The book Business Ethics written by Silvija Vig, D.Sc., managing director of our member Codupo, was presented in Zagreb. This is a high school textbook, but also useful literature for all that wish to manage companies ethically. For the majority state-owned companies, that becomes a legal obligation. Namely, in the next half year, they must introduce the function of the operation compliance monitoring.

"This book should be read by every person managing an organization. The book excellently connects the importance of the organizational culture and climate with the ethics of doing business, and, by that alone, with the successful operation as well. The developed integrity and ethics strengthening tools are the key to its development and success", said Nataša Novaković, chairman of the Conflict of Interest Commission.

She added that the ethics in doing business is becoming increasingly important, so that more and more companies have specialized departments for that. Speaking about the main question of the book: "Why do good people do bad things?", she said that everybody operates until the limit up to which one thinks he is good, but that this limit is at a different point with every person. We see that in public, she pointed out, and, for that reason, it is important to set the rules. The ethics is a special responsibility of those at the leading positions - from the president of a state to managers.

"The book Business Ethics is one of the first works in the Croatian language in which the author approached the subject matter of business ethics in an original way, by presenting and processing numerous examples from the practice", said prof. Hana Horak, D.Sc., a lecturer at the Law Department at the Faculty of Economics and Business of the University of Zagreb.

Silvija Vig, D.Sc., explained ethics is present in the business world just as much as in private life of the citizens. It is estimated that less than one fourth of the citizens have a higher level of ethics. Exactly due to that, the book Business Ethics puts the emphasis on some thirty actual examples. Along with the good and bad practice examples, there are also some ambiguous cases that will prompt the readers to thinking. The basic purpose of the book is to present why, where and how to apply ethics, and what are the benefits of its implementation.

"Business ethics is the field that is developing unstoppably. It was first embraced by multinational companies, the banking sector, companies during entering the stock exchange, and the companies that are the suppliers and partners of the companies with the implemented compliance programs, and now it's the public sector's turn too. It takes a lot of effort and time for a company to introduce business ethics, and the results are evident only in several years. In order to develop an organizational culture in a company, ethical values are necessary", Silvija Vig, D.Sc., pointed out.

She was preparing the book for ten years. She needed that much for the research and writing. On the cover of the book, a beacon is presented as a metaphor of ethics. It leads you, the author said, but also brings you back on the right track.

For the purpose of explaining how business ethics functions in the companies with the operating compliance programs, a panel was held, at which Josipa Jutt Ferlan, director of the Hilton hotel Zagreb, Christian Čoklica, business development manager in ManpowerGroup, and Stjepan Roglić, vice-chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Orbico Group participated.

The book was co-financed by the Ministry of Science and Education.