ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses that the chairmen and their boards recognise the importance of the tone from the top. It focuses on the business ethics element of the tone from the top and describes the findings from the interviews. Only a few of the participants appeared to have a structured holistic framework for addressing the challenge of setting an appropriate tone from the top. So the starting point is a chairman with strong professional skills and high ethical standards. The chairman then needs to ensure there is a strong board. Chairmen should have a holistic approach and a systematic strategy for business ethics. While boards have a choice of how much commercial risk they want to incur, they should try to minimise ethical risk. The board can also check that the CEO is using all the levers at his or her disposal both to communicate the importance of good ethics and to assess actual behaviour.
