Global (online), 28 April 2025 – Strengthening integrity delivers clear business advantages, including enhanced brand value, talent retention and long-term sustainability. A Transformational Governance (TG) approach encourages companies to align their corporate purpose with ethical principles by integrating sustainability, accountability and transparency into operations. Embedding integrity and offering well-aligned incentives can foster ethical behaviour and reinforce values, provided those incentives are carefully designed to avoid undermining compliance frameworks. A principles-based approach ensures rewards support integrity without bypassing established policies and controls, ultimately reducing corruption risks and promoting responsible governance.
On 28 April 2025, the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the United Nations Global Compact hosted the first webinar session of 2025 under the Global Webinar Series on Business Integrity, entitled ‘Promoting corporate purpose and incentivizing integrity across your company’. Attracting a large turnout from over 80 countries globally, the session had close to 700 participants joining.
UNODC and the UN Global Compact shared perspectives on promoting corporate purpose and incentivizing integrity within the companies, complemented by real-life insights from experts and practitioners. Strengthening integrity offers clear business benefits, including enhanced brand value, talent retention and long-term sustainability.
Aipara Adibay, National Expert on Anti-Corruption Compliance Programmes from Kazakhstan, shared how companies can define a corporate purpose grounded in genuine integrity rather than mere branding. She also highlighted the role of data analytics and digital tools in monitoring and rewarding ethical behaviour, alongside the challenge of creating integrity metrics that avoid overcomplicating performance evaluations.
Carlos Villagrán Muñoz, Director of Risk and Compliance at Compañía Manufacturera de Papeles y Cartones (CMPC), Chile, reflected on how transformational governance in business operations can shape organizational culture, emphasizing its potential to embed long-term values across teams.
Drawing from experience, he cautioned about incentive models that may unintentionally encourage shortcuts, stating, “...the application of incentives needs to be closely monitored, hence the need to be cautious especially when it comes to financial incentives. We have past cases where such incentives have led to the development of sub-cultures and deviations that instead promote misconduct.”
Barbara Marcen, Chief Compliance Officer at Baker McKenzie, Mexico, underscored the vital role of leadership in operationalizing integrity and warned of common pitfalls in incentive systems that create ethical blind spots, advocating for frameworks that avoid perverse incentives and unintended consequences.
Thatiana Silva, Compliance Officer at Eletrobras, Brazil, outlined essential steps and principles for adopting transformational governance, especially in complex or high-risk settings, emphasizing clarity, accountability and adaptability. She also identified red flags in incentive schemes that signal misalignment with ethical governance, highlighting the need for corrective measures.
The next global webinar series session on Fighting corruption in the supply chain and managing value chains took place on 5 June 2025.
