The challenge for Nike is that they have to deliver, not just for public consumption, but internally to their staff, because ultimately they are the ones that have the energy, creativity and skills to create, market and sell its products.

David Simpson of Interpraxis has noted that Toronto Hydro CEO Courtney Pratt came to the same conclusions when he was Noranda's CEO in the late 1980's and early 90's. Noranda won a lot of awards and positive public recognition outside the company for its social and environmental responsibility.

"Despite all the positives and public recognition, we were still having the spills internally, we were still having the errors, we were still having our accidents," Pratt recalled in his dinner speech at the 2001 Business Ethics Summit.

The company needed to get reality in line with its public image.

"We realized for us to truly be a leader, we needed the total company to be involved. We needed each employee to work consciously to be environmentally responsible and see themselves as being environmental ambassadors in their communities," says Pratt.

If a company is serious about its ethical image, its vision, values, mission and strategy has to become part of its corporate culture and that means selling it to your employees.

Ultimately Noranda turned its efforts into a competitive advantage, says Pratt. "It helped us in selling our product. It helped us in recruiting and retaining employees. And we believe that ultimately it helped us in creating shareholder value."

"The simple fact is that public relations plays an invaluable role in strengthening corporate reputation by helping to communicate ethics effectively both within and outside an organization" said Michael Coates, CEO of Hill and Knowlton Canada.

"When a company wants to reinforce consistent, ethical patterns of behaviour, effective communications among members of that organization can make the difference between success and failure," added Coates who was also a guest speaker at the 2001 Business Ethics Summit. "For a company to behave ethically it must live and breathe its code of conduct, train its personnel and communicate its code through its visioning statements. It cannot be a manual that sits on a corporate shelf."

As for Nike, Eitel's challenge is to meaningfully communicate Nike's ethics and social responsibility not just to external critics, but to Nike's 500,000 employees in 58 countries. Eitel insists that Nike has learned that taking the easy way out is not an option.

Like so many businesses and organizations, Nike and Noranda learned to appreciate that a code of ethics is not meant to sit on the shelf and gather dust. It has to be become a part of the culture. It doesn't just keep you out of trouble; it has the potential to increase morale, productivity and shareholder value.

In my last column I quoted Tom Niles of Langdon Starr Ketchum who made the point that it's our obligation as business communicators to argue against short-term PR victories that go against the public interest; after all, your employer/client isn't in it for the short term…and neither are you.

Ethics isn't a PR tool that you dust off in case of emergency. If you're in it for the long term, IABC's Code of Ethics must be an integral part of who you are and what you do as a business communicator. Yes, it can help to keep you out of trouble, but it's so much more than that. IABC's Code can help you to do your job better …if you let it.