Adaptation Shows New Tools for Ensuring Compliance and Providing Ethical Leadership at World Congress

Peterborough, United Kingdom, February 12, 2010 --(PR.com)-- Business leaders need to ensure their people have the tools to apply statements of values and ethical codes in their daily work. According to Adaptation chairman Colin Coulson-Thomas “Far too often corporate value statements and codes of ethical conduct are little more than words in an annual report or on a website. They can be referred to if someone asks about them, but at other times people may be just aware of their existence rather than actively applying them.”

Speaking at the Corporate Governance Summit and World Quality Congress Coulson-Thomas suggested “There is often a gap between rhetoric and reality, a gulf between aspiration and achievement. Many well meaning boards lack the means of knowing whether or not the values and practices they champion are being applied in the heat of battle, when there is a contract to be won, time to be saved or a budget to be cut. They restate the values and keep their fingers crossed.”

The Adaptation chairman advocated “an alternative to passing resolutions, making speeches and then hoping for the best. It is now possible to build best practices and the right way of doing things into corporate processes and the tools that people use to do their jobs. One can boost performance, speed up responses, reduce costs and at the same time contain risks and ensure compliance with legal and regulatory requirements, codes and corporate policies.”

Coulson-Thomas believes “It is possible to be both successful and responsible, and to reconcile the need for profit with other requirements such as longer term sustainability. A new generation of tools are making it much easier for people to do stressful and difficult jobs effectively and ethically. They can quickly make an impact in areas where the pressures to cut corners may be the greatest. ”

The new approach can incorporate the superior approaches of top performers as well as controls that prevent outcomes that would contravene a code, involve an unacceptable risk or breach a regulatory requirement. Adaptation's “Winning Companies; Winning People” research programme has identified many of the critical success factors and winning ways that enable high achievers to excel in vital areas for corporate success. By incorporating them into processes and tools Coulson-Thomas finds “average performers can be enabled to adopt the approaches of superstars when tackling complex challenges and doing difficult jobs.”

Critical success factors for key corporate activities that have been identified by Adaptation's research programme are set out in 20 reports that are published by Policy Publications. Lessons from the investigations are incorporated into twenty five courses for directors and boards on particular activities that are vital for corporate success. Further information can be obtained from http://www.adaptation.ltd.uk.

The Corporate Governance Summit and 20th World Congress on Total Quality was organised by the Institute of Directors in India and the World Council for Corporate Governance. It was held in Bangalore. The theme of the conference was "Restoring Trust in the Markets by Enhancing the Quality of Boardroom”. Golden Peacock Awards were also presented. Prof. Coulson-Thomas spoke on improving the quality of corporate boards and on the challenges of ethical leadership in the economy of spiralling aspirations.

Boardroom consultant Prof. Colin Coulson-Thomas, Chairman of Adaptation, has served on public, voluntary and professional committees and boards, including as a Chairman and/or President and helped over 100 boards improve director, board and corporate performance. He is the author of Developing Directors, has spoken at over 200 conferences in 40 countries, and sits on the Governance and Risk Management Committee of ACCA. He can be contacted via http://www.adaptation.ltd.uk.

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