Discussing the ING Business Principle "respect"
Discussing the ING Business Principle "respect"
- We act with integrity
- We are open and clear
- We respect each other
- We are socially and environmentally responsible
It’s a good thing, but the important thing is to really live by the rules. It’s easy to read through the four principles and say “of course we do that”—and then slip back into your normal routine. We need to open up a debate at management level on this issue.
The question: do you stop at an amber light? Sometimes the light is clearly red or green and everyone can agree. For example, we don’t do business with a customer on our blacklist. But what do we do in grey areas, where do we draw the line?
Respect is key to all our relationships — with customers and colleagues. In the past year that’s been more important than ever for me, as I’ve had to be the bearer of bad news and for the first time in my career lay people off.
By putting yourself in the other person’s place, but it doesn’t make it any easier. You need to take time to communicate. Be very clear about what will happen and what the time frame will be, and not think: let’s get this over with as fast as possible.
That’s true. We’ve had many difficult meetings with customers, too, and in some cases had to say no. Once again, it’s important to consider the person behind the figures and the business. That means allowing space in meetings for the other parties to express their emotions, and not enforcing the rules too rigidly.
For us, certainly not. ING developed its first Business Principles back in 1999. Since when, every five years we review and update them to make sure they remain concise, clear and relevant to current issues and social developments.
For example, in the latest version of the document in which we explain what we mean by the four principles, we focus our attention more than previously on our customers and other stakeholders.
In 2009, the Dutch Banking Association (NVB) developed a Banking Code to restore trust in our sector. ING was naturally an enthusiastic signatory. But we were even more delighted to discover that every area covered in the Moral Ethical Statement of the Dutch Banking Code was already more than fully covered in our own ING Business Principles.
Nevertheless, to be clear, our Top 200 managers, including all Board members, signed the ING Business Principles and the Management Board Banking also signed the Moral Ethical Statement of the Banking Code.