ABSTRACT
In February 2016, Knowledge@Wharton released the first of a series of special reports on business ethics.1 This report concentrated on business ethics as a means of enhancing corporate governance and drew a clear distinction between the purpose of an organisation – its raison d’être – and its mission (what an organisation actually does). It argued that, until the directors of an organisation actually understand why the organisation exists, why it needs to exist, why would it be missed if it didn’t exist and what would be missing in the world were it not for the organisation, then actually deciding what an organisation should do and how it should act is futile. When the board has clear answers to these questions, then proper corporate governance – the phenomenon of action-guiding – becomes possible and true corporate governance can be achieved.
