Q: Why is honesty important in business, in your opinion?

Honesty and integrity form the cornerstones of any successful business. As a business leader, honesty is a key trait you would want to see in any stakeholder.

This includes stakeholders such as your directors, management and employees, right down to suppliers and other partners. Doing business would be impossible without the trust that you need to place in all these parties to turn the cogs in the corporate machinery.

To be on the receiving end of honesty, it is vital that this is exuded through an organisation’s treatment of its people, operations, practices and financials. We have experienced this firsthand over nearly two decades of doing business globally.

Honesty and integrity breed trust, and the latter is a core value for us. We have seen that honesty at the highest levels has a positive trickle-down effect on employees and other stakeholders.

Q: What part does honesty and ethics play in enhancing stakeholder perceptions?

In today’s world, driven by globalisation, digitalisation and an influx of information available to almost anyone, we increasingly see that stakeholders, consumers and the public at large hold organisations accountable for their actions.

There are temporary winners who have won by cheating. Yet today, they lead as examples of a lack of honesty and ethics among stakeholders, and are publicly called out for this.

At 99X, we understand that honesty, integrity and ethics require businesses to do the right thing because it is the right thing to do. It is not always easy but now more than ever, stakeholders hold corporates to a high standard to do the right thing when no one is looking. It reaps tremendous results in the eyes of all stakeholders – and this paves the way to success.