“Business Ethics 2.0″

I was pleased to see the Ethical Corporation journal focus on technology, special report June 2007. It’s a quick read, but interesting to see as time capsule. Check out the ad on the inside cover! Are those powerful media moguls? Investment bankers? Hard-nosed legal advisors? Or are they the “world leader in sustainability software solutions”? My, the language is changing!

I do think this is where there seems like some interesting stuff to watch. While I first thought XBRL (page 5) sounded like a yawner, getting companies equipped with an easy way to report consistently on non-financial information is huge. It, hopefully, will get rid of some of the garbage usually spun as “sustainability reporting” and make it easier for average consumers to compare who is doing more on issues that they care about. If you can online shop and quickly – I stress the work quickly – check the way competing products perform on an environmental or social indicator, you seriously affect the way we consume.

I also like the reminder from Alcoa (page 17) that the reams of paper on reporting aren’t needed. Put it online and those die hard watchdogs can print it if they want it. This example shows that leaders won’t hid behind impenetrable volumes. This gives information management new meaning to me.

With a sigh and a look out the window (I am in the middle of Africa as I draft this), many of these changes do not seem to be affecting the local scene here. I guess it trickles down and I suppose one has to keep plugging away to realize that these tools for transparency and accountability will eventually find some applications for the far flung corners of the world as well.

Business Role in Sustainable Development

Sunday reading and I got captured by a speech (via WBCSD) made by Patrick Cescau, the Group Chief Executive of Unilever, which keeps catching my attention as a leader in matching sustainability rhetoric with action. Timely piece on the rationale for including business and international development initiatives.

Today social responsibility and environmental sustainability are core business competencies, not fringe activities. We have come a long way since the early eighties when the godfather of free market economics Milton Friedman proudly proclaimed that the only obligation which business had to society was “to make a profit and pay its taxes”.

This change has come about for a variety of reasons. Certainly the political context has altered. The laissez faire economics which characterised the Reagan/Thatcher era have been superseded by a more realistic assessment of what the invisible hand of the market can achieve acting alone.

Today there is a growing recognition that the social and environmental challenges facing us in the 21st century are so complex and so multi-dimensional that they can only be solved if government, NGOs and industry work together effectively.

Later on, I appreciated him taking notice of the importance of the need to become clearer about what is being measured. Clear indicators matter immensely.

Part of the problem is that companies do not normally measure their social, economic and environmental footprint in the markets in which they operate and, as we all know, communication without facts is tough.

I also appreciate his mentioning that the Oxfam/Unilever report conducted on Unilever’s impact in Indonesia identified that the supply chains down to local suppliers was not having a sufficient impact. There is more work to be done, especially when we look beyond countries like Indonesia, South Africa, and Kenya that are relatively better off than many.

Only one mildly critical comment: while I found this speech good food for thought, I think it’s important to remember that because the leaders of this “agenda” are saying and largely doing the right things, more attention needs to be put on the followers. Having leaders is important, but getting other companies to follow is, in my humble opinion, not considered enough. The mimickers will use the examples and rhetoric of the leaders to speak correctly and take the spot light off their own actions.