Gosling's Grouse: Ethically speaking

Who knew 18 October was Global Ethics Day? I only found out because I was stuck at an airport re-reading the Financial Times and reduced to looking at the adverts.

The FT advert which caught my eye was placed by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants and the Institute of Business Ethics, an organisation I did not know existed. How can firms keep ahead of ever tightening anti-bribery and corruption rules? Is business that bad it needs an institute of ethics? Surely, by its very nature, a business needs to act ethically or it will not prosper.  As you can probably guess, I am a little bemused by the idea of a Global Ethics Day. Not because I do not believe in ethics, but what does it say about our industry that we have to have a ...