Ethics - Values - Clean Living
  Unashamedly Ethical News
  www.unashamedlyethical.com                                                   June 2016
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Western Cape 2016 Awards Recipients
 
UNASHAMEDLY ETHICAL WESTERN CAPE
RECOGNITION AWARDS GALA EVENT
 
On Friday 3 June Unashamedly Ethical in the Western Cape rolled out the red carpet for our community members who are setting the pace for ethics, values and clean living in the province. At a gala event at the NH Lord Charles Hotel in Somerset West, more than forty individuals and organisations were honoured for exhibiting excellent character and commitment to ethical behaviour in a way that positively impacted those around them and the communities in which they are active.
 
This event was the first of a series of similar events which will be held across South Africa during the rest of 2016 and is our way of recognising people and organisations who actively take a stand for ethics and justice in our society.
 
The evening was opened by our founder, Dr Graham Power. This year, we were also privileged to have Dr. Michael Cassidy, founder of African Enterprise and UE Patron, as our keynote speaker. Dr Cassidy set the tone for the night with an inspirational message of encouragement and hope for our country.
 
Awards were made in the following categories:
  • Health care
  • Government
  • Youth
  • Education
  • Church
  • Non-profit organisations
  • Business; and
  • Sport
(Please keep an eye on the UE Facebook page for feature stories on the various recipients.)
 
Over and above the awards in these categories, another first for UE was the handing over of special honorary awards to individuals who have consistently over many years demonstrated their commitment to and support of our campaign.
 
Recipients of these special awards were:
  • Dr Michael Cassidy - Founder of African Enterprise and Patron of Unashamedly Ethical
  • Adv Thuli Madonsela - The Public Protector
  • Adv Keith Matthee - UE Ombudsman
  • Graeme Dorrington - UE Ombudsman
  • Dr Francois van Niekerk - Chairman of the Mergon Group
  • Hanneli Rupert-Koegelenberg
  • Dr Graham Power - Founder and Chairman of Unashamedly Ethical
  • Media Village Productions
The rest of the programme included entertainment provided by rising music star Zile Dlamini and a spirited singing performance by the young people from Eagles Rising near Somerset West.
 
Eagles Rising also closed off the proceedings by leading the audience in the singing of the national anthem.
 
Judging by the time it took to clear the venue after the event, guests enjoyed the time together and left us feeling motivated and excited.
 
Unashamedly Ethical would like to thank all who contributed to the success of the evening, especially our main event sponsor, Nedbank.

 
Staff News
Dr Marius Fourie
Executive Director
 
Dr Marius Fourie
First up, we would like to introduce Dr Marius Fourie, who joined Unashamedly Ethical on 1 March 2016 as Executive Director. Marius brings with him a wealth of global experience from several world class companies. His key areas of focus will be to build the UE campaign, increase the membership and manage the day-to-day operations.

Prior to this, Marius held leadership positions with PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) including Senior Manager in South Africa, Global Ethics and Business Conduct Manager in the USA and Director in Papua New Guinea; as well as Executive Member of the Bank of South Pacific. His areas of specialisation are in the field of change management, organisation development, human resources and training and development. He has worked on most continents visiting numerous countries.

Marius achieved major success when he was responsible to roll out PwC's global ethics and business conduct programme. He designed and implemented a global code of conduct for the 145 countries where PwC had a presence. He also developed support structures to ensure that values were embedded in the organisational structure. This initiative served as a benchmark for other organisations in the industry.

Marius graduated from the University of Stellenbosch with a Master of Public Management degree. His PhD from the same institution focused on the management of diversity as a change management intervention. He lives in Durbanville, is a single parent and his son, Christan, recently turned 10. His interests include travelling, reading, history and rugby. He is a dedicated Christian and willing to take a stand for what is right.

What attracted you to UE?

I am very inspired and humbled by the opportunity to serve as the Executive Director of Unashamedly Ethical. It is a movement with a visionary strategy and a collaborative and participatory approach to promote ethics, values and clean living - something that I passionately share. I believe that South Africa, like the rest of the world, is facing a major corruption crisis. It would be an honour to know that I have helped to obtain visible results and thus contributed towards a legacy of Ethics. This is not just another job for me, but a calling to make a difference.

What do you bring to the role?

Passion for the task ahead and a complete focus on doing what is right, based on good quality insight and a track record of delivering value. This is backed-up with a collaborative management style and 20 years of business experience, which will hopefully provide continuity and allow us to leverage the benefits of UE's considerable global network and resources.

What is your vision for the UE and where do you want to take it?

I see us travelling further along the path on which UE has been for the past 10 years. I would like to enhance our profile and build our global reputation through achieving measurable results. I am also fully aware of the tremendous responsibility we have towards our donors, beneficiaries and stakeholders. I am therefore very focused on and committed to achieving tangible results. I am looking forward to leading our efforts and ensuring we continue to innovate, deliver with excellence and provide the highest quality support to our network.

What are your operational priorities in taking on the role at UE?

As Executive Director, it is my responsibility to ensure that the day to day operations are managed in a prudent and proficient manner. It is also my responsibility to work with the Board of Directors on expanding and enhancing operations, bringing new fundraising opportunities to the campaign.

The approach taken to achieve this mandate, will be to first focus on becoming "business ready" by ensuring we have the proper strategy, structures and processes in place. Secondly will be to develop a dedicated team who has the necessary capacity, work ethics and overall determination to make our campaign a success. Lastly, will be to ensure that our members and supporters are actively involved in making a stand for ethics, values and clean living.

What are the highlights of your first three months in office?

My focus in my first few weeks has been on getting to know the team-people who are passionate about their jobs and dedicated to the campaign. I am truly listening to them, in order to hear what is working and what we can improve. Similarly, I reached out to our global network and our members in order to learn from them as well. I am looking forward to deepening current relationships and developing new working relationships. I am inspired by the spiritual guidance of Dr Graham Power (our founding member and Chairman of the Board) and the wisdom he shares on a daily basis.

The team developed a new strategy early in May. Subsequently the strategy was presented to the Board of Directors on 3-4 June and was accepted. We now have to put our noses to the grindstone to execute the strategy.
Welcome to our new Administrator                                        
Ingrid Hofmeester


We are also pleased to announce the appointment of Ingrid Hofmeester as our new Administrator. Ingrid joined Unashamedly Ethical in May 2016 and will be providing administrative and secretarial support to the UE team, assisting with operations co-ordination and implementation of the new UE strategy.

Ingrid grew up in the beautiful Boland town of Ceres. At an early age she moved to Kuils River, where she completed her tertiary education. She graduated from Boland College in Paarl, successfully completing her N6 National Certificate in Commerce - Secretarial, whereafter she spent 5 years in the United Kingdom, working and traveling.

She returned to SA in 2008 and commenced working at a mechanical engineering company as an Office/Account Manager, where she worked for 8 years.
She is looking forward to growing with UE and is excited about the opportunity to play a role in promoting ethics, values and clean living.

Ingrid resides in the picturesque town of Strand and is very passionate about her involvement in her local church, St Andrew's Anglican Church. She enjoys being outdoors, hiking and spending time with family and friends.

UE's New Strategy: A Call to Action

Imagine a world free from the destructive forces of systematic human greed - a world free of corruption. Where values such as respect, fairness, honesty are at the heart of our society. A world where government activities are transparent and the benefits of economic growth reach all citizens. A global marketplace where consumers have the conviction to challenge unfair, unsafe and unethical practices - and make a positive difference!

The rise of the global corruption crisis can only be resolved, and our goals can only be achieved, if we change direction, reconnect with our spiritual values and become concerned with life's bigger challenges. To achieve this, we had to rethink the way we spearhead our campaign to promote ethics. In doing this, the Unashamedly Ethical core team attended a 3-day break-away session in Somerset-West in May 2016, focusing on designing a new strategy which was presented and accepted in principle by the Executive Board during the weekend of 3 - 4 June.

The new UE strategic plan is a call to action. In an increasingly globalised and digitised world, we need to harness the collective power and influence of UE and its members internationally if we hope to make a real impact in our quest to promote ethics, values and clean living. But we cannot do this alone. Our greatest strength is the depth and width of our members and partners. Your energy, insight, expertise and unrivalled potential to make a stand again unethical practices, forms the backbone of what we can achieve together.

We envisage partnering with y o u, our members, and others to deliver co-ordinated, targeted, national and international campaigns and advocacy to adva nce ethical behaviour across the glo be.  We plan to deliver more val ue for our members especially in our product offering and communication drive. The cornerstones of our new strategy are aligned with our three pillars namely commitment to ethics, values and clean living; directory of committed organisations; and accountability to an independent ombudsman process. We will strengthen this through implementing some key strategic drivers.

We will restructure the roles of our core team, and engage our members more frequently through a robust mentoring and outreach programme. We will innovate to empower our membership, through holistic training programmes. Our main target areas will be the youth and SME's with churches as our alliance partners. We want to increase the opportunity for our members and supporters to work together and learn from each other to build the momentum towards moral transformation. Making full use of the opportunities brought forward by the digital age, we will create a collaborative online application (app) for the global campaign which will support new ways of conducting business and assessing service delivery.

We also hope to forge partnerships with like-minded organisations world-wide who support our quest. Through this partnership model we intend to speak with one voice on regional and global stages - confronting injustices in the global marketplace with the weight of numbers needed to ensure unethical entities take notice. Through influential, evidence-based advocacy and impactful, targeted, campaigns that challenge the issues society experiences on a day-to-day basis, we will bring about change.

Our vision for the future is all about harnessing the power and wisdom of the global body of members, and through our combined example, engaging others to join us. Our objective is to reach a tipping point where the pendulum in the world swings from unethical to ethical practices. The challenge is one of collaboration.  Now, let's work together to truly make ethical behaviour the most powerful agent for change in the world.

- Dr Marius Fourie
 
THE CHALLLENGES FACING ETHICAL COMPANIES TODAY
Guest Writer - Pieter du Toit - Jireh Consulting Services
 
Since i ts inception, Unashamedly Ethical (UE) has made great strides in cultivating awareness of the initiative to encourage people to commit to conduct business ethically. In 2014 Unashamedly Ethical was approached by Pieter du Toit from Jireh Consulting Services in order to engage with the UE signatories. It was agreed that UE signatories would act as participants in the research he was conducting as part of his MBA in Business Ethics (Henley Management College, UK). The study was aiming to identify and understand the challenges and pressures business professionals face who committed themselves to ethical business practices.
 
If you are interested to read the full executive summary of this research, please follow the following link to download it:  
 
The following are a few of the challenges that were identified through the research study:
  • UE signatories do stand out when compared with other similar organisations. They give strong leadership and clear communication of the value systems within their organisations. 
  • However, amongst some of the participants, the organisational culture is conducive towards ethical blindness. Ethical blindness is a situation where employees might be acting unethically, without being aware of it.
  • Although working for companies who value ethical conduct, 77% of the respondents have been challenged to act unethically in their organisations at one stage or another. Severe pressures have come from the macro environment as well as from within their own industries.
  • Individuals also face significant challenges and pressures at home. It is evident from the research that these domestic pressures influence highly ethical individuals' decision-making in the workplace. It has the power to entice or drive them to potentially act unethically.  More than 50% of the participants indicated that they are not willing to stand up against ethically questionable actions if it meant they could run the risk of loosing their job.
  • An alarming finding was that 55% of respondents indicated that they had never received any ethical training, even though many of these respondents were the designated individuals responsible for monitoring ethical behaviour within their organisations.
Who is Jireh Consulting Services?
JCS is committed to educating individuals and organisations to act ethically even amidst severe daily pressures. Among other services we present a specific seminar called Voicing Your Values. This program is already presented in over 800 organisations, 200 business schools, on all seven continents. Please get in contact with Pieter du Toit at +27 823850456 and visit www.jirehconsultingservices.co.za
Transformational Leadership Training - Gauteng
19th & 20th August 2016
  • We know that we need to build trust in our teams - but HOW do we do it?
  • We know that organisational unity results in business growth - but HOW do we attain it?
  • HOW do we harness organisational diversity for competitive advantage?
  • HOW do we resolve conflict and reconcile broken relationships?
  • HOW do we build a positive organisational culture?
  • HOW do we lead in tough times?
  • HOW do we build an environment that is conducive to innovation and creativity
  • HOW do we increase bottom line performance by focusing on relationships? 
Most of us know WHAT needs to be done in our organisations and WHY it needs to be done; but we struggle with HOW to practically do it.
 
Transformational Leadership is uniquely designed to equip you with the ingredients, tools and a recipe to empower you with the HOW to be an agent of transformational change in your marriage, family, business, organisation, city and nation.

For pricing, re gistration details and more information please download the brochure from the UE website at   www.unashamedlyethical.com
  Latest Campaign News

Kenya Report

Patrick Kuwana and Marius Fourie attended Hesabika National Convention in Kenya from the 29th April to the 2nd May.

The conference was an initiative of FOCUS (Fellowship of Christian Unions Kenya). The objective of the conference was 'to bring together Christians in the marketplace, private sector and public life for a time of biblical reflection, prayer and sharing of practical models and testimonies of social transformation in Kenya and elsewhere'.

It was attended by about 2000 people over the three day period.

Patrick was given the opportunity to conduct:
  • A workshop on 'Business Ethics' on Saturday 30th April.
  • A plenary session on 'Doing Business in tough economic times' on Sunday 1st May in the main hall with about 1,500 people in attendance. The UE video was shown and the mobile call to action given.
UE pledges were distributed in both sessions to a receptive audience.

The conference also provided the opportunity to meet with possible key partners to drive the UE objectives in Kenya -
  • FOCUS, a Christian movement that is very active on university campuses
  • ELNET, an organisation that promotes ethics in the marketplace
  • AFCAA (African Council for Accreditation and Accountability) who are establishing an African wide Christian based accountability standards platform.
AEA Meeting

On Friday 29 April, Marius and Patrick also went to the Association of Evangelicals in Africa (AEA) head office to meet their leadership and also meet the Secretary General at his home.

AEA is active in 40 African countries and the plan is to forge a relationship for them to use UE as a tool in their messaging on fighting corruption.
Save the date!
     
Please save the following dates of our  upcoming events for the rest of 2016:             
  • 25 August 2016: UE Free State Recognition Awards.
  • 15 September 2016: UE North-West Recognition Awards
  • 22 September 2016: UE Eastern Cape  Recognition Awards
  • 26 October 2016: UE Gauteng Recognition Awards
Note that these dates reflect current planning and may still change. Please regularly visit our website or check your email for the latest information.
 



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