How the World's Largest Bakery Made Integrity Part of Its DNA

Grupo Bimbo is the world's largest baking company — 130,000 employees, nearly 200 plants, and 13,000 products sold across 3 million points of sale worldwide. In 2026, it was named a World's Most Ethical Companies® Honoree for the 10th time, a milestone few organizations ever reach even once. On this episode of the Ethicast, host Bill Coffin sits down with Ignacio Stepancic, Global Compliance Leader at Grupo Bimbo, for a candid conversation about what it actually takes to sustain a decade of ethical leadership. Ignacio talks about how artificial intelligence has transformed third-party due diligence, why the company treats its Code of Conduct as a living document that gets revisited every year, and how a genuine "speak-up" culture has become a recruiting and retention advantage. He closes with straight talk for any organization considering its first World's Most Ethical Companies application. Chapters (00:02:47) - How Grupo Bimbo maintains a high standard of excellence in E&C over time(00:06:53) - Some of the most important evolutions of Grupo Bimbo's E&C program since its first World's Most Ethical Companies recognition(00:09:12) - The role of technology in the program(00:10:26) - Updating the Grupo Bimbo Code of Conduct(00:12:12) - The importance of building an internal culture of ethics(00:13:53) - How developing a reputation for ethics helps find and retain talent(00:15:22) - What the program has in store over the next 18-24 months(00:16:47) - On collaborating with other departments across the organization(00:19:04) - Advice for first-time applicants