There’s a thin line between doing the right thing and telling other people to do the right thing, even worse for people to show how to do the right thing and then get shown up for not doing it themselves as I am about to do.

Julian Richer, the founder of Richer Sounds, has earned a reputation for bringing his philanthropic approach to life into the core of his business and is one of the poster boys for “responsible capitalism”- using business as a force for good as so many people are now saying we should.  From what I’ve read about him, he seems like a decent bloke.

He has a column in The Sunday Times and today he has used it to talk about a project of his called The Good Business Charter which seeks to advise organisations on how to be better versions of themselves and offers accreditation to those who pass muster. I hadn’t heard of it before and as it sounded like my kind of thing, I looked them up and did a double-take because their website leads with a picture of Mr Richer along with a group of people who are all white, all, with one possible exception, who look over 40 and one who is dressed up in some old-fashioned regalia – possibly a mayor or a rural High Sheriff.

They appear not to understand that people who don’t look like them are more than likely to think “this isn’t meant for us”.

I decided I’d drop them a line to point out what was clearly an oversight, but I thought I’d get to know more about them first in case it was something I’d nonetheless want to be part of, so I read through what they offer. It assesses an organisation’s eligibility through 10 components with guidelines on how to do the right thing in each. One of them happens to be diversity and inclusion and the first top tip they give is on the attraction of talent and it’s this: “Diverse imagery and language used in adverts”.

Hmm, I thought. They’re telling me to do things they palpably don’t do themselves. In other words, you’d be forgiven for thinking that they aren’t practising what they’re preaching. This is the “do as I say and not as I do” school of thought leadership that I thought we’d gotten over.

Companies are now being called out on their sustainability claims and increasingly on their gender mix. But race and ethnicity have yet to come front and centre in corporate thinking and doing. It’s time that changed and the way that change will come about needs to start with the good side getting its own house in order.