Business Ethics

Cobham is committed to maintaining the highest ethical, environmental and safety standards everywhere we do business.

Our Code of Business Conduct ("Code") applies worldwide and contains our ethical principles and sets out the standards for responsible business conduct expected of all our employees, wherever they operate at all times, to ensure a safe, secure and ethical workplace. 

Behaving in accordance with these principles and standards is the responsibility of every employee, regardless of position.  The Code has also been translated into German, Spanish, French, Danish, Finnish and Swedish reflecting our international operations.  The Code is kept under regular review and the most current version of the document can be

downloaded here (PDF 4.33mb). 

Cobham has signed up to, fully supports, and is implementing the Aerospace and Defence Industries Association of Europe's (ASD) Common Industry Standards for European Aerospace and Defence and the Aerospace Industries Association of America's (AIA) Global Principles of Business Ethics for the Aerospace and Defence Industry.

As of year end 2009, a substantial proportion of all employees had completed ethical awareness training. Our ethical training programme will continue to be developed such that business ethics issues are communicated and training provided at every level in Cobham.

We operate a reporting system hosted by EthicsPoint, which allows stakeholders to communicate concerns about issues in complete confidentiality at all times.  The system permits stakeholders to ask questions or to report any Code violations.

The Group has also appointed Business Unit Ethics Compliance Officers ("BECOs") for each Cobham business unit whose principal responsibilities include implementation of the ethics awareness training programme and the provision of a sounding board for employees' concerns.

Suppliers, advisors and customers are encouraged to consider our Code and share the details with any others in their organisation also responsible for setting similar standards.  Feedback is welcomed, and if stakeholders believe there are important differences in the way our organisations conduct our respective businesses after reviewing our Code, we welcome the opportunity to discuss or clarify the situation directly. 

More information on our approach to business ethics can be found in our 2009 CR&S Report (PDF 3.53mb).