Large corporations need to have efficient, dependable systems in place to govern the standards, ethical practices and other processes within their business. Without certain fundamental principles and strategies to guide corporate governance, corporations can succumb to inefficiency, confusion and unethical conduct. Before strategies can be put in to place to outline corporate governance, corporate ethics must be established. General, great corporate ethics include:

• Honesty. Corporations should be honest and straightforward in all their business dealings, never withholding or changing information within the company. Without honesty, many corporations fall into ruin.
• Fairness. Corporations should strive to be fair to employees and customers alike. Without a fair system, individuals are less likely to want to work for the company (or at least work hard) and customers are less likely to use it.
• Responsibility. Many corporations will include a responsibility towards customers, the environment or other areas as an ethical principle. This responsibility mainly exists to allow each corporate employee to freely address unethical issues whenever they arise.

There is more to corporate governance, however, than having good ethics – though they do act as the foundation for everything thereafter. Once a corporation has established an ethical code of conduct, they can start to implement governing strategies. How a corporation governs itself is largely based on the policies that guide its most basic practices. Corporations often implement a governmental system with a ruling body known as a Board of Directors, along with committees, managers and other authority figures that discuss and determine corporate practices at varying levels. Shareholders, investors and other individuals, though not directly employed by the company, may also be able to have a say in company policy. Regardless of the type of corporate governance, it must be efficient, consistent and preferably applicable at all levels and locations of the corporation.

It is key to note that governing strategies cannot go against corporate ethics. Ethics should be the basis around which corporations devise their governance, and they should never be sacrificed for any reason. Governing strategies may include: analyzing the benefits and downfalls of certain procedures; implementing reward or punishment systems; assuring customer rights; crosschecking facts; establishing communication between different levels of the corporation, and even organizing events aimed to address governance issues.

Managers or other corporate employees should implement governing strategies and support corporate ethics that benefit the efficiency and integrity of the corporation. Any practice that does not do this is not a valid ethical principle or governing strategy, and should be removed from the system.