The contents of products/services shall be completely understandable to the customer they are aimed at.
The more the information may be considered unpleasant to customers and the more the deal may be seen as disadvantageous to them, the more this information and deal must be clearly and comprehensibly communicated.
Risks must be disclosed.
Customers must be regularly provided with all the information the company has which concerns them.

5) Sincerity towards the parties involved in the process
Everyone - direct employees or people linked to the company through working relationships - involved in the process shall have all the information needed not only to carry out the task assigned to them, but also to understand the product/service and process fully.

6) Consistency of the multichannel approach
Customers must be able to interact with the company using all the channels provided to them: shop, telephone, web, promoters, etc. The company must integrate the information which passes through the various channels, both as input and output

7) Personal assistance or secretarial service
The company must inform customers, through their chosen channel, of any bureaucratic expiry dates and necessary formalities with the Public Administration and other offices in good time.

8) Product/service stability
The product/service must meet a predetermined rigidness otherwise the process will malfunction and therefore not be sustainable (see point 1). This rigidness must remain intact. The scope of customization (meeting individual and specific customer requests) must be clearly defined from the outset.

9) Listening and tracing
All information which emerges during the supply process (as defined in 3) regarding the adequacy of the product/service for the needs of the individual customer and overall target must be systematically and in any case gathered from all parties, from the customer to the employees and free lance workers involved.

10) Continuous improvement
The information gathered (see point 9) must be transformed into:
- continuous improvement in the product/service;
- continuous improvement in the supply process;
- new products/services which meet the expectations of individual customers, the target for which they were designed and other targets.

Stage 1
production of check list release 1.0 and triggering of the virtuous circle of ethical improvement.

1.1. Context analysis Analysis of the strategic, organizational, market and technological context in which the supply of the products/services is set. The work is carried out by interviewing focus groups of leading members of the top management and example representatives of the various categories concerned on the basis of exhaustive documentation made available by the company.

1.2. Production of reference ethical criteria
The reference ethical criteria are based on AssoEtica's approach to Business Ethics and
- set in the context of the market concerned;
- interpreted in the light of the company's strategies and culture;
- adjusted in a suitable way to each of the leading products indicated to us.

The operation entails designing a platform which allows each individual product to be screened and its correspondence to the reference ethical criteria to be checked.

1.3 Process mapping
For each leading product:
- audit of the present expertise and
- instruments necessary to map the service supply processes;
- definition of the mapping standards.


1.4 Definition of the Ethical Key Performance Indicator (EKPI) check list (release 1.0). By cross checking the reference ethical criteria against the results of process mapping, a check list is defined to identify methods for measuring conduct at 'critical points' in the processes.

1.5 Monitoring 'ethical conduct' and AssoEtica's Formal Statement
- Definition of methods for identifying deviations from 'ethical conduct' by using check list release 1.0.
- Identification and training of internal resources devoted to monitoring 'ethical conduct' (Ethics Officers).
- AssoEtica's Formal Statement regarding:
- deviations from the 'ethical conduct' laid down in the reference criteria for each product/service;
- triggering and fuelling the virtuous circle of continuous improvement in the ethical quality of overall corporate business.

* training option: participation of company officials in the Further Training Course in Business Ethics Management “Ethics Officer, creator of values”