HÀ NỘI — Corporate culture and business ethics help create brand value for businesses, so local firms should pay more attention to those issues, according to experts at a seminar on business culture and ethics.

Chu Thị Thu Hằng, Editor-in-Chief of Văn Hóa (Culture) newspaper – one of the organisers of the seminar held in Hà Nội on Tuesday, said corporate culture and business ethics affect all aspects of an enterprise.

Đỗ Minh Cương from the Institute of Corporate Culture said corporate culture would help keep talent at enterprises. Business culture is a part of enterprise strategy.

Phạm Đức Bình, director of BNC Vietnam Technology Joint Stock Company, said building corporate culture is mandatory if the enterprise wants sustainable development. The brand has a great effect on corporate culture.

A brand is closely related to corporate culture, according to Bình. A brand is not only a name or a logo, but also a way of making products, behaviour towards customers and the pride of the staff. Therefore, a brand is a foundation for creating corporate culture.

However, more than 80 per cent of start-ups in Việt Nam said that they have no money to build a brand, he said. This is false, because they can build their brand with their day-to-day activities, trying to make a difference in their product image and behaviour towards customers and the public, he said.

Hằng said corporate culture and business ethics in a market economy are key factors that determine success. Vietnamese enterprises need to improve not only their competitiveness in capital, business strategy, technology, productivity, quality, efficiency and design but also reputation, brand and business ethics.

Cương said local enterprises need to know corporate culture management is a basic method of corporate management and the basis for innovation and development of new technologies as well as enhance the role, responsibility and authority of leaders in firms.

Enterprises should focus on managing strategy and changes in accordance with Industry 4.0 for sustainable development, he said.

The Government has begun a national movement to create favourable conditions for local enterprises to develop corporate culture, he said.

Besides building corporate culture, many local firms have paid attention to business ethics. According to Tuấn, together with corporate culture, business ethics increases the prestige of enterprises.

Tuấn said in any situation, enterprises must maintain business ethics. If they maintain business ethics in a difficult period, they affirm their brand and prestige.

Nguyễn Quang Vinh, general secretary of the Việt Nam Chamber of Commerce and Industry (VCCI), said the enterprises that have responsibility and ethics in business activities would have sustainable development. — VNS