Isn’t it enough to keep people employed and earn a profit?
The short answer is yes CSR matters and no it isn’t enought to just employ people and earn a profit; and it never really has been otherwise. The truth is that now there is more transparency (like it or not) around what companies and business owners are doing. And there is obviously much discontent over the widening gap between the “haves” and the “have nots” or, if you will, between the 1% and the 99% to use the now quite ubiquitous rallying cry of the Occupy Wall Street Crowd.
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Corporate Social Responsibility, CSR, Ethical Corporation, Growing Edge, Leadership, Management
Nice guys finish last. The only reason for a business to exist is to increase shareholder value. As long as it’s legal, you can do it. If it’s not legal and the fines are less than compliance costs, you can do it. If you think you won’t get caught, you can do it. Caveat emptor. Enron, WorldCom, Bernie Madoff, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, Fukushima. And lest you think it’s only business, check out the Federal Workers Unions, Teacher’s Unions and the Teamsters. And go ahead and name your favorite political scandal; Joe Wilson, Tom Delay, Charlie Rangel, Richard Nixon, Bill Clinton. The list goes on and on and on. How about the sports figures and scandals?
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Ethical Business, Ethical Corporation, Leadership, Management
In 1784 Immanuel Kant suggested that “Out of the crooked timber of humanity, nothing straight was ever made.” This quotation came to mind as I was reading several recent blogs discussing the sad condition of US business. Off the record, many CEOs of larger corporations fear for our country; research, operations and new facilities overseas. The ease with which we can now outsource pieces of our operation has even very small private companies outsourcing some “back office” functions, for example.
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Ethical Corporation, Governance, Leadership
A colleague, Ira Wolfe, asked a great question over on one of the many leadership blogs we frequent. His question was, “The BP Gulf of Mexico Crisis is just gushing with leadership lessons. What do you think are the most important lessons leaders can learn from this?” I like this question and had been thinking about this very thing for weeks now. There were several responses, and I too contributed since I’d been pondering this topic anyway.
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Ethical Corporation, Governance, Leadership, Management
By now we’re used to it. The self-righteous politician who loudly preaches the dire consequences for the country’s failure at family values and then is caught in extramarital affairs; and who none-the-less believe they should still hold their office. Or the politicians and government officials who scream about government waste while feeding themselves at the public trough. And of course, the “fat cat” bankers who (even though their jobs exist today only because the taxpayers bailed them out) believe they are somehow entitled to obscene bonuses. Power, it seems, does in fact corrupt. Worse, the perpetrators are so damned hypocritical and arrogant!
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Culture, Ethical Corporation, Ethics, Growing Edges, Leadership, Management
Unlike some, I am not one to advocate punishing the “upper class.” There are calls for punishing those who consume conspicuously, take home many hundreds of times more than the average worker and insulate themselves from those who “do the work.”
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Ethical Corporation, Leadership, Management
